On The Rise As A Catcher [EN]: Chapter 102

The man packed his things and went out into the hallway.

A club employee greeted him.

“Oh, are you leaving already?”

“Yeah, gotta go.”

“Ah… were you hitting balls until now?”

The man looked at his hands and chuckled.

“Yeah, hit a few.”

The club employee scratched the back of his head.

He didn’t know what to say, so he rolled his eyes.

“Ah, would you like to have some *gopchang* [Korean grilled small intestines] today? You like it, don’t you?”

“Nah, it’s alright. *Gopchang* makes me want to drink. Can’t drink during the season.”

“Ah, I’m sorry. I understand.”

“Alright, I’m leaving.”

“Be careful going in.”

The man slung his bag tightly over his shoulder and walked to the parking lot.

Seeing this, the employee sighed.

“Oh, what a shame.”

At that moment, a female employee appeared behind the male employee.

“*Oppa*! [Term used by a younger woman to address an older male, often a brother or close friend]”

“Ah, you scared me! What is it? You should make some noise. And what if you call me ‘*oppa*’ here?”

“What does it matter? There’s no one here today.”

“Still, you have to be careful. Seon-ho *hyung* [Term used by a younger male to address an older male, often a brother or close friend] was here until a little while ago.”

“Oh, really? What did Seon-ho *oppa* do today?”

“He trained, what else would he do?”

“Why does he work so hard when he can’t even play in games?”

“…Well, that’s what I’m saying.”

“Where is there a player who wins against the manager? I heard the club told Seon-ho *oppa* to take coaching training.”

“He’s still in his prime, how can he take coaching training?”

“A baseball player is not that young at thirty-three.”

The man became serious.

“Yoo Seon-ho, Yoo Seon-ho. Scorpion’s Heart, Yoo Seon-ho. He’s still a hitter who can hit 30 home runs. You don’t know baseball, but Yoo Seon-ho is just a legend. He’s not a player to be retired like this.”

“Why are you getting angry? Did I stop him from playing in games? Why are you taking it out on me when the manager did it?”

“No, it’s not anger… Ha, it’s just frustrating. I wish they would send him to the minor leagues instead. If they register him in the major leagues but don’t let him play, even the best player will lose his touch. He’s a really good *hyung*, but this doesn’t seem right.”

“Why are you worrying about that? Don’t say weird things. The club and the staff have already decided and are pushing forward, so if you put on the brakes, you’ll only get hurt.”

“Who’s putting on the brakes? It’s just… there’s nothing I can do. No matter how well the younger players do, it’s not right to mistreat a hitter who can hit .300 even if he holds the bat upside down. They’re embarrassing him in front of the younger players and pushing him to leave. I don’t think he can last until this year with his personality.”

“Why are you empathizing so much?”

“I came to the baseball team because I like baseball, but seeing this makes me frustrated. Even though I’m a Gote founding year fan, it breaks my heart to see him…”

“Okay, are you not going to leave work? You said we were going to eat something delicious today, right?”

“Huh? Ah, I have to. What do you want to eat? Is there anything you want to eat?”

The woman’s eyes narrowed.

“What, you haven’t even thought about it yet? Who was the one who said let’s eat something delicious first?”

“Huh? No, it’s not that I didn’t think about it? I was asking for your opinion.”

“So what did you think about?”

The man rolled his eyes.

“How about… a steak house?”

“We went there last week.”

“Spicy braised short ribs? You like spicy food.”

“Did you forget that I said I don’t like it because it doesn’t look pretty?”

“Did you? Then…”

“Forget it. Don’t pretend you thought about it if you didn’t.”

“No, why are you like this? We were going to eat together today.”

“It’s been a while since our date, how can you be so insincere? You said you’d finish work early today, but you’ve been working overtime. I’ve been waiting for you until now. You’ve had so much time, but you haven’t thought about our date even once.”

“No. I did. But I was just a little forgetful because I had a lot of work.”

“Ugh, forget it. Let’s go on a date next time. I’m not in the mood for a date.”

“Why are you like this? Huh?”

The two men and women left the stadium bickering.

The man stuck close to the woman and acted cute, and the woman reluctantly took the man’s hand.

The burly man, Yoo Seon-ho, who had headed to the parking lot earlier, sat on the flower bed in the parking lot and watched the two men and women.

“Good~ times. Hehe.”

The man sat in the parking lot, where only the orange streetlights were lit, for a long time.

The man’s eyes were on the old Daegu Stadium.

He had dreamed of playing baseball at Daegu Stadium his whole life, starting from elementary school.

Does even a dream have an ending?

The ending of reality is approaching.

His nose tingled.

The club’s final notice came to mind.

-If you retire now, we’ll hold a retirement ceremony and send you to coaching training. When you come back later, we’ll help you become a coach and even a manager. But if you hold out like this, we can’t help it either. We can’t send you to another team. You don’t want to go to another team either. Choose what’s best for you. If you keep holding out, we’ll be in trouble and your juniors will be in trouble too. As a senior, you should know when to step down for the sake of your juniors. Don’t you think?

Tears welled up in the man’s eyes.

The tears rolled down his cheeks.

The man curled up like a child and buried his face between his knees.

“Ugh, heh heh. Sniffle. Heugh.”

The man sobbed.

The Daegu Stadium, with its lights off, stood by the man’s side.

Success as a catcher

All that’s needed is justification

“Yoo Seon-ho?”

Gote’s general manager, Kim Myeong-soo, asked again.

“You’re going to bring Yoo Seon-ho?”

Operations team leader Kim Hak-in replied.

“Yes. He’s a player our team desperately needs.”

“Can you bring Yoo Seon-ho?”

“So I’m planning to match the conditions as much as possible. I’m thinking of using Lee Nak-gyun, Choi Dae-gyu, and Kang Mun-gyu as well.”

“…Is this the chairman’s order?”

Kim Hak-in nodded.

“Yes. He said to bring everything we need, even if we have to sell all three of them.”

“Ugh… if that’s the case. But are you confident? Yoo Seon-ho is Scorpion himself.”

“I have to try. There’s no better card than Yoo Seon-ho among the cards we can get by giving up all three of Lee, Choi, and Kang.”

“Yoo Seon-ho…”

“Just make a call now, general manager. If you just test the waters, I’ll go down to Daegu myself and negotiate.”

“Alright. Anyway, now that it’s come to this, be sure to bring him.”

“Yes. I understand.”

* * *

Inside a car running on the Gyeongbu Expressway.

Kim Hak-in was in the passenger seat of the car driven by operations team Seo Seung-jo.

The two men’s expressions were quite serious.

“Will this work?”

Kim Hak-in sighed at Seo Seung-jo’s question.

“It has to work, the situation has become this big.”

“Isn’t Yoo Seon-ho the one they’re always talking about as the heart of the Scorpion? What if the club says okay, but he says he doesn’t want to?”

“Then there’s nothing we can do.”

“Yes?”

Seo Seung-jo looked at Kim Hak-in as if he was dumbfounded.

“We’ll do what we can. If it’s not Yoo Seon-ho, we’ll fold the deal.”

“Yes…”

“But Scorpion told him to step down first. That means Scorpion is willing to match the cards. If the club says okay, it’s 70% successful. The rest depends on whether we persuade the player or not.”

“Usually, players want to extend their active career rather than retire, but I don’t know about Yoo Seon-ho. Isn’t he very headstrong? He’s a former chairman of the players’ association, the player who always negotiates his salary the latest every year, and he has a lot of pride…”

“Where is there a person without flaws? Yoo Seon-ho didn’t cause accidents like Kang Mun-gyu and Lee Nak-gyun, did he?”

“That’s true, but…”

“Even though Yoo Seon-ho is stubborn, the current situation isn’t bad for us either. First of all, the relationship between manager Lee Geon-hoo and Yoo Seon-ho can never be improved. Both of them are strong-willed.”

“I guess so. During the players’ association upheaval, Yoo Seon-ho criticized Lee Geon-hoo for being selfish, and it was a mess. Was that when the two of them started to go wrong?”

“From Yoo Seon-ho’s point of view, he was angry. All the people who were treated as seniors backed out during the players’ association upheaval.”

“But why did Yoo Seon-ho criticize Lee Geon-hoo in particular? The other players were all keeping their mouths shut.”

“I don’t know the exact reason. But it’s a fact that Lee Geon-hoo was completely humiliated at that time. It was on the news and a mess. He was called the club’s dog and got a lot of hate. From the beginning when Lee Geon-hoo came to Scorpion, the breakup was as good as decided. Lee Geon-hoo was also a star player, a baseball graduate, and successful as a coach and manager. From the time the club picked Lee Geon-hoo, they were planning to abandon Yoo Seon-ho. That’s how it is for an aging designated hitter who can’t even defend due to injuries. Jung Dae-han is growing, and Jo Yang-cheol is also there, so in the long run, it’s right for Jung Dae-han to play first base and Jo Yang-cheol to go to DH [designated hitter].”

“Looking at the situation, Yoo Seon-ho is isolated. His relationship with the club is not good, and his relationship with the manager is not good either… He has absolute support from the fans, but it’s meaningless in the current situation.”

“It’s more troublesome that he’s popular with the fans. It’s difficult to deal with. Scorpion must have been suffering a lot. Every team knows about the manager and player fighting, and baseball fans know, but they have to pretend it’s not. That’s why they called us right away.”

“Then this trade depends on Yoo Seon-ho’s decision? The club must want to sell him quickly.”

“Let’s do it one by one. First, we have to agree with the club, and then we have to persuade Yoo Seon-ho, right? What’s the point of us persuading Yoo Seon-ho if Scorpion refuses? We have to persuade him after we sign the deal. No one knows about a trade until it’s announced. Scorpion may unexpectedly resist. I’m going to demand a bonus on top of Yoo Seon-ho this time.”

Seo Seung-jo sighed.

“Even Yoo Seon-ho is difficult, but even a bonus?”

“We can’t show that we’re nervous. We have to demand it confidently. That’s how we can bring at least Yoo Seon-ho alone.”

* * *

“Yoo Seon-ho, Lee Ji-seong. Hmm…”

Scorpion’s operations team leader, Kim Hyeong-seok, stroked his chin after hearing Kim Hak-in’s demands.

Unlike his confident expression, Kim Hak-in’s hand under the table was clenched into a fist.

If Yoo Seon-ho was a hitter who hit .300 with 30 home runs and 100 RBIs [runs batted in], Lee Ji-seong was a center fielder who was even selected for the national team.

A top hitter with perfect offense, defense, and base running.

After a wrist injury, Hwang Gi-deok, the league’s best center fielder, appeared and he remained a backup.

Even now, his defense and base running are A-class in the league, but his batting average and slugging percentage are not recovering.

“Well, I understand about Yoo Seon-ho, since we’ve already talked on the phone. But isn’t Lee Ji-seong too greedy?”

Kim Hak-in took a slower breath.

Scorpion agreed to the key player in this trade, Yoo Seon-ho, without even a formal refusal.

It was already 99% successful.

All that’s left is the bonus.

Whether or not we can take the bonus.

“Nak-gyun can play as early as the end of the season, or as early as after the All-Star Game. If Nak-gyun goes to left field, Go Won-seong and Jo Cheol-woong will go to right field and center field as backups. Jang Gi-seong is also there. Lee Ji-seong’s decline is obvious after his injury. Lee Ji-seong has no place other than outfield backup right now, and it will become even more ambiguous when Nak-gyun comes in. If it’s a trade for Nak-gyun, Yoo Seon-ho, and Lee Ji-seong, even the most hardcore Scorpion fans will think it’s in Scorpion’s favor.”

“You know that Nak-gyun’s image is not good with the fans because he caused an accident, right?”

“I don’t know about other places, but isn’t this Daegu? And Nak-gyun didn’t cause an accident like Choi Dae-gyu, he just had gossip, gossip. He’s in smooth negotiation with the victim, and above all, isn’t Nak-gyun the home run king that Scorpion raised? The prodigal son returns. Isn’t that a good title? Instead of Yoo Seon-ho, who can’t come out due to a conflict with the manager, if home run king Lee Nak-gyun comes in, won’t the fans welcome him?”

“Hmm…”

Scorpion’s operations team leader Kim Hyeong-seok whispered to the staff and coordinated their opinions.

Kim Hak-in waited for an answer, taking sips of coffee.

“We welcome Nak-gyun’s return, but I wonder if we need to give up Lee Ji-seong. This all started because Gote first proposed the trade. I don’t think we need to do a deal that loses money. Gote is in a hurry because they sold Park Shin-eon, right?”

“That’s right. We requested the trade first. But this trade is not just for necessity.”

“…What do you mean?”

“It’s a trade that generously opens the way for Lee Nak-gyun and Yoo Seon-ho, whose situations are not good within the team. It’s just that Lee Ji-seong is included here.”

“Well, haha. Still, we don’t have to…”

Kim Hyeong-seok tilted his head.

Kim Hak-in leaned forward and smiled.

“Team leader Kim, please consider my face. If I only bring Yoo Seon-ho with Nak-gyun, I’ll be stoned to death. Lee Ji-seong currently has no place in Scorpion, and he’s a puzzle that can’t be used in the future. I don’t think there will be anyone who opposes releasing Lee Ji-seong, so please be generous this time. I’m not making unreasonable demands, am I? Is this the only trade you’ll do? If you do a trade that leans too much to one side, the club and the fans won’t be able to trade again. It doesn’t have to be 5:5, but it has to be about 6:4 or 7:3 to trade next time, right?”

At Kim Hak-in’s request, Kim Hyeong-seok sighed.

That face that is practically asking for sympathy.

Kim Hyeong-seok said politely.

“Can we have a meeting among ourselves for a moment?”

Kim Hak-in and Seo Seung-jo left the room.

When Kim Hyeong-seok looked at the staff, the staff opened their mouths one by one.

“Even with this deal, we’re getting more than 7:3 in profit. Honestly, it doesn’t make sense to receive Lee Nak-gyun for Yoo Seon-ho.”

“Gote is in a hurry right now, so they’re taking Yoo Seon-ho with Lee Nak-gyun, but if it were normal, this trade would never be mentioned. That means Gote is that urgent. That means there’s a high possibility that they’ve requested a trade from other teams as well. If we stall here and the deal falls through and they connect with another team, this opportunity will never come again.”

“I agree. If we want Lee Ji-seong to take Yoo Seon-ho, it’s a trade that we’re definitely making a big profit on. It’s better to get them to sign the deal here without arguing.”

Kim Hyeong-seok nodded.

“Lee Ji-seong won’t come back to us as a boomerang. Maybe they’ll use him as an outfield backup. Right?”

“Yes. Let’s proceed quickly before they change their minds.”

Kim Hyeong-seok called Kim Hak-in back in.

“Alright. I’ll report to the general manager now.”

“Have you decided?”

“Yes. Lee Nak-gyun, Yoo Seon-ho, and Lee Ji-seong trade. Let’s proceed.”

* * *

A restaurant not far from Daegu Stadium.

Just as Kim Hak-in and Seo Seung-jo were about to pick up their spoons, the general manager called.

Kim Hak-in put down his spoon and pressed the call button.

-Good job, I didn’t know you’d get Yoo Seon-ho.

“I think Scorpion was in a hurry too. I didn’t know they’d hand over Yoo Seon-ho so quickly.”

-Wales just called. They said they’re coming to Jamsil right away?

“…Wales?”

-They’re in a hurry too. It’ll be tough, but as soon as we get back to the company, we’ll have to proceed with Wales too.

“Alright. I’ll see you when I get back.”

Kim Hak-in hung up the phone.

Seo Seung-jo couldn’t overcome his curiosity and asked.

“Did Wales say okay?”

“That’s right. Wales is unconditionally okay. We’re giving Choi Dae-gyu and Kang Mun-gyu.”

“Still, it’s a deal to receive four pitchers, but the trade was easier than I thought.”

“It’s a deal that we’re losing a lot on. It’s practically a trade for one core bullpen and two starting fielders. The other three are 1.5-tier pitchers who aren’t even fixed in the first team.”

“Still, they’re pitchers, right? Besides, except for Jung Hong-min, all three left-handed pitchers and one right-handed pitcher are in their early 20s.”

“Wales made a decision too. Choi Dae-gyu will play next year, but Kang Mun-gyu can return within a month if he agrees well with the victim. When would a club like Wales ever embrace A-class hitters FA [free agent] like Choi Dae-gyu and Kang Mun-gyu? They were thirsty too. Prospects are lottery tickets that don’t know when they’ll explode, and Choi Dae-gyu and Kang Mun-gyu are already exploded huge lottery tickets. Wales’ strength and weakness is that they have good depth, right? The problem is that the level of that depth is not very high.”

“They have a team feeling like a minor version of the Wolves.”