ATLANTA — You wouldn’t believe it unless it came straight from the horse’s mouth.

“I was just thinking to myself, I was having a little more trouble seeing the pitch compared to different days,” Giants outfielder Jung Hoo Lee said, improbably, this week.

Lee, fresh off an 18-game hitting streak, has been one of MLB’s hottest hitters. He has been seeing the ball well enough to bat .500 since returning from a lower back strain 16 games ago, and he added a line- drive home run in Wednesday’s 7–2 win over the Braves.

The Giants’ Jung Hoo Lee recently tried out a quirky new routine in the on-deck circle. X/@DanielKimW

But in an exclusive interview with The California Post, interpreted from Korean by Justin Han, Lee explained why he recently tried out a quirky new routine in the on-deck circle.

And why it didn’t stick.

“I just tried it because I wanted to see the ball better,” Lee said. “I don’t think it helped. Not sure. I tried it. That’s about it.”

Lee’s experiment was so stealthy that it was lost on hitting coach Hunter Mense, who had to be clued in when asked about it by reporters. Nothing, however, can be kept from the internet, where Lee’s interesting on-deck behavior was captured in a video that went semi-viral.

It might look like Lee is telling the opposing pitcher, “I’m watching you,” over and over again.

He lifts his hand in front of his face, extends his index and middle fingers and moves them back and forth at hyperspeed inches from his eyes.

“I like it,” manager Tony Vitello said. “Anything that brings that personality out.”

In this case, however, this wasn’t Lee being himself.

It was him trying to imitate someone else.

Like anyone who reaches a certain age, Lee, 27, apparently learned that he had glossed over one of the newest trends spreading throughout the new generation.

Lee recently had an 18-game hitting streak, batting close to .500 after missing 16 games. AP Photo/Erik S. Lesser

Back in the World Baseball Classic this spring, Lee found himself as one of the more veteran players on Team Korea. There was one clear demarcation between the elder statesmen on the team and the youth.

“A lot of the players who were younger than me in the WBC, they would all do it,” Lee said. “I had to try it out. Not the whole team. Just the players that were younger than me. I think it’s more of a trend over there in the KBO.”

Daniel Kim, a Korean baseball insider, compiled a video of other players in the KBO miming the same motion, almost like they were trying to poke their eyes out.

Kim wrote that it has taken off in the KBO because players believe it helps them pick up pitches.

According to Lee, “They said that it helps out with straightening up your view with what’s in front of you. … You would use your fingers a lot to do that.”

The one instance Lee was captured on camera trying it out came Friday in the Giants’ 5-1 loss to the Cubs, the same game Lee’s hitting streak came to an end.

He gave it a shot in his second at-bat, after rolling over on a fastball for an out his first time up. This one ended in the same result, and it would seem that Lee scrapped the idea after that.

He was back to normal in the on-deck circle preceding his home run Wednesday.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a consistent thing I’m doing every time when I’m on deck,” he said.

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