Genius Pitcher Hides 170Km [EN]: Chapter 399

#398. Insurrection

Looking back at Soo-hyuk Han’s 10 years in the Major League, his debut season was undoubtedly his peak.

While his batting average of .421, on-base percentage of .530, and slugging percentage of 1.019 weren’t as high as in his third and fifth seasons, it was the year he set a remarkable record of 79 home runs, a rare feat in the Major League.

At the time, baseball fans anticipated the arrival of the 80-home run era. They were confident that Soo-hyuk Han, now acclimated to the Major League, would achieve that milestone the following season.

However, that expectation never materialized.

He faced an increasing number of intentional walks, reducing his opportunities to swing, and his home run count decreased. Instead, his on-base percentage steadily rose.

Thwack!

“Ooh! It’s going! It’s going!”

“Yes! It’s over!”

“That’s 60! 60 already!”

This intense scrutiny from pitchers continued even in the KBO [Korean Baseball Organization].

Facing such an unconventional hitter, KBO pitchers did everything to avoid Soo-hyuk Han, and his on-base percentage soon exceeded 60%.

Surprisingly, Soo-hyuk Han was still on pace for an all-time home run record despite these challenges. This was a testament to his incredible, almost superhuman, concentration.

The hot summer faded, and autumn arrived.

With only thirty-four games remaining in the regular season.

Soo-hyuk Han was electrifying baseball fans with a .461 batting average, a .605 on-base percentage, a 1.112 slugging percentage, 60 home runs, and 130 RBIs.

The hearts of fans who loved Soo-hyuk Han and baseball swelled with excitement.

Considering the remaining games, speculation arose that he might surpass his career-high of 79 home runs, exceeding the 73 home runs he hit in the KBO in 2029.

With 60 home runs in 110 games, Soo-hyuk Han was averaging 0.545 home runs per game.

If he maintained this pace for the remaining 34 games, he could add 18 more home runs. While slightly short of 80, his ability to concentrate his hits made it a feasible goal.

[Will the dream of 80 home runs, unachieved in the Major League, be realized in the KBO? The problem is the pitchers’ blatant avoidance of Soo-hyuk Han.]

[An anonymous manager from a 수도권 A team [Sudogwon A team, referring to a team in the Seoul Metropolitan Area] said, “I find this question offensive. Isn’t an intentional walk the obvious choice to win? Should we deliberately let him hit a home run?”]

[Baseball fans, is 수도권 A team perhaps 인천 [Incheon]? If it’s them, that sounds about right.]

[MBC commentator Dong-shik Ko, “Before Soo-hyuk Han’s return, specifically until last season, the Korean professional baseball market was recording negative growth every year. But with Soo-hyuk Han’s return, the league is showing nearly 50% growth. Need I say more? Stop being petty and compete fairly. Baseball fans around the world are watching us,” he rebuked.]

[Another variable for the new record is the remaining game schedule; teams aiming to advance to the fall baseball season have no choice but to avoid Soo-hyuk Han.]

[Warriors’ manager Seong-oh Jo, “I tried to adjust the batting order for the home run record, but Soo-hyuk refused. He said that him batting second is most helpful for the team’s power.”]

[Seoul Warriors, classified as a mid-tier team before the season, is likely to break their team win rate of 0.705 recorded in 2029 thanks to Soo-hyuk Han’s return.]

[Global sabermetricians [baseball analytics experts], “We have been confident that we can quantify all baseball players and their plays, and predict all results through it. But we should make an exception for just one person, Soo-hyuk Han. No matter what formula we apply, we cannot explain Soo-hyuk’s existence. Even an average team becomes a championship contender when he joins, and all players in the team tend to perform beyond their capabilities due to Soo-hyuk’s presence. Therefore, we have decided not to analyze Soo-hyuk anymore.”]

* * *

“Listen carefully, don’t pay attention to what people say. What’s important to us now is not the fans’ support or popularity, but victory, only victory. That’s the only thing you need to think about. Discard all other thoughts. If you trust and follow my words, glory will come to you.”

The 80-year-old Japanese manager’s words were translated to the players and coaches, and then further translated into English and Spanish for the foreign players.

The Incheon Rangers players, preparing for the match against Soo-hyuk Han, who was starting as pitcher and batting second today, thought to themselves.

*That old man can just make money and go back to his country, but we have to stay in this league dominated by Soo-hyuk Han, enduring the criticism of his followers, right?*

*So, blindly following the manager’s words wouldn’t be a foolish thing to do?*

The Incheon Rangers were barely holding onto 5th place, fiercely pursued by the Daejeon Falcons.

Several emotions flashed across the face of Kyung-sam Kang, a 5th-year pitcher starting today in place of the injured foreign ace.

*Should he avoid and provoke Soo-hyuk Han as the manager says, to avoid immediate nagging, and be criticized by the vast majority of fans instead?*

*Or should he ignore the manager’s words, who is likely to be fired at the end of this season anyway, and compete fairly to receive applause from the fans?*

The conflict didn’t last long.

Looking back at past history, the answer came quickly.

None of the pitchers who faced Soo-hyuk Han head-on in Korea and the United States and got hit were treated like fools by the fans.

On the other hand, the names and videos of pitchers who blatantly avoided Soo-hyuk Han are permanently archived and still circulating on the internet.

In the end, the answer was clear.

He should do his best for the team’s victory, but he doesn’t need to become a puppet moving according to the manager’s will.

Kyung-sam Kang, having made his decision, went to the mound. He dealt with the Warriors’ leadoff hitter, Derek Fleming, with a center field fly ball.

And the moment of choice arrived.

[2nd batter, pitcher Soo-hyuk Han]

Today, manager Tomoyaki Nakamura was personally giving signals from the dugout for every single pitch.

The Incheon manager, who flinched for a moment at Soo-hyuk Han’s at-bat, soon wiggled his fingers.

Thus, the manager’s signal was conveyed to the pitcher through the catcher.

‘He says to throw it high inside, as close to his face as possible.’

‘Bullshit, what if it really hits him? I don’t want to get hit by Soo-hyuk *hyung* [older brother or respected senior] and be taken to the hospital.’

‘Then? What should we do?’

‘Let’s just throw what we want to throw. If he says anything, we’ll say our control wasn’t good.’

‘Don’t, you’ll get kicked down to the minors.’

‘The ranking competition is this fierce, and he’s going to send a perfectly good starting pitcher to the minors? Ha! Well, let him try if he can.’

The Incheon battery [pitcher and catcher], who could understand each other’s intentions just by looking at each other’s eyes, even though they couldn’t exchange words directly.

The catcher, feeling that the pitcher’s intention was firm, nodded as if he couldn’t help it.

He was going to follow the manager’s signal if it was really for the sake of victory.

However, that thought disappeared as soon as he saw the manager ordering a threatening pitch to the body from the very first pitch.

In Kang Kyung-sam’s view, that Japanese manager’s head was stuck somewhere between the 1980s and 90s. It was clear that he had no grasp of reality.

The batter was sticking close to the batter’s box to hit the outside ball.

Yes, according to the textbook, it might be right to throw a threatening pitch to the body here to make him step back. If you scare him like that and disrupt his batting balance, there will definitely be a gap.

But,

Who is the opponent?

It’s Soo-hyuk Han.

Haven’t you witnessed what happened to the pitchers who threw threatening pitches to his body so far?

Aside from getting hit if he gets hit, it has been sufficiently proven through past history that Soo-hyuk Han doesn’t budge at such threatening pitches.

If the Incheon manager was Korean, if he was someone of the same nationality with direct academic or regional ties to the players, a slightly different result might have come out. Even if it was a slightly unreasonable order, the players might have followed it.

However, there was no pitcher who would take such a risk for a manager who was just a foreigner staying for a while.

Perhaps the failure of the Incheon Rangers this season was due to the club owner who recklessly hired a foreign manager.

Whack

“Ball.”

The ball came in low on the inside, almost buried. The Incheon old manager’s face was contorted as a different ball from his signal came in.

‘Hey, he’s telling me to throw another threatening pitch?’

‘Tell him to fuck off.’

The pitcher, who had decided to revolt, shook his head firmly.

And he threw the ball forcefully as he thought.

Whack

“Strike!”

A slider that filled the low outside course.

Even Soo-hyuk Han nodded at the well-controlled ball that came into the zone.

The spectators concentrated on the game with sweaty hands, and praise for Kang Kyung-sam flowed from the commentator’s mouth.

Whack

“Ball.”

Thwack!

“Foul!”

An unexpected great match unfolded. Soo-hyuk Han’s bat was pushed back by the fastball that went low inside, making it two balls and two strikes.

To relieve the tension, Kang Kyung-sam looked around the ground.

His fellow fielders were sending him looks of trust.

The manager, whose face was red in the distance in the dugout, was glaring at him as if he would jump out right away, but that wasn’t important now.

He was sure. He was sure that he could throw the best ball he had right now.

Again, a threatening signal was sent from the manager, but the Incheon battery neatly ignored it and focused only on the game.

Nod

After several signals were exchanged, the pitcher’s head nodded up and down.

It’s the moment of the game.

Whoosh

The first high inside ball thrown in this at-bat.

But it wasn’t a threatening pitch, it was a powerful fastball of 155 km/h thrown properly to catch the batter.

Thwack!

It was such a wonderful ball that the pitcher himself got goosebumps the moment he threw it, but Soo-hyuk Han did not miss it and pulled it.

“Wow!”

“Go! Go! Go!”

The batted ball powerfully extended toward the left-center field.

Unlike usual, Soo-hyuk Han, without admiring the batted ball, immediately started and ran past first base to second base.

A big batted ball that might be the 61st home run of the season, but the Incheon center fielder stepped on the fence and flew up to catch the ball.

Thud

“Phew!”

“Wow, he caught that!”

The center fielder, who had saved a home run-like batted ball, raised his hand and responded to the cheers of the spectators, and the spectators who saw the wonderful play stood up and gave a standing ovation.

It was such a great defense that even Soo-hyuk Han, who was out, whistled at the center fielder.

It was truly a play that raised the level of Korean baseball by one level, with good pitching, good hitting, and good catching.

But there was only one person who was not at all moved by such an atmosphere.

“Time!”

– Ah! What’s going on? Incheon manager Nakamura is going directly to the mound and taking the ball from the pitcher!

– It’s a pitching change. Huh? Even the catcher is being replaced at once? What’s going on? The play just now was really great. Injury… um, if it’s an injury, there’s no reason to replace the battery at once, so it seems difficult to confirm right now.

– Oh dear, garbage is flying from the stands! The spectators are very angry.

– That’s understandable. The pitcher who caught the Warriors’ strong table setter is being kicked out for no reason. I always feel this way, but I sometimes don’t understand what that team’s manager is thinking…….

– In the end, the game is temporarily suspended. Then we will also come back after watching the advertisement. This is Rangers Field, the home stadium of the Incheon Rangers.

* * *

Baseball is a sport in which a high degree of concentration and judgment are required at every moment the ball leaves the pitcher’s fingertips, and those small choices come together to create big results.

The Incheon manager pulled the pitcher and catcher off the mound before the end of the first inning because they did not follow his will.

It can be said to be a result, but it eventually came back with bad results.

The 3rd-year pitcher who went to the mound instead of Kang Kyung-sam threw a threatening pitch at Soo-hyuk Han as the manager intended, and was so surprised that he fell on his butt.

As the atmosphere on the ground turned grim, it was the Rangers players who suffered the loss.

The Rangers players’ spirits were crushed by the tremendous momentum that Soo-hyuk Han and Jang Deok-soo were *ppumeonaeneun* [뿜어내는, emitting/radiating], and the pitcher’s control was shaking in real time.

And,

Thwack!

The pitcher, who was wandering between the manager’s order to throw a threatening pitch and Soo-hyuk Han’s eyes glaring at him right in front of him, threw an ambiguous ball in the middle, which eventually led to consecutive home runs.

The Incheon manager, whose face was flushed as if it would burst right away, disappeared somewhere again through the back door of the dugout, and

Thwack!

The moment Soo-hyuk Han, who entered the next at-bat, added another home run and increased the number of season home runs to 63, everything was over.

[Soo-hyuk Han with 3 home runs in one game, records 63rd home run of the season, green light for achieving 80 home runs]

[6 innings of no-run pitching, 3 home runs, 5 RBIs, Soo-hyuk Han, a flawless player who dominated the game alone]

[Criticism pours on manager Tomoyaki Nakamura for leaving the dugout again during the game, Rangers side “There will be a major announcement this evening”]

[Incheon Rangers “Manager Tomoyaki Nakamura has been dismissed, and the remaining schedule will be carried out under the acting head coach system. We apologize for causing concern to the fans.”]

[Old manager dismissed without filling a season… Baseball experts say, “Baseball that moves at the discretion of the club owner is so scary. Soo-hyuk Han is the only club owner in this world who can be involved in team management.” One voice]

[Win rate 0.710, the great journey of the Warriors writing history]