Perfect Agent [EN]: Chapter 298

Another Dream (4)

“The day has finally come to see this player on the mound.”

The player who opened the bullpen door with his glove on was none other than Na Jun-ho.

“As many of you know, he used to be a pitcher back in his high school days. It’s been a while since he switched to being a hitter, but you could tell his skills were still there just by watching him throw from the outfield.”

“And the batter facing pitcher Na Jun-ho is Jang Su-young!”

“Jang Su-young also showed great promise as a hitter in high school. I wonder if he’s still got it.”

“Two players who were once hitter and pitcher are now facing each other as pitcher and hitter. Let’s see how this match between the two players will turn out.”

While Jang Su-young was warming up by swinging his bat, Na Jun-ho finished his warm-up.

And Na Jun-ho began his windup.

-Thwack!

-Strike!

The umpire raised his hand without much hesitation.

Jang Su-young, unable to move, stared at Na Jun-ho with a bewildered expression.

“Oh! Na Jun-ho gets a strike with a 142 km/h fastball that’s perfectly on the outside corner!”

“He’s off to an unusual start.”

Meanwhile, Na Jun-ho, having taken a deep breath, threw his second pitch.

The ball leaving Na Jun-ho’s hand was heading towards the strike zone.

Jang Su-young didn’t hesitate this time either and swung his bat.

However, the ball moved further away from Jang Su-young as it approached the plate.

-Whoosh-

-Strike!

Even until the last moment, Jang Su-young tried to hit the ball with his bat, but it was not enough.

“Wow! Na Jun-ho even shows off a slider that breaks away from the left-handed batter!”

“Even if Oh Seok-hoon were facing that pitch, it probably wouldn’t have been easy to pick it off.”

“Both Oh Seok-hoon and Na Jun-ho are almost too good to just be hitters, aren’t they?”

Seeing him pitch in a real game like that, it was a waste of talent.

“If the Dragons are ever in a pinch for pitchers, it seems like there wouldn’t be a big problem having Na Jun-ho pitch. Plus, he’s a rare left-handed pitcher.”

And then came the third pitch.

The ball leaving Na Jun-ho’s hand accurately targeted Jang Su-young’s body.

Because the ball came in, barely clipping the strike zone, Jang Su-young couldn’t even swing his bat.

-Strike out!

Jang Su-young couldn’t hide his disappointment as he headed to the dugout.

“How can a hitter throw so well to the inside course?”

“If Na Jun-ho could go back to being 20 years old, wouldn’t it be a good idea to just do both pitching and hitting?”

“If that had happened, the history of Korean baseball might have changed.”

Na Jun-ho finished the inning with 18 pitches while facing the following batters.

And once again, the offense and defense switched.

This time, the pitcher who came to the mound was Lee Ju-hyeok.

The agency’s players cheered him on with applause and enthusiastic shouts.

“CEO Kang, could you introduce Lee Ju-hyeok?”

“He’s a colleague at our Dream Agency who is in charge of everything from translation to the company’s overall operations.”

“Looking at Lee Ju-hyeok’s background, I see one thing that stands out. It says he participated in a tryout before?”

“Yes, that’s right. He wanted to be evaluated as a baseball player. Unfortunately, he wasn’t selected by a professional team, but he’s more than just a hobbyist, so you can look forward to it.”

“I’m curious to see what he’ll show us in today’s game. But the first batter he has to face is no joke.”

The player walking to the plate was Oh Seok-hoon.

“They often had practice matchups while training at the agency. But this is probably the first time they’ve faced each other in an official game.”

-Oh Seok-hoon! Oh Seok-hoon! Oh Seok-hoon!

The fans’ cheers were all focused on Oh Seok-hoon as he headed to the plate.

Lee Ju-hyeok tried to push back the rising tension by taking several deep breaths.

And as Oh Seok-hoon finished preparing to hit, Lee Ju-hyeok began his windup.

It was a fastball heading to the center of the strike zone.

-Thwack!

-Strike!

-Oh!

The fans and players exclaimed as the umpire’s call rang out.

Oh Seok-hoon, having checked the ball that just passed, opened his mouth in surprise.

“He threw the ball confidently from the first pitch. You can feel the power in the ball.”

“Am I seeing things wrong? This isn’t the image I remember.”

He looked completely different from the last tryout.

“Is it possible to throw a ball like that even if you’re not a professional player?”

“You’d have to be at least a professional-level player to do that. It seems like Lee Ju-hyeok has been practicing without me knowing. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to throw a ball like that.”

While I was exclaiming in admiration, Lee Ju-hyeok began his windup to throw another ball.

Oh Seok-hoon checked the trajectory of the ball and swung his bat with all his might.

And Oh Seok-hoon’s bat succeeded in hitting the ball.

-Tick!

But the ball hit the bat off-center and flew backward.

-Oh!

Not only the spectators who were surprised by the mis-hit ball, but also Oh Seok-hoon, who had swung, couldn’t hide his embarrassment.

“This time, Oh Seok-hoon’s bat was pushed back! That means it’s that much harder to hit accurately, right?”

“I don’t know how to take this situation right now.”

I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.

“It’s just an exhibition game, but it’s really amazing that he’s showing this kind of performance against Oh Seok-hoon.”

Lee Ju-hyeok, who had already finished preparing, threw his third pitch.

The ball leaving Lee Ju-hyeok’s hand floated up slightly and then suddenly sank.

But it bounced on the ground before reaching the catcher’s mitt.

-Ball!

“It looks like he threw a curveball this time. Is his control of breaking balls not that high yet?”

“If Lee Ju-hyeok had good control of his curveball, that would be a big problem too. We’d have to fire him from our company right away and send him to the professional stage starting this season.”

“Haha, that’s right. In a one ball, two strike situation, what will Lee Ju-hyeok show against Oh Seok-hoon?”

And the fourth pitch.

Lee Ju-hyeok, who had calmly taken a deep breath, chose a fastball.

The ball was heading to the high part of the strike zone.

Oh Seok-hoon checked the trajectory and swung his bat,

-Whoosh-

-Strike out!

The moment he confirmed that Oh Seok-hoon’s bat had swung in vain, Lee Ju-hyeok clenched his fist and jumped on the mound.

Oh Seok-hoon, as if he couldn’t believe his swing and miss, blankly raised his thumb towards Lee Ju-hyeok.

-Wowww-

-Lee Ju-hyeok! Lee Ju-hyeok! Lee Ju-hyeok!

This time, Lee Ju-hyeok’s name echoed from the fans’ mouths.

“Lee Ju-hyeok strikes out a major leaguer! That’s amazing!”

“I’ll have to ask him later. How could he have been training so secretly from me?”

I felt a sense of betrayal and pride at the same time.

“With the performance he’s showing today, wouldn’t professional teams be interested?”

“If professional scouts don’t contact him after seeing that scene, it means they’re not doing their job, right?”

“Can we look forward to seeing Lee Ju-hyeok on the professional stage in the near future?”

“First of all, I have to strongly tell him to participate in our Dream Agency tryout next time.”

“As a company, you’ll be sad to lose a talented employee, right?”

“We always welcome employees leaving like this.”

I couldn’t stop the corners of my mouth from rising.

The next player approaching the plate after Oh Seok-hoon was Park Seong-ju.

“We’ll move straight on to the match against Park Seong-ju. If he gets good results in the match against Park Seong-ju, it means that what he’s showing isn’t just luck, right?”

“That’s why I’m really curious about this match.”

-Thwack!

-Strike!

Park Seong-ju smiled at Lee Ju-hyeok, perhaps not expecting a fastball passing through the center of the strike zone.

“Lee Ju-hyeok boldly throws a strike. Against a professional baseball home run king, no less.”

“Actually, Lee Ju-hyeok has nothing to lose. I really like how confidently he’s throwing.”

The second pitch Lee Ju-hyeok chose was a changeup [a slow pitch designed to disrupt the batter’s timing].

Lee Ju-hyeok carefully changed his grip inside his glove and carefully threw the ball.

But the speed wasn’t dropping as much as Lee Ju-hyeok had hoped.

Park Seong-ju, having timed it, swung his bat with all his might.

-Clang!

-Waaaaah-

The ball, accurately hit by the bat, flew quickly towards the outfield.

Eventually, the ball soared over the fence.

Lee Ju-hyeok, who was watching this from the mound, smiled, unable to hide his disappointment.

-Park Seong-ju! Park Seong-ju! Park Seong-ju!

“Hooooome run! Park Seong-ju sends the ball flying to the farthest fence!”

“As expected, no one can catch up with his power.”

I clapped while looking at the field.

“Unfortunately, Lee Ju-hyeok allowed a home run against Park Seong-ju.”

“It’s really great that he pitched confidently against the best player in our country. Guts are a really important part of being a pitcher. I think I should go and get him ready for the tryout as soon as the game is over.”

Lee Ju-hyeok’s appearance was finished like that, and another new pitcher was approaching the mound.

“Now today’s game is heading towards the end.”

“Is it because there’s so much to see? Time has really flown by.”

“The pitcher we’re going to meet this time is Jung Min-woo. Jung Min-woo was in a really long losing streak at the beginning of last season.”

“It was a 14-game losing streak.”

It felt like my chest was getting stuffy just thinking about it again.

“I can’t even imagine what Jung Min-woo was thinking at that time.”

“His confidence was literally hitting rock bottom. There’s no player on earth who can enjoy pitching in that situation.”

“But after that, he became the Jaguars’ solid fourth starter. What kind of magic did the agency work?”

“We didn’t work any great magic. Jung Min-woo was never a player whose skills were lacking. Instead, his confidence had fallen to the point where we just boosted his confidence so that he could believe in himself that he could do it.”

“Did just that one thing change him like this?”

“Of course. His skills couldn’t suddenly improve in just a few days.”

And the player approaching the plate was Han Gyo-jin.

“Han Gyo-jin, the Jaguars’ starting catcher and national team catcher, will be batting against Jung Min-woo. Han Gyo-jin wasn’t originally a catcher who received much attention, was he?”

“In fact, when I first met him, he didn’t have the competitiveness as a catcher.”

“Then how did you help Han Gyo-jin find his competitiveness?”

“First of all, I thought we needed to choose and focus. It’s too much to study all the pitchers in a short amount of time as a catcher, so we focused on one pitcher first.”

“That was Scott, right?”

“Yes. It was easier for them to get close to each other because they were in the same agency, and Scott was also a player who was stably handling the starting rotation.”

“Listening to CEO Kang, it seems that the secret to success was accurately grasping the parts that the player needed.”

In the meantime, Jung Min-woo and Han Gyo-jin were finishing their preparations and it was time for the match.

Jung Min-woo, with a faint smile on his face, began his windup.

The fastball that Jung Min-woo threw headed to the center of the strike zone.

-Tick!

The ball hit Han Gyo-jin’s bat and flew backward.

“Jung Min-woo has chosen to go head-to-head. It seems like he wants to compete with the team’s fourth hitter with power.”

“For now, Jung Min-woo has won the first match. Will they face each other with power again?”

Jung Min-woo’s choice was a fastball again.

The course was also unchanged in the middle.

Han Gyo-jin swung his bat with all his might as if not to be outdone.

-Clang!

This time, the batted ball sped towards the outfield.

“Well hit!”

Watson, who had been watching the ball until the end, slid and stretched out his arm.

-Out!

“Wow! Donald Watson catches that ball. That was really great outfield defense!”

“You have to say that Watson’s judgment of the ball was really good. That’s why I can’t help but be a fan of this player.”

I clapped while looking at Watson.

Jung Min-woo’s appearance was finished like that, and the next pitcher opened the bullpen door and ran onto the field.

Then, not only the players on the field but also the players in the dugout clapped and enjoyed it.