Pitcher’S End, Batter’S Start [EN]: Chapter 27

Pitcher Over, Batter Up – 26

After winning the first game, Adelaide recorded consecutive narrow defeats, but fortunately, they managed to win the last game, tying the series 2-2.

With that, the 4-game home series against Geelong Korea came to an end. Lee Jung-woo also said goodbye to a long-time acquaintance.

“Ah~ when will I see you again? Next time you come to Geelong, I’ll give you the full course, so look forward to it,” his acquaintance said.

“Learn English before you say that,” Lee Jung-woo replied with a smile.

“Korean restaurant, Korean restaurant. You don’t need English there,” the acquaintance retorted.

“That’s something to be proud of. Hee-chang, you worked hard too, keep up the good work,” Lee Jung-woo said, turning to another player.

“Thank you, Senior! And I’ll definitely strike you out next time we meet,” Hee-chang replied energetically.

Lee Jung-woo smiled faintly at his energetic appearance, but he had no intention of being struck out.

After the series against Geelong Korea ended, there was, of course, a lot of talk.

“This is the Giants’ real skill,” some said dismissively.

“It was just a fluke after all. They’re just getting back to where they belong. When the new year comes, the Giants will be fighting for 3rd place as usual,” others predicted.

“Lee is doing well, but that’s because of the unexpectedness of a new player. His bizarre performance will eventually decline. Then the Giants are finished,” some analysts claimed.

Since the Giants had swept or won the series so far, experts predicted that their momentum, which had faltered while struggling with the 3rd-place team, would be broken. They expressed such opinions on sports broadcasts and in columns. It was as if everyone was holding a ritual for them to fail.

But that, too, missed the mark as cleanly as the pre-season predictions.

“Lee! Catches the final ball! That’s game set! Even Tuatara couldn’t stop the Giants’ advance!”

“In the end, the Giants sweep even the New Zealand expedition. Auckland, even the defending champions, couldn’t stop them!”

Starting with sweeping the Auckland Tuatara, even if it wasn’t as overwhelming as it was at the beginning of the season, they showed the strength of a strong team and steadily accumulated victories. Of course, Lee Jung-woo was at the forefront of such a destructive advance. Contrary to the saying that it would decline, he maintained the momentum of the beginning of the season as it was.

‘Easy. Has baseball ever been this easy?’ he thought.

As time passed, with plenty of practical experience, Lee Jung-woo was gradually becoming a monster. It was easy, baseball. Like an eternally unsolvable problem, baseball, which had been difficult for no reason, was now too easy.

‘Curve. I’ll definitely get it over the fence,’ he mused.

“He hit it! Is it going over? Is it going over? It went over again! Lee! The Big Monster hits another home run! That’s 12 home runs this season!”

“Double-A [Minor League Baseball, one level below Major League Baseball] hitters often come over and shake up the ABL [Australian Baseball League], but honestly, this is the first time I’ve seen a player like this. He’s out of standard.”

After the Geelong Korea game, Lee Jung-woo’s progress, with his last worries gone, was ruthless. Every season, a batting average of .400 came out. From 1st to 10th place in the league OPS [On-Base Plus Slugging, a sabermetric baseball statistic], the average OPS of the players exceeded 1. Even in the ABL, where the league level is not very high, Lee Jung-woo showed unprecedented performance.

The saying that it would eventually be stopped continued to follow, but in the end, what stopped his progress for the first time was not any club, but the All-Star Game.

‘I’m an All-Star….’

Perhaps naturally, Lee Jung-woo was named an All-Star. To be honest, he didn’t even know if the ABL had an All-Star Game. Anyway, Lee Jung-woo, who was proudly selected as an All-Star, felt new, as life after regression had always been. This was also a first.

‘It’s not a Major League or Futures All-Star, but it still feels good,’ he thought.

Lee Jung-woo fiddled with the All-Star Game uniform, which was different from usual. He stopped because he felt like a country bumpkin who had come to the city and became calm.

‘Don’t give it too much meaning. It’s just an All-Star Game. Just think of it as a way to repay the fans,’ he told himself, calming his floating heart again. The name All-Star itself is very pleasing, but in the end, it has no value beyond an event game, because this is Australia.

Lee Jung-woo, who had calmed down, just thought about what he had to do for the fans who supported him.

‘What fans want…’

It’s an All-Star Game. Anyway, there can be no no-hitters or perfect games. Complete games or shutouts are also impossible. Each pitcher throws about 2 innings. Six consecutive strikeouts are possible, but even that is difficult. The performance that a pitcher can do in the All-Star Game is limited, but there was always something that a batter could challenge in any game.

‘In the end, there’s only a home run.’

Fortunately, Lee Jung-woo was good at it.

####

“Nice to meet you, Lee. We’re meeting as teammates like this,” one of the All-Stars said.

“If this guy is here, the game is over. We’re bound to win,” another added.

The atmosphere of the World All-Star team players was friendly. They came to the twilight of their professional lives, or they just stopped by for a while. Also, it’s not a regular league game, because it’s an All-Star Game with a lot of event-like qualities. There were no players who created a bad atmosphere on purpose. However, the fact that they all wanted to win was the same as usual.

‘Everyone is a professional player, so they must have a strong desire to win,’ Lee Jung-woo thought.

Foreigners as World All-Stars, Australians as Team Australia. It’s a slightly modest All-Star Game that is divided into two teams and played, with no common home run derby, but the desire for victory did not subside. And that was the same for Lee Jung-woo.

‘First All-Star Game. It would be nice to win if possible,’ he thought.

“Let’s all do well. We have to win no matter what,” one of the players said.

“Of course, we have to,” another agreed.

“You’re saying the right thing. We have to win no matter what,” a third chimed in.

A confident atmosphere. This is just right. Lee Jung-woo, who took his own routine in a good mood, surprisingly stepped into the plate as the first batter.

‘Hmm, this is my first time as number 1. Should I act like a leadoff hitter?’ he wondered.

He hesitated for a moment, but the decision was quick.

‘No, let’s just go according to plan. I’m just aiming for a home run no matter what.’

Whether it’s number 1 or number 3, even number 9 doesn’t matter, because what he was aiming for was only one thing: a home run.

Before stepping into the plate, Lee Jung-woo watched the starting pitcher of Team Australia, who was practicing pitching. A player from the Sydney Blue Sox. He hadn’t been able to face him in league games due to an injury, but he roughly knew what kind of pitcher he was through the data.

‘He was from the Sydney Blue Sox. His pitches are a two-seam fastball and a circle changeup. And a curve. The speed is in the late 80s, occasionally 91 miles [approximately 146 kilometers per hour],’ Lee Jung-woo analyzed.

A decent player, Lee Jung-woo thought. The speed is decent. The pitches are decent. The pitching form is decent. A pitcher who achieved good results with such balanced skills. But it was just right.

‘They said the movement isn’t great. Also, the deciding pitch is a curve.’

A pitcher whose deciding pitch is a curve. He was the easiest opponent for Lee Jung-woo to attack. No, to be honest, there were no difficult pitchers for Lee Jung-woo in the ABL right now. The player Lee Jung-woo no longer belonged in this league. That was revealed even in the All-Star Game. He kept 120% of what he had decided in advance against the league’s best pitchers.

####

3 consecutive home runs. That was Lee Jung-woo’s All-Star Game record. Of course, the MVP followed. Lee Jung-woo, who made his power known to the world, continued that momentum. The regular season also exploded smoothly, as it had been until now.

“UnbreakabLee! Like that nickname, even Brisbane couldn’t stop him!”

“Who can stop him? Honestly, I can’t think of anyone.”

The number of home runs increased day by day as the series continued. Experts predicted that even 20 home runs, which had been expected to be impossible to reach forever in the ABL, would be possible. He ranked first in all batting categories except stolen bases. He was nicknamed UnbreakabLee.

And of course, fame followed.

“Lee! Please sign!”

“Can you sign my uniform?”

“Can I take a picture with you?”

He was a local celebrity. The spotlight, which was unbelievable for a player in an unpopular sport, shone on him. Local broadcasting stations and newspapers also requested interviews. An unusual special broadcast was even aired. It goes without saying, but he wasn’t satisfied. It was like he had become a superstar. It was something he had never experienced in his life, but he realized for sure with the All-Star Game: this is nothing.

The All-Star-level pitchers who give up consecutive home runs to himself, who is still a minor leaguer, overwhelming performance that no one can follow—this is all an illusion after all. If he were to stay in Australia forever, he could enjoy what he has now, but he didn’t want that, so it was just an illusion.

‘Don’t be satisfied yet. It hasn’t even started yet,’ he told himself.

Because time is flowing quickly, it’s already January. Spring camp is just around the corner. For Lee Jung-woo, that’s when it really started. If the player Lee Jung-woo—not a superstar in an unpopular sport in Adelaide, Australia—if he wanted to become a real global star, if he had the dream stage that all baseball players desire in his heart, it started from there.

That’s why Lee Jung-woo cleanly emptied the wind in his lungs. One failure and one regression, a newly given opportunity, a miracle that will never come again—he didn’t want to end it while settling down like this.

‘Baseball is easy? What a stupid thing to say. I’m the strongest here, but if I go back to the United States, where am I now? Double-A? Triple-A [another level in Minor League Baseball]? Big league rotation roster? No, it’s nothing. My current performance is just an illusion after all. Even if I hit a thousand home runs and ten thousand hits here, if I can’t do it in the United States, it’s over.’

His heart sank. Since he has achieved something, he can’t go back to the beginning, but with a similar mindset, he whipped himself. He rejected all the pouring interviews. He erased the thought that he thought was easy. Every time, with all his might, he played the game with the feeling of polishing himself. He refines the batting form that he is now familiar with again. Training continued as thoroughly as it had been until now.

Swing faster. Time more accurately. Eyes more clearly. Sure impact until the end. Repeating the things he learned when he first switched to a batter like a spell, he continued to move forward. In that way, Lee Jung-woo’s winter slowly faded away, and a new beginning was just around the corner.

####

While Lee Jung-woo was thinking about a new beginning and whipping himself again, someone across the Pacific was suffering greatly.

‘Fortunately, Auckland took Ray, so it’s a little easier, but it’s still ambiguous,’ Pratt, the General Manager of the Atlanta Braves, thought.

He got rid of the overpaid third baseman. He also caught a starting pitcher with FA [Free Agency], but the roster was still poor. Again, the biggest problem was the infield. The infield, which was so lacking that it ranked 2nd in NL [National League] errors last year, remained a problem even after Ray was removed.

‘On top of that, there’s no follow-up hitter to support Joey,’ he lamented.

He also needed a hitter to support the starting right fielder, who was a franchise star and the only one who paid for his meals in the Braves last season—Joey Fredman, who hit .300 with 43 home runs last year, proving that his expensive salary was not wrong. There was no hitter to support him.

‘Derek hits a bit, but he’s too inconsistent, so the weight is a bit lacking,’ Pratt knew. Joey Fredman certainly recorded a career high, but he could have done better. As he entered the second half, the opposing team often passed him due to the lack of weight of the follow-up hitter. His stats were rather cut down from expectations.

‘If there was a follow-up hitter with less ups and downs and a clear weight, 50 would have been possible, not 44,’ Pratt sighed deeply. He wished a player like that would fall from somewhere. It would be even better if it was the center line (center fielder, shortstop, 2nd baseman, catcher).

‘Lord, if you have mercy on me, please bless me… Ha, what am I doing now,’ Pratt shook his head. It was more important to do what he could do right now than to have unrealizable delusions. He took a sip of the coffee that had gone cold and dealt with the mountain of work.

First, Pratt slowly read the reports sent by the scouts, and he spat out the coffee he had in his mouth.

“What is this-”

“What’s wrong?” his assistant asked.

“No, does this make sense?” Pratt replied.

As he muttered, how did he hear it? The general manager’s assistant ran over and followed the report he was reading. He also showed a similar reaction.

“Huh? Isn’t this wrong? I think the scout is slacking off,” the assistant said.

“He’s not that kind of person. No, I don’t really believe it,” Pratt replied. The problem was the report scouting the prospects sent to Australia. To be exact, the record of one player written there made them astonished.

“Australia… It’s not just a so-so league….”

“This is Lee, right? The name is wrong… No, how can a player who just switched to a batter….”

Jung-woo Lee. His performance was amazing. A batting average of over .400. Home runs that have already exceeded 10. Bizarre slugging percentage and OPS that are suspicious of being manipulated. They couldn’t come to their senses at the level of records that a major leaguer went to Australia to play for fun. That goes for the scouting report below.

“Power potential is 75, contact is 60. Speed and shoulder are 50, and defense is 70? Huh, am I looking at Vincent Harding’s report right now? This is, MVP level?”

“Damn… How far should I believe this?”

The scout’s evaluation, which should be objective, was too good. Rather, he couldn’t believe it. The performance is monstrous. Is it really this good? That’s what he thought, but the fact was that hope was rising.

Pratt himself, no, the Atlanta Braves really didn’t want it. A promising shortstop appeared with a bang.

“F-First, invite him to spring camp, attach about three scouts, bring him in, and have him play in practice games and exhibition games. What locker room should I give him? I need to attach a mentor too. Joey, who is a slugger? Derek, who is the captain? Who is better?”

“Calm down, General Manager. We need to watch it more. It’s just Australia. Don’t get too excited. And according to the contract, he has to attend spring camp unconditionally until this year,” the assistant said.

“Ah, right, that’s right,” Pratt replied. But the dazed mind did not return. Pratt, who shook his head for a moment because he couldn’t believe it, soon looked at the sky with the sunset beyond the window of the general manager’s office.

‘Lord, I didn’t want this much. I think my prayer is too good,’ Pratt thought. It seems that his faith has become a little more solid.