The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 58

58. The Monster Rookie (4)

[The Reason All Americans Were Shocked]

[The Miraculous Event That Occurred When a Korean Player Did xx]

[The Reason Japan Is Regretting It Profoundly]

[Is Japan Finally Done? They Won’t Be Able to Catch Up Even in 100 Years]

It was truly an era of nationalistic fervor. In a time saturated with YouTubers exaggerating even the smallest things, a 12-2 mercy rule victory in the 7th inning against Japan was ripe for explosive reactions.

In both Japan and Korea, baseball reigns as the most popular sport. Even if high school baseball is less popular in Korea, the narrative shifts dramatically during international competitions, especially matches against Japan. Above all, most Koreans, to varying degrees, acknowledge that Japanese baseball has historically been slightly ahead of Korean baseball.

─Doo Yun-ho: 크, My patriotism is swelling up. Barkeep, another bowl of Choi Soo-won! [“크” is an exclamation of excitement or awe.]

─NotAFanOfJapan: But honestly, isn’t this a bit much? Japan didn’t even send their first-string team.

─PoodlePoodle: So where is this first-string team? Did they leave from Andromeda?

─DroppedThirdStrike: But U-18 really isn’t the first string. None of the teams that participated in Koshien [Japanese National High School Baseball Championship] were selected.

─ShotgunBackstab: Yeah, so the starting pitcher was the MVP of the spring Koshien, right?

─NotAFanOfJapan: Japanese kids are focused on Koshien right now, and there isn’t a single article about this. Aren’t you embarrassed by this overreaction?

─GetJapanOut: Nope, not embarrassed.

─PoodlePoodle: The Japs never report anything that’s disadvantageous to them. The fact that they can’t even use the ‘first string’ excuse this time means they’re completely devastated.

─DroppedThirdStrike: But Choi Soo-won is the real deal. He’s crushing everyone, whether they’re Korean or Japanese pitchers. Honestly, if the Japanese had just intentionally walked him, it wouldn’t have blown up this much.

Against such a team, he tallied 3 home runs, 5 RBIs (runs batted in), and pitched 1.2 innings with no runs allowed and 2 strikeouts in 4 at-bats. Choi Soo-won was already gaining attention in Korea with his dominant performance, a documentary with decent viewership, and a confident interview as the only sophomore representative. His incredible performance in the Korea-Japan match only amplified the hype.

“This is getting a pretty good response, isn’t it? Should we invite him as a guest?”

“Well, it’s true right now, but I heard it’s only the second preliminary match. It’s just youth baseball. We need to win the championship to really capitalize on this, don’t we?”

“Hmm… Winning might be difficult. The American team is no joke this time. But even if we don’t win, he’s got a good way with words and a pretty decent face.”

“Oh, what’s wrong, Writer Park? You’ve been in broadcasting for more than a day or two. How can you compare an interview to a live broadcast? How many times have we brought in athletes who just sit there like bumps on a log? And he’s not even a pro who’s used to the camera, he’s just a high schooler? Ugh, forget it. Forget it.”

“Well, the reactions from women online aren’t bad. He’s only seventeen, but there’s something strangely mature about his eyes, and he’s an athlete who looks like a model.”

“Really?”

“Besides, I think PD [Production Director] Lee is also considering bringing him on as a guest.”

“What? Jong-pil? Why? His program’s concept isn’t right for bringing on athletes.”

“Well, I don’t know. It just came up when I was having lunch with Writer Kang earlier, so I don’t know the details.”

PD Kim jumped up from his seat.

“Why are you suddenly getting up?”

“Let’s bring him on.”

“You said it wasn’t a good idea.”

“Hey, don’t you know Jong-pil’s instincts? If he’s interested, it’s almost a sure thing. You should have told me that first.”

***

Choi Kyung-shik signed the contract with a flourish.

“I look forward to working with you.”

“Yes, we will do our best. I’ll assign a staff member from our home office right away. There’s been a lot of talk over there lately anyway.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Yes, normally the U-18 tournament wouldn’t be such a big deal, but Alexander McDowell is an unprecedented player in many ways. Of course, we believe that Choi Soo-won also has batting talent no less than Alexander McDowell.”

“Haha, you flatter me.”

“No, I mean it. Sato Hiroshi is a player we’ve been watching for a long time, and we rated him as a potential first-round or sandwich pick [a pick between the first and second rounds of a draft]. I think this performance will increase the number of people in our home country paying attention to Choi Soo-won.”

About a month and a half after first contacting James Corporation.

Kyung-shik had been talking to agencies who wanted to represent his son. He wasn’t an expert in baseball. He knew Korean professional baseball, but even less about American baseball. But he was a self-made businessman, and in the current situation, his son was in a position of power. He compared the conditions offered by the numerous agencies vying for the contract.

Of course, he wasn’t foolish enough to choose based solely on the numbers they presented. James Corporation revised their proposal a total of five times. Of course, simply revising the conditions many times wasn’t the only reason he chose James Corporation.

NBM Center.

It was the very center in New York that his son had specifically requested. Other agencies emphasized their own affiliated centers or made vague promises to discuss it with NBM Center.

But surprisingly, James Corporation suddenly bought a stake in NBM Center by investing a significant amount of money.

Basically, an American agency contract for a Korean player becomes meaningless the moment the player goes to the KBO [Korean Baseball Organization]. An agent system has been established in the KBO, but in many ways, the KBO is still a very difficult place for agencies to operate.

In other words, James Corporation showed their commitment by buying a stake in NBM Center, even though they didn’t know what would happen. Many people said nice things. But how empty are words? In the end, what reveals a person is their past actions and their attitude. In that sense, Choi Kyung-shik was very pleased with their attitude.

‘Of course, their conditions were the best too…’

Only two days left until the game against the American team.

Time was passing quickly.

***

There is a word that Korean media often uses during the World Cup season.

‘Scenarios’

In fact, it’s not a word that only Korean media uses. Objectively, the weaker the team, the more likely they are to use the word ‘scenarios.’ And those scenarios inevitably involve the assumption of defeating a team that is clearly stronger than them, which is often met with nothing but derision from the opposing team.

And in this baseball World Cup, that was the case for China.

United States, Cuba, Japan, Korea, Australia, China.

In this baseball World Cup, Group A was clearly a group of death. Cuba, the country with the most championships, and the United States, the country with the second-most championships, were in the same group, as was South Korea, the country with the third-most championships. Japan also had a roster that could be described as the strongest ever. Even Australia had become a force to be reckoned with due to the recent development of their league, so it was reasonable for China to aim to avoid losing all five games.

[Defeat Australia unconditionally, and win against at least one of Japan or Korea. Assuming the United States wins all their games and Cuba wins 4 and loses 1, if Australia wins against Japan or Korea, then it is possible to advance with 2 wins and 3 losses based on goal difference.]

A truly complex scenario.

But up to the second game, their plan was working quite well. Losing to the United States and Cuba was already part of the plan.

And the third game.

The Chinese team unleashed their most powerful cards one after another, as if their defeats in the first two games were all for building momentum.

A population of over 1.4 billion.

Among them, the number of 17 and 18-year-olds is a whopping 32 million. Twenty elite players carefully selected from resources nearly equivalent to the entire population of South Korea did their best to make their elaborate ‘scenarios’ a reality.

-Thwack!!

It went over.

-Thwack!!!

It went over again.

-Thwack!!

Again, and again, it went over.

-Thwack!!

A disappointing double.

-Thwack!!

A two-run home run to soothe the disappointment.

It was a continuous barrage of insane hitting.

However, the only slightly disappointing thing for China was that the person swinging the bat had the Taegeuk mark [South Korean flag] on his chest instead of the Five-Starred Red Flag [Chinese flag].

A whopping 13 runs in the first inning alone.

The Chinese right fielder barely caught the ball that Jo Gyu-hyuk sent flying.

“Alright, let’s finish this early today and go get some rest. We have an important game tomorrow.”

At the level of an ordinary high school baseball team?

No, not quite. It was a little better than that. It was about the level of a reasonably prestigious high school baseball team. But the Korean national team gathered here was composed of aces carefully selected from those prestigious high schools. Moreover, their batting sense had been honed to the highest level through the past two games.

In the official YouTube channel broadcasting this tournament, a very large number of Chinese chats were uploaded at the beginning. Of course, China’s Great Firewall officially blocked YouTube broadcasts, but just as Korea’s HTTPS blocking could be circumvented in its own way, China’s Great Firewall also had its own means.

But after exactly three innings.

-Bang!!

“Strike!! Out!!”

At that moment, when Jang Ho-yeon struck out his seventh batter to end the inning, no more Chinese could be seen on the official YouTube broadcast channel.

Thus, in the 5th inning.

21:0 mercy rule.

[Defeat Australia by a large margin and win against Japan. If the United States wins all their games and Cuba loses to Korea, Japan, and Australia, then it is possible to advance with 2 wins and 3 losses, tied with Japan, based on goal difference.]

The Chinese scenario was being slightly revised.

***

“Hmm…”

Alexander McDowell groaned softly.

He was a born star. He had already made a name for himself at the youth level, beyond the county and state levels, and began to make a name for himself nationally after the 7th grade. It was only natural that the entire United States was paying attention to him.

The fact that he chose to drop out after finishing the 9th grade was also because there was already a precedent for someone dropping out after finishing the 10th grade.

That’s why he was so happy about this U-18 tournament.

In fact, if they had won the last tournament, he probably wouldn’t have participated in this one. But in the last tournament, the American team was eliminated in the group stage for the first time ever. So how sweet it was. To restore the honor of his country, which had been eliminated in the group stage in the previous tournament, with a victory.

But unfortunately, that joy was in the past tense, not the present tense, because of one hitter who was dividing the attention that should have been solely focused on him.

“Swan, huh…”

9 home runs in 12 at-bats.

It was a truly absurd number.

“Heh heh, alright. I’ll keep a close eye on whether he has the qualifications to be my rival.”

Alexander McDowell.

17 years old.

He was still a little too young to overcome his middle school syndrome [a phase of immaturity and self-importance].