Genius Pitcher Hides 170Km [EN]: Chapter 160

#159. The Idols of Boys

The day I was first drafted onto this team, or more precisely, the day Seong-hoon hyung, acting on my instructions, drafted me.

When reporters asked about my goals for my debut year, I answered like this:

‘I’m not sure how you all will take my words. You might think they sound far-fetched. But my goal is to win the championship. I’m going to work my body to the breaking point until the Warriors win the championship.’

Back then, no one really paid much attention to my words. Not even Seong-hoon hyung, who knew better than anyone that I was serious.

The media dismissed it as just the ambitious spirit of a first-round pick, and baseball fans treated me like a madman.

Even the Warriors fans just chuckled at my words.

The team had been stuck in last place for two years straight, and after years of floundering, the club was on the verge of disbanding.

On top of that, the team was rife with corrupt elements like Hwang Seong-min, Song Gi-tae, and Jeong Gi-ho, and the coaches, staff, and front office were divided into factions, fighting over territory.

That hopeless team has come this far.

With only nine games left in the season, the Warriors are in second place with a record of 81 wins, 4 draws, and 50 losses, trailing first-place Incheon only by winning percentage.

Just one step, still just one step short of reclaiming first place, but now we’re really almost there.

Today’s game has a lot on the line, including breaking single-season home run and RBI [Runs Batted In] records, as well as continuing the scoreless innings streak.

But right now, there’s only one thing on my mind:

The victory of this team.

For that, I will take the mound once again today.

* * *

“Wow… it’s really amazing to see him in person……”

“Is that hyung [older brother/male friend] really only a year older than us? He’s not lying about his age, is he?”

“What nonsense are you talking about? Stop with the useless talk and give me the camera.”

The premium seats right behind the catcher.

A large boy snatched a telephoto camera from his even larger friend next to him and focused on Han Su-hyeok.

The Warriors’ attack in the top of the first inning ended without a score, and Changwon’s attack began in the bottom of the first.

And he took the mound.

Han Su-hyeok, who has recorded 40 consecutive scoreless innings in the second half of this season, including a perfect game in six starts.

The hero and MVP of the WBC [World Baseball Classic] victory, and the player who is likely to win both the KBO [Korean Baseball Organization] Rookie of the Year and MVP awards this season, was now preparing to pitch on the mound.

“Damn… awesome.”

A boy with a buzz cut and skin tanned by the sun clenched his fist without realizing it.

His name was Choi Ma-ru, and he was recently drafted by the Warriors in the first round of the 2028 KBO Rookie Draft. He visited this stadium today at the invitation of the club.

The boy, who came all the way to Changwon to see his idol Han Su-hyeok pitch, watched him with sweaty hands.

Thwack!

Thwack!

Han Su-hyeok’s practice pitches began.

The pitching form that even overseas baseball experts praised as the most perfect, a form that Choi Ma-ru, who had just shed his high school image, could not even dare to evaluate, was being reproduced before his eyes.

For Choi Ma-ru, whose life goal was to catch up to even the tip of Han Su-hyeok’s toes, it was a time he couldn’t miss for even a moment.

“Hey, Dong-seok.”

“What.”

“Do you think you can catch that ball?”

Thwack!

The high-speed slider, thrown with reduced force, still clocked in at nearly 150 km/h and slammed into the catcher’s mitt.

Seeing that, Choi Ma-ru, feeling a sense of reality, asked his friend Park Dong-seok, a catcher who was drafted by the Warriors in the third round.

The Warriors gave up their second-round pick to Daejeon in exchange for Seo Hyeong-ju. Therefore, the two boys here were essentially the Warriors’ first and second-round picks.

“I can’t catch it.”

“You answer so coolly. And you call yourself a catcher.”

“Hey, is there even another pitcher in our country who throws a ball like that in the first place? Both the hyung who throws it and the hyung who catches it are crazy.”

“Well, you can’t even catch my 155 km/h pitches properly.”

“What are you talking about? I only had one passed ball last year.”

“Yeah, one time. The final out in the bottom of the ninth of the Bonghwanggi [High School Baseball Tournament] final.”

“…You jerk, you had to bring that up.”

“I wonder what the Warriors saw in a guy like that to pick him in the third round.”

He said that, but Choi Ma-ru was very happy to be wearing the same uniform as his friend Park Dong-seok, who had been his battery mate throughout high school.

He was lucky.

No one expected the Warriors, who were in desperate need of pitchers, to use their precious third-round pick on a catcher.

In any case, the two were drafted by the Warriors and are waiting to join the upcoming finishing camp [off-season training camp for player development].

There was no need for newly drafted rookies to participate in the finishing camp, but they volunteered to join the camp.

To see their idol, Han Su-hyeok.

Choi Ma-ru admired Han Su-hyeok as a pitcher, and Park Dong-seok revered Han Su-hyeok as a batter.

“…I wish time would pass quickly. I want to play baseball with that hyung.”

“Me too.”

The two boys, who were only one year apart from Han Su-hyeok but idolized him, closed their mouths and began to focus on the game.

* * *

Those two boys weren’t the only ones watching today’s game.

Whoosh

Thwack!

“Strike! Out!”

Five innings passed in an instant.

While the Warriors’ batters showed their concentration and scored two points, Han Su-hyeok shut down the Changwon batters, allowing only one hit through the fifth inning.

Even that one hit was due to a misjudgment by Yoo In-cheol, who was playing shortstop in place of Han Su-hyeok.

The record keeper deliberated for a long time before ruling it a hit, but it was essentially an error.

In any case, Han Su-hyeok, who didn’t allow a single run for five innings today, recorded 45 consecutive scoreless innings.

“He’s a monster, a real monster.”

“Is there any point in analyzing this?”

The Suwon Commanders’ scouting team, who came down to Changwon to analyze Han Su-hyeok’s pitching, exchanged words with dismal expressions.

Regardless of the remaining games, Suwon, who had virtually secured third place, would play the winner of the wild card game in the semi-playoffs and then face the second-place team in the playoffs.

Currently, it was impossible to predict whether the Incheon Rangers or the Seoul Warriors would be in first or second place.

Suwon had no choice but to check the situation of both teams.

In their eyes, Han Su-hyeok was untouchable.

A guy who starts almost every game of the season, played in the WBC, and is even working as a pitcher in the second half of the season doesn’t seem tired at all.

No, his velocity has dropped a little.

The highest velocity Han Su-hyeok recorded today was 164 km/h.

That in itself is an absurd velocity, but considering that his highest velocity is 169, his velocity has clearly dropped.

The problem is that there’s no way to know if it’s because he’s throwing with less force or because he’s tired.

Okay. Let’s just assume he’s a little tired. That’ll make it easier to breathe.

But his fastball still comes in at 164 km/h, his modified fastball comes in at 158 km/h, and the batters’ bats dance to his 152 km/h high-speed slider.

Frankly speaking, it’s almost impossible to hit something like that properly.

They desperately tried to find even a small weakness, suppressing the urge to write in the report, [Han Su-hyeok is hopeless no matter how you look at it. It seems like the right answer is to give up on the games he pitches and go all-in on other games].

They found one weakness. A weakness caused not by Han Su-hyeok, but by his teammates.

“Certainly… Yoo In-cheol isn’t quite ripe yet.”

“That’s right. He’s at that level even in the regular season, so he might self-destruct if he goes into the postseason.”

“Wouldn’t Choi Jin-cheol play shortstop instead of him in the postseason?”

“Choi Jin-cheol has to cover third base too.”

“Hmm.”

The only weakness they found today is something everyone already knows.

That on the days when Han Su-hyeok, the shortstop and cleanup hitter, pitches, rookie Yoo In-cheol has to take his place, and the designated hitter is removed from the lineup.

It was like a tax to use Han Su-hyeok, the team’s best hitter and fielder, as a pitcher.

In fact, Han Su-hyeok allowed a hit today due to Yoo In-cheol’s clumsy defense at shortstop.

“But……”

“Yeah, that’s right. The problem is that the ball doesn’t go to that shortstop very often. No, to be precise, should we say they don’t send it there?”

Han Su-hyeok’s solution to that problem was to induce the direction of the batted ball to the gap between first and second base.

Right into the space where Lee Chang-mo, the best second baseman in the country, was standing.

Outside pitches as much as possible to right-handed hitters, and inside pitches to left-handed hitters.

Of course, the hitters were well aware of that intention, but they were often fooled even though they knew it.

“What if we try a surprise bunt aggressively? It’s not the regular season, and it might be surprisingly good in a short-term game, especially towards third base.”

The Warriors’ infield was known to be solid, but third base was an exception.

Rookie Ahn Chi-wook’s defense at third base was below the league average, to put it kindly.

In addition, Yoo In-cheol plays shortstop on the days when Han Su-hyeok pitches.

The 3-U gap [area between third base and shortstop] becomes very unstable. What if we aggressively bunt towards that side?

But that plan was blown away in an instant with one word.

“What are you talking about? There’s a shortstop standing on the mound.”

“Haa……”

It’s true that the 3-U gap guarded by Ahn Chi-wook and Yoo In-cheol is unstable.

But there was one fact they overlooked.

There’s one more shortstop standing on the mound.

In fact, the Warriors were playing the game with two shortstops.

“Ugh, I can’t do this because it’s too dirty. Why didn’t he go to the United States and stay in Korea?”

“To win the Warriors championship……”

“What?”

“He said he stayed to make the Warriors win the championship.”

“Ah, really, hahaha. I’m going crazy. I thought it was ridiculous nonsense, but now that I think about it, it was all sincere.”

“If the Warriors’ power was even just at the level of Daejeon or Changwon, they would have been in first place a long time ago.”

“Well, he brought that team that wasn’t even a team this far.”

“Okay, let’s stop chatting and write something since we came here with travel expenses. What should we summarize?”

“Um, um, so that’s… that’s……”

The two men looked at each other’s faces without saying a word.

It was a problem that had no answer anyway.

No matter who came instead of those two.

A sigh flowed from the mouths of the two men at the same time.

* * *