Peaceful Bullpen Life [EN]: Chapter 153

※ 153. Drive

Drive, no matter how you slice it, is a fundamental force.

Is it the direction you choose to go?

Is it adjusting the speed at which you proceed?

Is it setting an alarm for when to start?

None of that truly matters. The act of pushing forward, of initiating, is paramount. You decide where to go, how to go, and when to go only *after* you’ve begun.

So, what lengths should one go to in order to cultivate drive?

Is it standing up again after a major setback?

Is it pondering whether to give up entirely, then resolutely picking yourself up again?

Is it clenching your teeth to maintain hard-won success?

Why choose? It’s obviously all of them.

I’ve certainly experienced major setbacks.

I tried to quit but ended up picking up a baseball again.

After tasting great success, I never wanted to regress.

Whatever the reason,

“Hmph!”

I have many sources of drive. Therefore, there’s no chance I’ll lose it completely. Even if I stumble, I won’t simply drift away.

Bang-!

Go Myung-hyun steps up as the third batter for the Western League.

“Haik-!”

Startled by the fastball that whizzed in close on the first pitch, he contorted his body, but it was a futile effort.

Judging by his expression, his dissatisfaction seems to stem more from being overwhelmed by the pitch’s sheer power and needing to dodge it, rather than from the location being too far inside.

Hehe, we’re just getting started. Don’t tell me you’re already shaken? Should I throw a high fastball to really make you sweat?

“Keuk!”

Whoosh-!

“Swing!”

How unfortunate for you?

Go Myung-hyun, who unknowingly swung his bat at the ridiculously high fastball, tilted his head and said something to Heon-cheol.

Heon-cheol chuckled and replied, but it’s hard to read his lips behind the catcher’s mask.

Let’s see… maybe he’s trying to create a sense of camaraderie because he’s embarrassed about being so intimidated by my ball. Like, *aren’t you* scared receiving pitches like that? Something along those lines.

Hey, it’s only coming in at 155km [approximately 96 mph], how can you be scared of *that*?

“Keup!”

Bang-!

How scared would you be of a 158km [approximately 98 mph] one?

“Haaaak-!!”

I threw another blazing fastball inside, easily dispatching the leadoff hitter. Smiling contentedly, I pointed at Heon-cheol and then,

“Did you see that?”

I grinned and boasted to Park Hae-jin.

“What are you talking about?”

“Just now, did you see it?”

“I think you need to narrow your arm angle a bit.”

Is he crazy?

I received the ball from the guy who was spouting nonsense without changing his expression and stepped back onto the plate.

As I waited to see who would come up next,

Pinch hitter, Kim!! Seok!! Ho!!

Kim Seok-ho, the ninth batter for the Dongseong Hornets, appeared.

He’s not the kind of batter you’d bring in as a pinch hitter for the cleanup spot [the fourth batter, typically a team’s best hitter], but considering the importance of the game and the fact that it’s the later innings, it seems like it’s mostly for show.

“Ah… Kim Seok-ho.”

As you can guess from his rather skinny build, he’s a typical player who’s dedicated everything to running and defense. It would be great if he also had some hitting ability on top of that.

But,

“Aish.”

I don’t particularly have good memories of Kim Seok-ho.

It was the 2018 playoffs; I still can’t forget the home run I gave up to Kim Seok-ho.

I got ahead in the count with an outside curveball, the outside changeup was a ball, and then I threw a high fastball inside and he took me deep [hit a home run].

The pitch sequence and even the speeds of those pitches are so memorable; it was quite an impactful event.

“Drive, I need drive.”

I didn’t try to suppress that memory.

It’s definitely a bad memory for me, and one I’d rather forget, but I confidently brought it to the forefront.

Confidently.

“Keuk!”

Bang-!

“Haik-!”

I don’t know if Kim Seok-ho remembers that situation, but I decided to approach this at-bat the same way as back then.

So, this first pitch, just like back then, I threw an outside curveball,

“Eut!”

Bang!

The next ball, just like in my memory, I threw a changeup that faded away outside.

“Ball-.”

But he lays off it?

As if reliving that day, Kim Seok-ho nonchalantly watched the changeup drift away from him.

Watched? Does that piss me off?

The resulting stubbornness naturally led me to choose an inside fastball for the next pitch.

“Keuek!”

I bore down on the ball, putting everything into the pitch, thinking, *try* hitting it if you’re really determined to. I could practically hear the strain from my fingertips.

Whoosh-!

“Swing-.”

Seeing him flail at the pitch with a completely broken swing, the anger I felt subsided a bit.

Hehe, I took the ball from Heon-cheol with a smiling face, but once it became a 1-2 count, I suddenly felt lost about what to do next.

Come to think of it, what *should* I throw next?

Because the at-bat with Kim Seok-ho back then ended with three balls, and also because I was determined to get him out with three pitches this time.

“…Let’s go with a fastball.”

After hesitating for a moment, I chose to return to the basics.

Of course, I didn’t choose it for those clichéd reasons like, *pitchers eventually come back to fastballs*, *the foundation of a pitcher is the fastball*, or *fastballs are the most powerful pitches*.

Just drive.

What pitch could maximize this drive that I’m feeling right now? The answer to that question was the fastball.

Back then, you hit a 140km [approximately 87 mph] fastball,

“Euk!”

But could you hit a reinforced fastball in the mid to late 150s [approximately 96-99 mph] now?

Whoosh-!

The answer was,

“Swing!”

No.

“Hoo….”

It’s not an actual league game, and even more so, it’s not a postseason game, but my concentration was no less intense than during the Korean Series [the championship series of the KBO League, South Korea’s top professional baseball league].

It’s about pride, in the end.

I watched Kim Seok-ho walk back to the dugout with satisfaction,

Fifth batter, Bae!! Deok!! Hyun!!

And saw Bae Deok-hyun approaching the plate.

“Aigoo, you’ve arrived.”

What did he say about me? That even just looking at our Wonha Challengers team because of me makes him sick, that powerful hitter.

Bae Deok-hyun, who is firmly entrenched in my nemesis club, looked at me with an expression that radiated discomfort, as if there wasn’t a single lie in what he had said.

I don’t know if the origin of that expression is due to the influence of one of my traits, ‘Inconvenience,’ or a recreation of the one-line review he once gave about me.

However, one thing is certain.

“Eut!”

Ddik!

“Foul, foul!”

Whatever the reason, Bae Deok-hyun is uncomfortable with me, and I am very comfortable with that uncomfortable energy.

He barely managed to foul off the outside changeup that I threw out of the blue on the first pitch, stubbornly extending the at-bat. How grateful I am.

If you feel gratitude, isn’t it common sense to repay it?

For Bae Deok-hyun, who has harbored quite a bit of pent-up feelings about me, I threw a slow curveball this time with the intention of letting him get a good piece of it.

“Eut!”

However, it was not only slow but also had a stronger spin than usual, and because of that, the drop was even more pronounced than usual,

Ddak-!

As a result, the fact that it ended up missing the strike zone made me feel a little sorry.

“Foul-!”

Bae Deok-hyun shook his head after a foul ball that sailed far past Park Hae-jin, thinking, *It’s here!*, and then got back into his batting stance.

Alright, alright, I’ll give you a really easy ball to hit this time. It’s just a fastball that comes straight in without any movement, okay? Just hit it as it comes.

“Kkeueup!”

But I’m a little worried because it’s a pretty fast ball.

Whoosh-!

“Swing!”

Tting-!

[Drive]

– Achieve a perfect inning with 3 strikeouts by receiving drive (1/1)

– Reward – Changeup +2

Control – Top

Power – Top

Stamina – Medium

Four-seam – 100

Curve – 88+2=90

Slider – 85+2=87

Splitter – 86+2=88

Changeup – 86+2=88

Sinker – 85+2=87

Traits

Detachment – Accepts any batted ball or situation as it is.

Inconvenience – Makes the opposing batter feel uncomfortable when looking at the pitcher on the plate.

Comfort – Makes those who look at the user feel comfortable.

Concentration – The number of targets one can concentrate on increases.

Clutch – Four-seam +5 when wanting to win.

Slap!

“Yeah!”

After cleanly completing the quest, I unknowingly slapped the back of my glove hand in joy.

Kim Han-wool! Kim Han-wool! Kim Han-wool!

Waaaaaah-!!

I waved my hand once towards the Dongbu League fans who were enjoying the game and cheering, and then slowly walked into the dugout.

“Oh, nice!”

“Your ball is great!”

“Good pitcher!”

The players who were on the same side as me for today rushed over and held out their palms.

They’re all calloused, bumpy, and ugly hands, but,

Jjak-!

“Ah, nice!”

My hands are no different from theirs. If anything, they’re even worse.

Smiling to myself at the thought that I had completed another assigned mission, I plopped down on the dugout chair and started chatting with the pitchers from other teams sitting next to me.

“Senior, do you have any tips for throwing a four-seam fastball?”

“Tips? Just grab it properly and throw it properly.”

“But could you tell me just one thing?”

“Back in my day….”

Hmm, I wonder if I was the only one talking.

As I was talking with the junior pitcher,

“How much drive did you pull out of yourself?”

Park Hae-jin, for some reason, approached me with a friendly face and sat down next to me.

The best hitter in the national team. The best relief pitcher in the country.

Perhaps lacking the courage to squeeze in between the two and have a conversation, the junior pitcher friend was already trying to slip away.

I glanced at the guy who created this situation and responded to the newly created topic.

“What drive.”

“I was very surprised when I heard you were hitting 150km [approximately 93 mph], and I was even more surprised when you surpassed that and reached 155km [approximately 96 mph], and then developed even further to 158km [approximately 98 mph].”

Most of that drive is actually you.

I wondered how this guy would react if I said this, but I decided not to tell him.

“But to jump over that again and reach 159km [approximately 99 mph] this time, I was really surprised. Are you really going to throw 160km [approximately 99.4 mph] soon?”

“What….”

But this is a bit different.

“What did you just say?”

“I just said you’re going to throw 160km soon….”

“No, no, before that. What did you say before that? How many km did I throw?”

“I said you threw 159km.”

“…….”

159?

“…When?”

“During your appearance just now.”

“No, who… on which pitch did it come out?”

“The fourth pitch you threw to Kim Seok-ho, the fastball that got the strikeout.”

“Oh….”

Why?

“No, really? Did it really come out at 159km?”

“Yes.”

If I, who has a fastball stat of 100, put everything into it, I can theoretically throw up to 158km.

However, if the one thing that’s missing here, the trait ‘Clutch,’ is added, it is possible to reach 160km.

But the fact that it’s 160km isn’t important here. What’s important is that it surpassed the theoretically highest number of 158km.

Why?

“It seems like you received so much drive that even you didn’t know. I’ll have to bring a rocket booster to my bat when I meet you next time.”

Park Hae-jin, who seemed to have bought lunch outside, was spouting nonsense next to me and left, but I didn’t hear a word of it.

“…Why?”

It’s clear that the trait ‘Clutch’ was activated. No, it’s certain. This system is so funny that I can moderately adjust it in the direction *below* the number, but no matter what I do, it doesn’t change in the direction *above* the number.

In other words, I can’t draw out anything more than the fixed number.

“So it’s not a dud.”

The trait that I thought was so ridiculously good didn’t activate at all, so I thought it was ridiculously bad.

But with this appearance, I knew that the trait ‘Clutch’ was not just a simple decoration, a dud, or trash. It clearly activated and clearly applied.

“Kim Seok-ho’s fourth pitch fastball….”

I reviewed each ball of the at-bat with Kim Seok-ho, where the trait ‘Clutch’ was clearly activated.

First pitch, second pitch, third pitch, fourth pitch.

After replaying each pitch before and after,

“…Ah?”

A hypothesis suddenly came to mind.