A Ball Caught After 200 Days

"I feel like I'm starting baseball from scratch."

The big smile remained the same. But the gloom and horror of that day is etched in the mind.

Lotte Giants' Lee Min-seok (19) is finally stretching again.

On the 26th, I met Lee Min-seok at the final camp site of Lotte 2nd Army in Sangdong, Gimhae. There was a good story that "I finally started playing catch."

"In mid-October, I had a CT scan at the hospital and got an OK. Right now, it's only 20m away, playing catch. I'm going to throw it for a day off, but today is my fourth time. It's been a week and a half of the day."

The club was the next generation star. He has a huge physique of 1m 90 and an overwhelming fastball, and unexpectedly has a cute smile on his eyes and a personality that does not hesitate to show off his charm.

Even in high school, he was not a pitcher who played many innings. He played 33 ⅔ innings in 27 games (start 1) in his debut season, recording 1 win, 1 loss and 5 hold average of 5.88 ERA.

His speed is faster than in high school. On the professional stage, he threw 155km against Chae Eun-sung of the Hanwha Eagles, making headlines.

But the unbearable pain of his elbow bothered him. That was the opening game, too.

Lee Min-seok took the mound in the bottom of the eighth inning in the Jamsil opener against the Doosan Bears on April 1 this year. However, he felt pain after 27 pitches in the first ⅓ innings, so he asked for a replacement and voluntarily replaced him. And I went straight to the operating table.

He rose to the must-win group in the second year of the season with strong ball power, but he was in a position to leave due to injury at the beginning.

Lee Min-seok said, "I would have kept throwing it, but it hurt so much that it was hard to throw it," and added, "I didn't feel good. "I thought it wouldn't be easy when I went down the mound, but when I went to the hospital, I damaged my elbow ligament," he added.

After a thorough examination, he underwent Tommy John surgery two weeks later. The required ligament was taken from the left wrist. While undergoing surgery, I even removed the bone fragment neatly. Lee Min-seok added, "I didn't get sick after the first season, but I received constant care, but I just came earlier than expected."

And it was a long time of rehabilitation. Since you can't use your arms, all you can do is run and weight in areas that don't strain your lower body.

He is a second-year high school professional pitcher who threw a 155km fastball. I can't even imagine the despair when he suddenly couldn't throw the ball one day.

"There was a lot of frustration, but now I feel good to throw the ball. Now it's time to stress about not throwing the ball well...I think I'm going to buy it. I wonder how it feels when I first start baseball. I feel good."

Watching Yoon Dong-hee's first-tier performance as a fellow player, Cho Se-jin and his smile saying, "I don't know life" became a hot topic. Yoon Dong-hee also cheered enthusiastically for the Asian Games.

I was also envious. "(Yoon) Donghee is a player who has no choice but to be good," he said, but added, "If I wasn't hurt...That's what I thought. These days, even if I get Tommy John, I'm going to try to become a managing director rather than active duty because I'm a third-grade student," he added.

Until early October, I stayed and trained in Sangdong. About 200 days after being injured, he caught the ball again.

If he is no longer sick, his goal is to build his body in earnest from February to March next year and take the mound in the Futures League in April. Lee Min-seok said, "I don't have to worry about arrest at all. I worked out a lot more than before," he said with a smile.

"The team atmosphere has changed a lot with coach Kim Tae-hyung coming. I'm trying to adjust. I haven't seen you yet because I'm in the rehabilitation group. I feel at ease. I want to show you my credit when I'm all recovered." 스포츠토토