The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 313

313. Record-Breaking Machine (7)

Major League Baseball is full of incredible records.

The .400 batting average and the 56-game hitting streak that I’m currently chasing are definitely up there.

“Ugh….”

“Your muscle condition is much better than I expected.”

Jack Washington, who was massaging my body, said something a little different from what I was expecting.

“Seriously, how bad did you think it was for you to say ‘much better than I expected’? I feel like I’m dying here.”

“If you actually stuck to the 5-day rest routine and only took one day off when playing as a hitter in between pitching, your condition would be pretty good.”

Right. Until recently, I had been taking a day off before and after pitching, but now I only take one day off after pitching. Of course, this change didn’t happen without discussion or a good reason.

Required plate appearances.

That is, the number of games multiplied by 3.1, rounded up to 502 plate appearances, was the reason. Of course, it’s practically impossible to reach the required plate appearances while doing both pitching and hitting. Even if I play every game without injury with the routine of taking one day off after pitching, I’ll barely reach 550 plate appearances. In my case, I’ve been missing two out of every five games for about a third of the season, so even if I switch to playing four games and resting one game for the rest of the season, it’s almost impossible to reach 500 plate appearances.

[Do you deserve to take over Ted Williams’ legacy? What a joke!! Choi Soo-won’s .400 average isn’t a real .400 average.]

[How can a .400 average achieved by playing 143 games out of 152 games in a year and filling the required 606 plate appearances be the same as a .400 average achieved by not even playing 100 games out of 162 games and barely filling around 400 plate appearances?]

[If you don’t meet the required plate appearances, you should apply the Tony Gwynn rule and count all the remaining 100 plate appearances as strikeouts!!]

[If Choi Soo-won’s .400 average is a real .400 average, then the last .400 average in Major League Baseball isn’t Ted Williams’ .400 average in 1941. He already hit .400 in 12 at-bats over 6 games in ’52 and 110 at-bats over 37 games in ’53.]

Was it because our PR team mentioned Ted Williams too much? The Boston media started churning out articles like crazy. And since they have such a passionate fan base, they’re spreading it through various social media channels. Their firepower is no joke.

It’s hard to get on YouTube’s trending videos with baseball unless it’s a really big deal. But these guys managed to get on the trending list with videos just bashing me, without any real content.

To be honest, it wasn’t really a bad thing for me. People who know baseball well know how amazing what I’m doing is, but baseball’s popularity these days isn’t what it was in the 60s and 70s. It’s still legally considered the National Sport, but honestly, looking at the current atmosphere, wouldn’t American football be closer to being the national sport?

Anyway, with stories spreading like this, even people who don’t know baseball well have at least heard of names like Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio. It’s like how people in Korea who don’t know soccer still know the name Cha Bum-kun, and people who don’t know baseball still know the name Sun Dong-yeol.

“What? A while ago it was Babe Ruth this and that, and now it’s Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio?”

It’s a kind of viral marketing, I guess.

Anyway, in the midst of all that, I did an interview.

“Recently, there’s been talk that if Choi Soo-won’s .400 average is a real .400 average, then the last .400 average in Major League Baseball isn’t Ted Williams’ record in ’41. In fact, Ted Williams also hit .400 in ’52 and ’53. What are your thoughts on this?”

“Before I talk about my record, I want to briefly talk about Ted Williams’ .400 average in ’52 and ’53.”

Ted Williams played in 6 games in ’52 and 37 games in ’53. Usually, when a player in their prime has so few games, it’s due to injuries, but this guy’s reason is too extraordinary.

Yeah, if you look at the years, you can guess, but it’s because he participated in the Korean War.

“I believe that if Ted Williams had played full seasons in ’52 and ’53, he would have hit .400 as well. And I want to express my gratitude once again for how much his service, which he chose instead of giving up on .400, helped my country.”

“Ah….”

There were several calculations involved.

It could further emphasize the relationship between Ted Williams and me, and it was also a perfect statement for the American sentiment that considers respect for military service the right attitude. But before those calculations, I think Ted Williams’ choice was a choice worthy of great human respect, one that I can’t thank him enough for.

“So, the .400 average record is very meaningful to me as well. And I don’t want to claim that I broke that record in this way.”

“What do you mean?”

“I want to challenge it properly. And I’ve already finished discussing this with the team. Even when I was in the KBO [Korean Baseball Organization], I played a full season with the routine of only taking one day off after pitching, and I even played the season without any rest days at the end. I think it’s time to move on to the next step now that I’m slowly adapting to the big leagues.”

I tried to act cool while saying that.

Wow, but this is no ordinary task.

What do you mean it’s no ordinary task when you’ve already done it in the KBO?

Well, if playing in the KBO was like using about 80% of my power normally and 100% when it was urgent, now it feels like the base is 100%, and sometimes I really have to go beyond that. Plus, the travel distance is long, and the rest time is short. Moreover, in the KBO, Monday was a day without games, so taking one day off after pitching meant resting an average of two days a week, but here, it really becomes just one day off a week.

Yeah, there are really many great records in Major League Baseball.

But what I’ve been feeling lately is that among those great records, the really amazing ones are Lou Gehrig’s 2,130 consecutive games played and Cal Ripken Jr.’s 2,632 consecutive games played.

I mean, even having perfect attendance for 12 years of elementary, middle, and high school is a really amazing record, but for a 21-year-old rookie shortstop to play in every game for 18 years until he turns 38 is a truly unimaginable feat. There must have been minor injuries while playing like that, and there must have been days when he felt like, “I’m too tired to play today.”

Yeah, like me today.

[Top of the 6th!! Two outs with a runner on second. The score is 5:7. Choi Soo-won is at the plate.]

[Choi Soo-won, who took his seventh win of the season with 7 innings of shutout in the last game!! He has no hits in today’s previous three at-bats, with one strikeout and two groundouts.]

[Choi Soo-won, who is currently on a 49-game hitting streak, second-longest in history after Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak!! Will he be able to overcome this crisis today?]

My body was really weak.

It’s not like I’m particularly sick, but I have a slight fever, muscle pain, and a slight headache.

To be honest, it was lucky that I hadn’t had a day like this while hitting in 49 consecutive games. The biggest difference between baseball and other sports is that it plays 162 games a year, which means that you have to play many games when you’re not in good condition.

Preserving stats in these games is how you maintain your season record, which is why players with good eyes tend to have decent full-season records.

But damn it. I’m currently on a hitting streak, and this isn’t a situation where I can just get a walk with good eyes. I swung hard at some borderline pitches, but neither of them even reached the warning track. It’s because I couldn’t hit the ball accurately, not just because I lacked strength.

‘Should I have rested one more day?’

That’s how records are. If you do well, records naturally follow, but there are also many cases where you receive consideration for the sake of the record itself. Like Lou Gehrig’s 2,130 consecutive games played, there were quite a few games where he only appeared for one at-bat and was then replaced to preserve the record.

Damn it.

If I hadn’t just talked big in the interview a few days ago.

Plus, that pitcher today.

He’s not even a particularly good pitcher, but he’s throwing with real determination only when I’m at the plate. It’s not like I’m his enemy. He could give me one easy pitch.

[First pitch!!]

The ball comes in quickly.

-Whoosh!!!

“Strike!!!”

Ah, I was wrong.

The form is powerful, but it wasn’t a fastball. It’s a changeup [a type of pitch thrown with deceptive speed]. How could I, who can distinguish the changeup of a league ace-level pitcher on a good day, be fooled like this? It’s clear that I’m really not in good condition today.

Second.

A deep inside pitch.

-Crack!!!!

My palm is tingling.

I couldn’t push it with power. A foul that slams into the net behind the catcher.

[Inside cut fastball!! He hit it!!! But it’s a foul ball that hits the net directly behind home plate!! Choi Soo-won’s bat broke.]

Damn it. If my swing had been just a little faster, I could have done something. I threw away the broken bat and went to get another bat that I had prepared in advance.

‘Ah, wait a minute.’

I spoke to Anthony Volpe, who had already been out and was sitting in the dugout.

“Anthony, how many ounces is your bat?”

“30.3, why? Do you want to borrow my bat?”

“Yeah.”

It was 0.3 ounces lighter than the bat I use. Normally, it would have felt a little light, but because I’m not in good condition today, it felt similar to the bat I usually use.

I swung the bat lightly a few times, and it felt good.

Yeah, this is it. I feel much better.

Now I feel like I can hit one out of the park.

[Choi Soo-won is back at the plate. The count is 0-2. A very unfavorable situation!! The pitcher prepares for the third pitch.]

A changeup that breaks far outside.

Is it because my mood has changed? Maybe I just guessed right, but I feel like I can slightly see the changeup that I couldn’t distinguish until now.

Fourth.

Another inside pitch.

A cutter [a type of fastball that breaks slightly to the side]?

A fastball?

I don’t know. So I decided to just think of it as a cutter.

A half-turned bat.

The baseball doesn’t seem to want to drop.

‘But this is a fastball?’

I quickly tightened my left armpit even more. My core screams. I’m not in good condition, and my 50% chance guess was wrong. It’s really a day when nothing goes right.

The trajectory of the bat was slightly off. It’s fortunate that the bat is lighter than usual.

-Clang!!!!

A position slightly off the sweet spot.

The baseball bounced in the opposite direction from which it came.

I quickly ran towards first base.

Will I be able to get on base?

But the batted ball is extending further than I thought.

‘Huh?’

I stepped on first base and ran straight towards second base. The runner on second base stepped on third base and was running towards home. I could see the second baseman waiting for the throw as he stood on second base. I instinctively dove almost halfway.

‘Ah, I didn’t put on my sliding gloves.’

The thought briefly crossed my mind, but my left hand was already touching second base. And slightly slower than that, the second baseman’s glove was heading towards my back.

“Safe!!!”

A clean safe that didn’t even need a ruling.

[Choi Soo-won!! 50 consecutive games with a hit!!! Choi Soo-won finally records a hit in his 50th consecutive game!!]

[Choi Soo-won’s RBI double!! The score is 6:7!! Top of the 6th with two outs and a runner on second again!! The Yankees add a valuable point and finally put the tying runner in scoring position!!]

It was a double on a day when I wasn’t in good condition.