Chapter 40
40. One Impossible Thing After Another
Naturally, the news of Seo Ji-tae’s call-up exploded across Korea.
He left in July.
Then got called up in September?
The country erupted.
, Seo Ji-tae called up, hahahahaha.
, Proved the haters wrong again.
, International championship, then Major League call-up.
, Is he skipping Triple-A?
, Pitching prospects often stay in Double-A anyway.
, Idiot, some Triple-A stadiums are at higher elevation than Coors Field. Why send a pitching prospect there to get crushed and lose confidence?
, Why are you being so aggressive?
, What should I eat for lunch?
, Has anyone besides BK ever been promoted this quickly?
, Bringing him up too quickly from the minors might not be good either.
, The minor league season is already over. They’ll probably keep managing him with the Major League team.
, Whatever happens, it’s still incredible.
A seventeen-year-old by Korean age being called up.
He had gone to America in July and reached the Major Leagues by September.
The speed was abnormal.
And it proved how highly the organization valued him.
Now the main question was when they would actually put Seo Ji-tae on the mound.
, I bet 500 won he pitches near the end of the season.
, Isn’t Houston’s season already completely doomed?
, Tanking teams usually test young players.
, If October 3 is the final game, maybe then?
Everyone assumed that if he had been called up, he would definitely pitch.
The only question was when.
, Season’s already dead. Put him in immediately.
, No, let him adjust first.
, Final game.
, My guess is sometime after September 20.
Rumors spread everywhere.
But one thing was certain.
Seo Ji-tae was already walking a completely different path from normal players.
In front of a vending machine in the hallway,
a huge black man who looked almost like a gorilla stood beside Seo Ji-tae.
Winston.
A first-year outfielder who had been called up that season.
In other words, another rookie, just like Seo Ji-tae.
“I’m glad someone else is finally here to work with me.”
Winston grinned, showing his white teeth.
“You were alone?”
“Of course. You think surviving in the Majors until September is easy? Even second-year players get sent down or traded. Oh? Your English isn’t bad.”
“I learned here and there.”
Winston laughed and adjusted the cans in his arms.
“If you don’t do stuff like this properly, the veterans get angry. Same with cleaning up their equipment.”
“I did that kind of thing in high school.”
The two rookies returned to the locker room carrying drinks in both hands.
His first job after being called up.
Rookie chores.
For the pitchers.
For the hitters.
The youngest players had no choice.
They cleaned up after the veterans.
“Good. Just follow Winston around and do things properly.”
“Got it.”
After moving around so busily, lunchtime arrived before long.
“Whoa.”
Seo Ji-tae opened his mouth at his first Major League meal.
A long table was covered with steaming dishes.
Thick grilled steaks.
Oily salmon fillets.
A colorful salad bar.
Mountains of fruit.
Freshly squeezed juice.
“A private chef? Seriously?”
A chef in a white hat sliced meat and placed it on plates.
Seo Ji-tae stared at the scene.
You could never dream of this in the minors.
Only a few weeks earlier, Double-A meals had been simple.
Bread with peanut butter.
Cheap pizza if the team happened to provide something extra.
Greasy fast food bought at highway rest stops during road trips.
His poorly paid teammates had to buy even those meals with their own money.
But the Major Leagues were different.
Every day, nutritionally calculated meals were provided almost freely.
You can tell you moved up a level just from the taste of the food.
Minor League and Major League.
One step created a completely different world.
Winston came over with a plate piled high with steak and dropped into the seat beside him.
“Rookie, hurry and get yours. The food was what shocked me most when I got called up. Looking at your eyes reminds me exactly of myself.”
“I have my own.”
“What?”
At that moment, the clubhouse door opened and conditioning coach Carter entered.
Carter gave the chef instructions for Seo Ji-tae’s personal diet.
Winston looked shocked.
“You eat separately?”
“It just happened that way. If I want to keep growing in the big leagues, I don’t have much choice.”
“Not being able to eat whatever you want, is that actually good?”
“No. I want to stuff myself with meat too.”
“Poor kid.”
Winston shook his head.
Major League meals were certainly luxurious.
Plenty of meat.
Warm food.
Different dishes prepared by dedicated chefs.
But Seo Ji-tae restricted even that for his future.
Smaller portions.
Strict ratios.
He finished eating.
When digestion had progressed enough, he followed Carter into the training room.
The room was always cold and clinical.
Only data mattered there.
After finishing his assigned meal, Seo Ji-tae entered his recovery routine.
Carter slowly pressed along Seo Ji-tae’s shoulder blade.
“Good range of motion. One degree better than yesterday.”
“The hot-and-cold recovery routine is helping.”
Seo Ji-tae pulled a resistance band and tightened his shoulder blades.
He was training for the future beside his dedicated coach.
Then,
“Wow. This is some treatment. Arrogant little rookie.”
A long shadow fell through the open doorway.
Harrington.
Houston’s number one starter walked in while chewing gum.
His eyes openly showed displeasure.
Seo Ji-tae finished pulling the band, then looked over.
“What do you want?”
“Don’t you think you’re being a little arrogant? Since when does a rookie get to train however he wants?”
“...”
Seo Ji-tae’s expression sharpened.
“A switch pitcher...”
Harrington cut into a bloody steak while glancing toward the clubhouse rookie.
Normally, he would not care.
Plenty of players came up from the minors during a season.
But there were two reasons Seo Ji-tae caught his attention.
First, the switch pitching.
An extremely rare style.
Second, the organization was paying special attention to him.
“He’s still just a kid who should spend more time suffering in the minors.”
Only an Asian rookie.
Harrington could not understand why everyone was paying so much attention to him.
So he made the boy run errands.
At least Seo Ji-tae worked hard at rookie duties.
“Right. A rookie should act like a rookie.”
That was the natural order.
Then the second reason for his interest appeared.
“Seo!”
The clubhouse door opened and conditioning coach Carter entered.
“Carter went down to the minors. Why is he back?”
Penning whispered.
Carter was already well known as a conditioning coach.
Yet he had gone down to the minors specifically to work with one prospect.
“I know Carter’s good, but why an Asian rookie? Why him instead of someone like me?”
Exactly.
It bothered Harrington that a prospect seemed to receive better support than the team ace.
“Wow. They’re even making a separate meal for him? In real time?”
Harrington’s knife stopped.
“We never got that treatment. Pretty nice for a rookie, huh?”
He did not like it.
Seo Ji-tae was not showing off.
But he still did not look like a rookie.
Harrington quickly finished eating.
“It wasn’t like this in our day. When you got called up, you survived on your own. Personal diet? Dedicated coach? Ridiculous.”
“Times have changed.”
“No. The team is babying only him.”
Different treatment from the rest of the Major League roster.
That irritated Harrington.
He’s just a rookie.
That thought filled his head.
“If he can pitch, fine.”
Penning shrugged.
“The team wants value from its investment. What can you do?”
“If he can pitch?”
Harrington snorted and leaned back.
“He’s still just some kid from the minors. I don’t like it.”
Harrington stood up.
Veteran bullying.
He had no intention of becoming a true bully.
But he wanted the rookie to experience how frightening the Major Leagues could be.
Harrington headed toward the training room.
“Keep it reasonable.”
Penning smiled and followed.
Harrington did not answer.
He walked into the training room.
Now he stood before the rookie pitcher, mocking him.
Seo Ji-tae finished another repetition with the band, then slowly looked over.
“What do you want?”
Harrington crossed his arms and tossed down his equipment.
“Mine. Clean it. That’s the rookie’s job, right?”
There was no right to refuse.
Anywhere in American sports, rookies were expected to obey veterans.
Unlike the common Korean misunderstanding, players were not simply treated as equals because their seniority differed.
If a rookie refused errands or unfair treatment from veterans, he could be branded arrogant or disrespectful and isolated.
How did someone escape that?
Time.
Either become a veteran yourself or win the internal political battle.
There were few other choices.
American sports culture also admired macho toughness, so enduring veteran harassment was sometimes treated as part of proving yourself.
“Kid, you understand, right?”
Seo Ji-tae looked down at the equipment near his feet.
He could not refuse.
At least, that was what Harrington believed.
“Sure.”
The rookie grabbed the band again.
“What? What are you doing?”
Seo Ji-tae looked over at him again.
There was no fear or nervousness in his expression.
“I’ll do it after training.”
“...What?”
Harrington doubted his ears.
“This is my training time.”
His voice was firm.
Harrington stuttered at the unexpected response.
“Y-You’re a rookie. How dare you put off something a veteran told you to do?”
“I told you I’m not leaving during training. What’s wrong with that?”
Harrington’s face reddened.
The rookie had rejected a veteran’s order directly.
Harrington looked toward Carter.
“Coach Carter! Does this make sense? Things weren’t like this when we were rookies.”
“He said he’ll do it after training.”
“Unbelievable. Why did we even bring in such an arrogant kid?”
One by one, more players entered to train.
Harrington raised his voice toward them.
“Did you all see that? The rookie is refusing a veteran’s request!”
Penning crossed his arms and joined in.
“Seo, that’s dangerous. Around here, refusing a veteran can get you marked immediately. It’s one of the Major League unwritten rules.”
Seo Ji-tae looked at them without much interest.
“I know.”
That calm attitude irritated Harrington even more.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“What?”
“Don’t interfere with my training time.”
Seo Ji-tae was the one questioning him now.
“What kind of team stops a player from using the time meant for growth? Don’t interrupt my training. Go away.”
Growth.
That word made Harrington’s temple twitch.
“Growth? A kid like you talks about growth? You’ve barely stepped into the big leagues!”
“Even if the oldest veteran in the league came here, I still wouldn’t stop my training. That’s obvious.”
Seo Ji-tae did not blink.
Harrington became the one breathing harder.
“You arrogant...”
“I said I’ll do it after training. Harrington, did I say I wouldn’t do it?”
Harrington ground his teeth and stepped closer.
“Unbelievable. You were just called up to the Major Leagues. I’ve seen plenty of kids like you. They think they’re special, then end up right back in the minors.”
“Whether I go down or not, I’m not moving during training time.”
“!”
Seo Ji-tae looked Harrington directly in the eyes.
Harrington stepped closer until their faces were near each other.
“Let’s see how good you really are. If you’re good enough to reject a veteran, you must be amazing, right?”
The Major Leagues.
A stage where words like those could intimidate any rookie.
But the Seo Ji-tae standing before him was nothing like the rookie Harrington expected.
“I’ll show you. If I’m bad, they won’t put me on the mound anyway.”
“What?”
Different.
Harrington could only stare at the fearless rookie in front of him.
