Genius Pitcher Hides 170Km [EN]: Chapter 27

#26. I’m Willing to Bet Everything

During the stove league [off-season] and exhibition game period, when trades between teams are actively taking place, one of the main routines for baseball fans is to refresh the sports news section to keep track of player movements.

The thrill of acquiring a good player, and conversely, the disappointment of losing a key player.

Your mood for the day being influenced by the trade news of your favorite team that you encounter on your way to work.

That is the greatest joy and pain that baseball fans can experience.

Magicians’ Choi Min-seok, Kim Du-young Swap Uniforms>

﹂Okay, let’s figure this out. Is this a gain or a loss for us?

﹂Choi Min-seok aside, who is Kim Du-young? Anyone know him?

﹂A control-wreck with only fastballs who was only in the minor leagues…

﹂Crazy, we have plenty of guys like that in our minor leagues.

﹂First of all, we had to get rid of Song Gi-tae and Jung Gi-ho. Everyone knows they were ruining the team atmosphere.

﹂No, even so… then how will our infield be organized?

﹂Shortstop Han Su-hyeok, third baseman Ahn Chi-wook, center fielder Choi Min-seok will be fixed, right?

﹂Whatever, just not seeing Song Gi-tae missing catches and scowling is a relief.

Many baseball figures, even Warriors fans, were puzzled by this trade.

They agreed with the need to get rid of Song Gi-tae and Jung Gi-ho, but they didn’t like the names of the players they received in return.

As someone who knows how they will grow as players, it’s a bit of a funny story.

Damn it, if I had known this would happen, I should have paid more attention to KBO [Korean Baseball Organization] players.

Anyway, the trade between the two teams was completed, and the two players from the Magicians joined the team.

Kim Du-young, who needed a major overhaul of his pitching form, was sent down to the minor leagues first. As I instructed, a dedicated coach will be assigned to him to make major adjustments to his pitching form.

If he can join the bullpen from the second half of the season, it would be a great boost for our team.

Meanwhile, outfielder Choi Min-seok immediately joined the first team squad to replace Jung Gi-ho.

“Hello! I’m Choi Min-seok. Please take care of me.”

“Oh, welcome. Good to see you. We’ve met before, right?”

“Yes, senior! Please take care of me!”

“Okay, let’s play today’s game first and have a formal welcome party. Do your best.”

“Thank you!”

Choi Min-seok, after briefly greeting the veteran players, found his high school classmate, outfielder Kim Su-hak, and cautiously approached him.

“Hey, classmate, good to see you.”

“Oh, yeah. Welcome.”

“Hehe, I’m glad you’re here.”

“What’s there to be glad about? Our team atmosphere is good. Don’t worry about what people are saying on the internet and let’s work hard.”

“Thanks for saying that.”

Choi Min-seok, whispering to Kim Su-hak, lowered his voice and asked carefully.

“Hey, by the way, can you tell me if there’s anything I should be careful about?”

“Be careful about?”

“Yeah. Anything you absolutely have to do or absolutely can’t do in this team.”

“Hmm… come here for a second. There are too many ears around here.”

Kim Su-hak, grabbing Choi Min-seok’s uniform, pretended to warm up and moved towards the outfield, saying.

“First of all, there are no factions in our team.”

“Oh… really?”

“Yeah, it used to be pretty bad, but you know? Our coaching staff all got fired, and Senior Song Gi-tae went to your team, no, the Magicians, so they all scattered.”

“I see…”

“Senior Hwang Seong-min is still here… but he doesn’t really have any power. But don’t mess with him for no reason. He’s leaving soon anyway.”

“Why would I mess with him? Anyway, who’s the current power player?”

“The captain is Senior Jo Seong-oh, but he doesn’t really interfere much. These days, for some reason, he’s just following Han Su-hyeok around.”

“Oh, right. Han Su-hyeok, he’s really something. How can there be such a monster?”

“He’s amazing. Oh, you asked who the power player is, right? Actually, there isn’t really anyone you can call a power player on our team right now… but if I had to pick one, it would be Han Su-hyeok?”

“What?”

Choi Min-seok, who was slowly walking around the ground following Kim Su-hak, opened his eyes wide and asked again.

Han Su-hyeok is the power player? A rookie who’s only been here for a few months?

“Oh, don’t get me wrong. Not that kind of power player… how should I put it. Anyway, his classmate Ahn Chi-wook, the foreign player Max, and Senior Jo Seong-oh, who I just mentioned, are always hanging around Han Su-hyeok.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, they discuss hitting, give each other advice, bet, anyway, they’re pretty close. Sometimes Senior Lee Chang-mo and Senior Lee Man-sik join them and hang out together.”

“I see… but why aren’t you joining them?”

“You know I’m a bit shy. Hehe. Anyway, the manager and coaches are crazy about Han Su-hyeok… you know what I mean, right?”

“Okay, I got it.”

“Okay, if you understand, let’s go back. The manager is looking at us.”

Choi Min-seok, who received valuable tips from his classmate, nodded and ran towards the dugout.

In short, just get along with Han Su-hyeok. That’s how he understood it.

Choi Min-seok, a social butterfly who had been confident in his social skills since his school days, approached Han Su-hyeok with a bright smile and spoke first.

“Please take care of me, Su-hyeok.”

“Yes? Oh, yes. Me too, senior.”

“Okay, let’s be good friends. If you ever need anything, just tell me.”

* * *

Thwack!

“Nice, good shot!”

“It’s big! It’s going over!”

“Okay, just two more points! Go out and greet Min-seok!”

“That guy, he’s already hitting home runs after changing uniforms?”

Originally, team atmosphere has the characteristic of changing easily even with small things.

Especially in a team like the Warriors, where the old guard who dominated the dugout were swept away in an instant.

The coaching staff who created the factions in this team were cut off at once.

And soon after, three of the four troublemakers, including Han Jin-woo, Song Gi-tae, Hwang Seong-min, and Jung Gi-ho, who was targeted by Manager Lee Dae-jun, left the team.

Then, the atmosphere of the Warriors’ dugout, which had been somehow gloomy, suddenly began to improve.

“Oh, Choi Min-seok. You can hit a bit, huh? You’re a bit different from when you were with the Magicians?”

“Hehe, senior. You flatter me. I’ve been learning baseball by watching your swing since way back.”

“What are you talking about? I saw all your interviews when you were with the Magicians. You said Seong-cheol was your role model.”

“Ah! No, that was when I was an ignorant kid who didn’t know anything…”

“That was just a few months ago… haha, okay. Anyway, congratulations on your first home run after the transfer.”

“Thank you!”

Senior Choi Min-seok, who hit his first home run after transferring to the Warriors, was joking with Senior Jo Seong-oh with a flushed face.

The atmosphere is much better just by removing Song Gi-tae and Jung Gi-ho from the dugout and bringing in Choi Min-seok.

Hwang Seong-min, the only one left alone after the gang was kicked out of the team, is now isolated, not talking to anyone.

I heard that General Manager Park Jae-cheol has some plans for that guy too.

Good. Very good.

General Manager Park will be able to sell him off for a good price.

“Deok-su, they’re probably going to put on a defensive shift for you. Don’t think about hitting it big, just lightly push the outside ball if it comes in.”

“Thank you, senior.”

Senior Jo Seong-oh, who had been quietly staying out of the way due to being pushed out by the mainstream forces in the team, is now actively leading the dugout atmosphere despite being the oldest player.

And the mid-level veterans, who had been wandering around cautiously without a center, began to gather together and encourage each other.

It’s a typical atmosphere of a team that’s doing well.

Of course, the Warriors’ objective power is not very good yet.

Capital is that absolute in professional baseball.

And the players gathered with that capital tend to live up to their value.

The skills of individual players are thoroughly analyzed and listed as numbers, and if you line them up, you can even predict the number of wins that the team can record that season.

In that sense, the Warriors’ expected performance predicted by baseball experts is probably in the bottom ranks.

But there is something that those baseball experts, or more simply, sabermetricians [baseball analysts using statistical data], overlook.

Team atmosphere that cannot be expressed in numbers, chemistry between players, leadership of the manager and coaches, and the support and passion of the fans.

That’s why baseball is more fun because of these variables.

Thwack!

The Warriors, who were trailing the Daejeon Falcons 9-5, began to chase after them with a score of 9-7 thanks to Senior Choi Min-seok’s two-run home run in the last attack of the 9th inning.

And then, consecutive hits by 9th batter Yoo In-cheol and 1st batter Senior Lee Chang-mo.

One out, runners on first and second. The stage for a walk-off [game-winning hit] is set in front of me.

“Han Su-hyeok! Han Su-hyeok!”

“Hit one out! We came to see you!”

“Pitcher, if you avoid the match, you’re dead! This is an exhibition game! Get hit fair and square!”

The Daejeon closer’s face turned red at the jeers of the fans in our home stands.

Get hit fair and square, I would have been furious if I were on the mound.

By the way, I heard that pitcher recorded 22 saves last year? I think they called him Daejeon’s hope?

Hmm.

Who cares.

Even without the jeers of the fans, there are hardly any pitchers who deliberately avoid the match in exhibition games.

The purpose of playing exhibition games is to check the results of their training during the past winter.

The opponent is a closer who is in charge of the main closer of a team, and he is full of confidence in his control.

And I haven’t recorded a hit in the previous three at-bats in today’s game.

The probability of them making a move is high.

“Please take care of me, senior.”

“…”

I tried to gauge the intentions of the opposing battery [pitcher and catcher] by talking to the Daejeon catcher who had just been replaced, but there was no answer.

The veteran catcher who was sitting in that seat until just now was quite talkative.

Well, it doesn’t matter.

The state of the catcher means that they are focusing only on the match.

That means that the Daejeon dugout has ordered a head-on match with me.

Smirk.

Suddenly, a hollow laugh comes out.

There is one more thing that sabermetricians, who believe that everything about baseball can be analyzed numerically, overlook about our team.

That’s me.

Han Su-hyeok, who experienced the top class for 15 years in the big leagues and returned with a twenty-year-old body.

Can they really analyze my existence numerically?

Well, if that were possible, they would probably cut off the manager and everything else and just pick a bunch of sabermetricians and put them in the dugout.

“Han Su-hyeok, please…”

“Ah… just one hit.”

The crowd suddenly became quiet as the Daejeon closer began to prepare to pitch. The desperate voices of the spectators sitting in the reserved seats right behind the catcher seep into my ears.

They also know it. That right now is the turning point of this game.

Despite the exhibition game, the fans’ hearts are already heading towards autumn with the Warriors’ long-awaited progress.

I know better than anyone else in the world what to do in this situation.

The ball is leaving the pitcher’s fingertips.

So clearly that I can see every single stitch.

My intuition, which has dedicated everything to baseball for a long time, tells me.

That this ball is a fastball that digs into the lowest part of the strike zone.

Deudeudeuk

My grip tightens on the bat.

It’s quite difficult for hitters with a normal trajectory swing, but the bat goes forward powerfully towards that ball, which has a very good compatibility with my upper swing.

Thwaaaaaack!

The moment the ball hit the bat, I knew it.

That this hit might be the most beautiful and greatest home run I’ve ever hit since I returned.

“Waaaaa!”

“Oooooooo!

The crowd, which had been as quiet as a mouse, erupted in cheers all at once.

The pitcher, who was standing on the mound, must have sensed that it was a home run as soon as he hit it, and he slumped down on the spot, and our team’s runners, who were standing on first and second base, stopped walking and stared blankly at my hit.

I remember what a baseball commentator said when I was playing in the major leagues.

There are quite a few players in the history of the Big League who have hit more home runs than Han Su-hyeok, but no other player’s hit has drawn a more beautiful trajectory than his.

It sounds like self-praise, but I think so too.

The hit I hit flies endlessly into the particularly blue sky today.

I love this moment when I hit a home run and stand still at the plate to admire the hit.

Sometimes I get hit by a beanball [pitch thrown at the batter’s head] because of this, but I can’t give it up.

It is the greatest joy to be able to enjoy baseball by watching teammates and fans cheer for me and the opposing team frustrated because of me.

Whirr

All those moments of joy have passed.

After confirming that the hit had completely flown out of the stadium, I threw the bat back and slowly moved towards first base.

The eyes of tens of thousands of spectators are focused on me, and my teammates, who are flushed in the distance, are preparing to greet me.

Past first base to second base, to third base, and back home.

The opposing team’s players, who are capturing the bases they are defending one by one, are unable to respond and hang their heads.

An exhilarating sense of conquest and accomplishment that cannot be explained in words.