The Pitcher Just Hits Home Runs Well [EN]: Chapter 75

75. The Beginning of the End (1)

In the original timeline, the posting system [a system allowing players under contract to negotiate with foreign teams] was set to change nine years from now, in the fall of 2034, during the revision of the Korea-U.S. player agreement. I remember it so well because 2034 is the year I advanced to Major League Baseball.

I remember being momentarily stunned by the news when it broke. The team was in the midst of a fierce battle for playoff contention at the end of the season, and I was personally a candidate for various batting titles and even MVP. Because I was so distracted with those thoughts, I messed up the game a bit the next day.

At the time, I had been doing so well since my rookie year that I honestly felt a bit wronged. It was all thanks to my ignorance of international amateur regulations and all that.

Anyway, looking at the behind-the-scenes stories of the negotiation process that came out later, the biggest reason why the related regulations weren’t revised in 2026 or 2030 was simply that the MLB didn’t specifically demand it. The reason they demanded it in the 2034 revision was, of course, because of my performance.

So, could that history change a bit this time?

***

“Is this even possible? It wouldn’t be difficult to get the MLB secretariat to present conditions when agreeing, but from the KBO’s [Korean Baseball Organization] perspective, it’s a drain of domestic players.”

“I think it’s fifty-fifty.”

“Fifty-fifty?”

“Yes, in fact, now that the international prospect rule has been changed to under 25 years old with six seasons of professional activity, the KBO’s existing seven-year posting rule has become somewhat nominal.”

In the end, a player needs a significant benefit to go overseas. In that sense, a player under 25 with six or fewer years of professional experience going to the MLB has very little financial incentive.

If there is such a player, it would be an extremely exceptional case like Shohei Ohtani. Usually, a player with that kind of ambition would go straight to the United States, rather than staying in their home country, considering money, potential, and convenience.

“Even so, the KBO isn’t stupid. The regulation itself is for protecting the domestic league, so they wouldn’t give it up themselves.”

“So, first, I plan to promote the idea that the KBO’s current posting system is not for protecting the domestic league.”

“Not for protecting the domestic league?”

“Yes.”

The player considered the biggest victim of the current international prospect contract is Shohei Ohtani.

Under the previous regulations, he could have advanced to the majors through posting as a free agent. However, in the fall of 2017, when he decided to go to the MLB, the criteria for international prospects were unfortunately changed to over 25 years old. As a result, Shohei Ohtani had to enter Major League Baseball with the minimum salary instead of a total salary of over one hundred million dollars.

“If a player wants money, they will stay in the domestic league from the start. Playing there for seven years and then going to the United States will bring in much more money. If they dream of the Major League itself, they will come to the United States unconditionally. They won’t play even one year in the KBO. But what if the posting regulations are revised? They can steadily receive a salary in a Double-A level league in their home country, develop their skills, and challenge the MLB at any time. If their skills aren’t at that level, they can stay in a stable league where it’s okay to just settle down. From a player’s perspective, there’s less reason to choose to go straight to the MLB.”

It was quite a plausible story.

However, James could easily spot a major flaw in Benjamin Palmer’s story.

“What about players who break out late? If a player who has been bouncing around in the minor leagues breaks out around 25 or 26 and wants to go to the MLB, isn’t that a loss for the team and the KBO as a whole?”

“In that case, they just don’t send them. After all, the team has the right to post them.”

That was true.

But there were still problems remaining.

“That’s only true when the team always acts for the benefit of the entire league. What’s rational for a team isn’t always beneficial for the entire league. For example, one team could keep selling to the big leagues and staying at the bottom, only bringing in good prospects. If that’s the reason, the KBO association might oppose it.”

“Ah······.”

“You didn’t think that far, did you?”

“So······.”

“Proceed.”

“Yes?”

He had been giving only opposing opinions until just now, and suddenly he’s telling me to proceed?

“If there really is such a selling team, they would very actively support this posting revision. After all, the association can’t escape the influence of the team owners. If public opinion supports it, the team owners have no reason to oppose it. I’ll put Joan and Chuck on it, so put your heads together and rewrite the report and submit it properly. It seems like a business with a big return compared to the risk, so there’s no reason not to do it. Oh, and while you’re at it, find some local agents to partner with. Korean agent laws might be a bit strict.”

“Yes, yes!! I understand.”

***

One day in November.

It was strangely cold.

I woke up early as usual. I put on thick clothes and left the house. The street was the same as always, but the expressions of the people walking on it were quite different from usual.

It was like us on draft day.

“Hey, Choi Su-won!! Over here. Here.”

Jo Yu-jin and the other kids were waving their hands wildly, carrying a lot of things.

The school was a school, but it wasn’t our school.

“You’re here early?”

“We usually do morning training much earlier than this. What about Kyung-seok and the others?”

“They went to Sewon Middle School. Some seniors are taking the test there.”

“Oh, right. That’s right?”

The college entrance exam.

The biggest event that an average student faces from birth.

Kyu-hyuk, who had already been drafted into a professional team, was not subject to it. However, all the other seniors except Kyu-hyuk had to take the college entrance exam today, just like other students.

Near the school gate.

An old SUV stopped. It was a familiar sight.

“Huh? Isn’t that Senior Jin-woo’s father’s car?”

“What? Already? There’s still more than an hour before the test starts.”

“Hey. That’s right. It’s Senior Jin-woo. Wow, that senior is coming out of the car early too.”

Senior Jin-woo, who got out of the car, looked very different, even though it had only been a few months since I last saw him. It’s common for athletes to gain weight after retirement, but it wouldn’t be easy to gain that much in just three months. It really felt like he had just been sitting and studying.

“Long time no see.”

“Senior, first of all, please take these. It’s not much, but it’s what we prepared.”

Various snacks, including chocolate.

Drinks that don’t contain caffeine.

We handed Senior Jin-woo a set of items that we had prepared in advance yesterday.

“You must be busy training; you didn’t have to go to all this trouble.”

“No, Senior Jin-woo, good luck on the college entrance exam!! I hope you get on Line 2!!” [A popular subway line in Seoul, implying success]

“Okay, thank you.”

I didn’t bother to say much.

He looked very nervous. Of course, the amount of points he needed would be different from other test takers. After all, Senior Jin-woo was entering through a sports scholarship. But how could that tension be any different just because the required score is different?

Starting with Senior Jin-woo, the seniors entered the test site one by one.

“Wow, I guess it’s because we rolled around together for two years. It feels really strange.”

Jo Yu-jin said, caught up in emotion. Well, it was understandable. Two years was a very long time for a seventeen-year-old teenager.

I was a thirty-five-year-old man who had played together for two years seventeen years ago and returned to play together for only four months, so I was a bit distant from that kind of emotion. But strangely, Senior Jin-woo’s back view was a bit clearer.

If the way he opened the door to the dormitory back then was similar to the back view of Greg Olson, a thirty-eight-year-old veteran retiring, today’s 모습 [Korean word for appearance or figure] was similar to the back view of rookies going up to the professional mound for the first time.

Just as I liked the back view of those rookies, who didn’t know whether they would succeed or fail, more than the back view of Greg Olson, who had achieved some success and was leaving the field, Senior Jin-woo’s back view was much better than the 모습 when he opened the dormitory door, the 모습 of him entering the test site today.

“Huh? Senior Byung-young?”

“Long time no see.”

About ten minutes before the start of the college entrance exam. Ahn Byung-young, with a much thinner face than Jin-woo, appeared.

“Senior, are you taking the college entrance exam here today too?”

“Yeah.”

A rare look of embarrassment flashed across Jo Yu-jin’s face.

‘Hey, why don’t we have enough gifts?’

‘Ah······, I think one more went to Sewon Middle School?’

‘Crazy!! Who packed this? Hey, freshmen. Are you not doing this right? Ah, why does it have to be Senior Byung-young at the end? This is really screwed up.’

It seemed that they had brought one less of the various snacks, including chocolate.

“Senior, you’ll be late for the test. Hurry up and go in. I heard you’re aiming for Dongho University.”

“Yeah, Coach Jo Byung-joon is famous there.”

“Did you prepare well for the college entrance exam?”

“I have to get within 7th grade in the sum of two well-scored subjects out of four subjects, so it’s a bit tight, but I got 3rd and 4th grade in social studies and Korean in the recent mock exams twice in a row. I just have to not mess up.”

“I’m rooting for you. I hope you get in.”

“Thank you. Oh, but what about the snacks?”

I could guess without looking.

How sweaty the backs of the freshmen who were supposed to bring the snacks would be. How much their eyes would be shaking like aspen leaves.

Senior Byung-young looked at the kids once.

Should I stop him?

“No. Eating something might just interfere with my concentration. You guys suffered from being out here in the cold. I’ll buy you snacks when we train later, so let’s see each other then. I think I’ll be the last one anyway, so everyone go in.”

What?

What is this?

Ahn Byung-young was clearly a fairly common type of trash who would pass the blame on to others even if he made a mistake. And the common thing about those trash is that they hardly ever change.

But surprisingly, the words that came out of Ahn Byung-young’s mouth now were ‘consideration’. I was so surprised that I really suspected that he was just telling them to go because he didn’t want to eat snacks.

But considering the personality he had shown so far, it was only right that he would demand it the moment he noticed the kids’ mistake, even if he had no intention of eating it at all. Moreover, considering the look that flashed across the kids’ faces for a moment, it was hard to see that he hadn’t noticed. So this was really Ahn Byung-young covering up the mistakes of his juniors.

Good heavens.

Ahn Byung-young waved his hand at the kids and entered the test site.

***

‘Hey, I was really like, wow. It was so cold, but sweat was dripping down my back. I thought I was going to die.’

‘No, honestly, it’s understandable. It was Senior Byung-young, of all people. It would have been okay if it was Senior Jin-woo.’

I could hear the freshmen whispering from behind.

“Jjo-yu, Senior Byung-young seems to have changed a bit? Is it because it’s the college entrance exam today?”

“Hey, that senior had been changing a long time ago. Ever since you went after him that time.”

“Really?”

Well, he lowered his head and asked me to teach him baseball, and he wrote a letter of apology······.

No, no.

I shook my head.

He’s a guy I won’t see in the future anyway, so I didn’t want to think about it. However, I have a feeling that the 모습 I will think of when I think of Ahn Byung-young in about ten years might be ‘Hey, can’t you throw properly?’ instead of ‘You guys suffered from being out here in the cold.’

“The prospective freshmen we’re seeing today are going to go on a training camp together, right?”

“Yeah, I guess it was a big deal that we went to the national tournament. Even the stingy principal is going to spend a lot of money on support this time.”

“That’s good.”

“It would be nice if you could go with us too.”

“Hey, you saw it. My pitching improved a lot after a month of correction. Washington said that if I want to build a foundation now, I have to hold on for at least three months.”

“No, you’re already beating up all the kids now, what foundation are you building······.”

Jo Yu-jin’s face was full of regret.

“Well, if you really want to see me, come visit me in America. After all, you can stay in the apartment I rented for accommodation, so you only have to pay for the plane ticket.”

“Oh······. Good idea?”

While we were talking about this and that, the bus arrived in front of the school.

It seemed that the kids who went to cheer at Sewon Middle School were not yet arrived, as Sewon Middle School was a bit further away.

“Hey, are those them over there?”

“Yeah, it seems so.”

Will they become Kang Baek-ho and Seo Tae-woong? [Famous baseball players]

Or will they just become passing extras 1 and 2?

“Hello!!”

The two guys bowed deeply.