Coach John, excited by what he had seen and by the prospect of teaching him, barely got himself back in order.

“While you’re here I’ll call you Suho. And Mark tells me the Dodgers test is two weeks out. Correct?”

Suho nodded.

John started by talking with him about how he had come up in the game.

From middle and high school baseball in Korea through signing with a professional farm team.

Not in detail, but enough to hear in outline how he had developed, what his strengths were, and what kind of life he had lived.

When Suho had finished, John looked at the sheet of swing data again.

“First. What exactly is it you want corrected?”

“I don’t think it’s a correction. I think I need to learn mechanics.”

“My diagnosis isn’t much different. You have tremendous athleticism, and you’re getting none of it into the swing.”

John spread the fingers of his right hand and closed them all at once.

“Zero percent, precisely. You aren’t using it at all.”

Suho couldn’t argue. He had recognized it himself.

He had always hit on strength alone, relying on nothing but feel.

And that was a relief.

Because the man had made an accurate diagnosis, and it gave Suho deep confidence in him.

“That’s right. I have to learn from the beginning again.”

John looked him straight in the eye.

“Good. There’s something I want to ask first. Two options, to be precise.”

He raised his right index finger.

“The first is building up from the fundamentals, step by step. Rebuilding the basics of hitting from scratch, literally the way a newborn learns to walk. The advantage being that you could be reborn as a completely different person.”

Keeping the index finger raised, he lifted his middle finger alongside it.

“And the second is… why don’t you tell me.”

“Putting out the fire in front of me.”

John gave a short nod.

“Correct. Working to get whatever better result you can out of the Dodgers test inside two weeks. The advantage is exactly what it sounds like. You get closer to passing. There’s a drawback, though.”

“What is it?”

John handed him a bat as he answered.

“You could come out worse than you are now. Neither one thing nor the other, losing even the strengths you already have, and failing the test because of it.”

Suho took the bat and asked back.

“Which would be the better choice?”

“The choice is entirely yours. But bear this in mind. How long do you suppose it takes to learn mechanics from the fundamentals up?”

Suho hesitated, and John went on.

“More than two weeks, obviously. It could take twenty weeks. Two hundred. That’s how long and painful a fight it is to acquire perfect mechanics. So think hard about whether you’re reaching for the test right in front of you or for the enormous potential in your future. If you start from the beginning, mind, I’m confident I could make you a completely different person inside six months.”

There was certainty in it, and Suho fell into deep thought.

The Dodgers test in two weeks was as good as his last chance.

But he had also come this far with his entire baseball life staked on it.

He wanted to become a real ballplayer rather than something that glittered briefly under a stopgap.

Suho was quiet a while, then raised his head.

“I’ll put out the fire in front of me.”

John’s eyebrow moved slightly.

“Why?”

“I want to learn mechanics after I’ve signed with the Dodgers.”

John smiled faintly and nodded.

Suho’s remark might easily have offended him, and it hadn’t at all.

Because it was simply true.

The Dodgers were among the very best in Major League Baseball.

An organization with the finest development system there was.

If he could get in there.

Suho would grow methodically under the guidance of specialists.

“No sense in fumbling at the fundamentals for two short weeks and throwing away the test along with it.”

Opening the Dodgers’ door was the priority right now.

With that settled, Suho looked straight at him.

“Good. A wise choice. And I’ll help you wholeheartedly. Business first, though, yes?”

Mark drifted over at that point, hooked an arm through the coach’s, and asked in his most shameless voice.

“Business! Very important! But it’s two weeks, right? You’ll cut it in half for him, won’t you? You heard his situation. And he’s got money going out in a dozen directions!”

John laughed out loud at the nerve of it.

“Look at you, showing up having done the math. Truth is I can’t. It’d mean breaking the rules of this place. The other coaches I opened it with wouldn’t allow it. And once you make one exception, there’s nothing to stop everyone else from asking.”

Suho cut in quickly.

“Mark. I’m fine with it.”

Mark sighed like a man with no choice.

“I suppose that’s fair… sorry.”

“However!”

Just when it seemed the conversation was over — what was this?

John came back with a counter-offer.

“Pass the test and I’ll halve it. The other coaches will understand that much.”

A player trained here passing the Dodgers test and becoming one of their minor leaguers.

That was a considerable honor for the academy.

Because an undrafted player.

The kind Korea calls a developmental signing, a walk-on, getting into the Dodgers, the finest organization in Major League Baseball.

The academy’s reputation would rise on its own after that.

Mark stuck out his lip.

“Honestly, at that point shouldn’t you be paying us… we’d be doing enormous publicity for you…”

“We have to eat as well. You two will be raking it in as major leaguers someday. We won’t.”

Suho joined the conversation.

“Good. I’d like to pass, take the training at half price, and provide the publicity.”

John put out a hand.

“All right. Deal!”

Suho took it, and the deal was made.

Once the contract was signed, John’s expression changed.

“Now I’ll tell you a little more about your condition. In your current state you will absolutely not pass the Dodgers test.”

Suho gave a short nod.

“Yes. I know. That’s why I came here.”

“You understand how short two weeks is? It won’t be easy at all.”

“That’s fine. I’ll do everything I can. If I fail the test, I don’t intend to blame you or anyone else.”

John grinned at the unusual mind on him.

“Good. The hitting was unwatchable, but the makeup is first-class. In that case I owe you the details.”

His expression turned more serious still.

“What do you think you need to do to pass the Dodgers test?”

“I think I have to show every strength I have, and also show them something of my own that the scouts aren’t expecting.”

John smiled, satisfied with the answer.

“Exactly. Since you’ve decided to take the test, they’ll be looking up your file too. They’ll know what kind of player you are.”

Suho nodded.

John continued.

“So what they’ll expect from you is singles, and getting on base, and then disrupting the other side with your legs.”

These were Suho’s strengths.

“Now here’s the thing. What do you suppose happens if you drive one for extra bases?”

“It’d stick in their minds, certainly. But Coach, I know myself. At that test, with the way I hit now, I won’t be able to.”

“True enough. That’s a different level from an independent league tryout. The pitchers’ stuff alone is different, so the same swing won’t carry as far. Which brings me to it.”

John smiled.

“For these two weeks I’m going to teach you memorization, not baseball.”

Suho looked at him, puzzled.

John went on, unbothered.

“I’ll give you one swing. You repeat it, without a thought in your head, until it’s perfectly set in your body. You move like a machine, exactly as I tell you.”

“Like a machine…”

“Yes. It’ll be harder than anything. It may in fact be a far more painful and cruel process than starting over from scratch.”

He explained why.

“Knowledge is power. You know the phrase?”

“I do.”

“That’s the reason. Baseball aside, a person needs to know why when they’re doing something.”

He continued.

“Human beings instinctively suffer most when repeating something they don’t understand. And the body doesn’t lie — repetition without understanding can bring greater confusion, and injury.”

There were no shortage of such cases.

Repetitive training that understanding never catches up to drops a player into a slump or leads him to an injury.

The cold assessment kept coming.

“And unfortunately, not one single person has ever succeeded with this memorization method. I’ve watched a great many prospects over the years, and there have certainly been men in your position, short on time. Some of them were geniuses with major league talent. Every one of them failed. However!”

John’s manner shifted.

“You, perhaps, could do it. No — the truth is I’d say this method suits nobody but you.”

Suho asked with his eyes what that meant.

“When you picked up the pen to sign the academy contract, I got a look at your palm. You’ve swung a bat an extraordinary number of times. I’ll wager prospects your age have swung half what you have. No — a quarter. Including men currently in the minors and the majors.”

Meaning Suho had swung more than four times as much as players his own age.

“But the swings you’ve taken up to now can’t have had understanding behind them. That you have no injuries anyway is a gift from heaven. It means you were born with the body. And beyond that, it’s because you have insane persistence and an iron will. Which is why you could manage it. And if this method does work… I can guarantee it.”

Exit velocity and carry beyond anything comparable to before.

Dramatically so.

“You might even end up the man with the longest distance at that test.”

And it would carry Suho down the road to passing.

Suho drew his arm in and flexed his bicep.

“Just leave it to me. Take away my persistence and there’s nothing left.”

End of Chapter 9