episode_0026

-“Player Maengho, my heart is leaning towards Player Maengho for the top line. But it’s not certain. You need to show a good performance in the Blue Dragon Flag to have a high chance, right?”

“I understand. It’s not difficult for a baseball player to play baseball.”

-“Yes. I hope to see a good performance in the Blue Dragon Flag. I hope Maengho joins our team.”

“Thank you. Goodbye.”

Finally, the morning of the Blue Dragon Flag began to dawn. Since the day I first met Cheon So-young, I decided to sign an agent contract. SY Agency was somewhat famous, and I confirmed that it was a good contract in many ways.

So the agent contract ended well, and I also got Cheon So-young’s phone number. That’s how I could contact her before the match. Judging by the nuance, Cheon So-young seemed to have high expectations for me.

But why would someone like her work at AT? She had enough money to start an agency, she was young and pretty, and being the head of the operations team indicated she was competent. Why would such a person work for a team like AT Thunders?

“That’s the magic of baseball. Even normal people go crazy for baseball.”

“What do you mean?”

“Isn’t it obvious she’s a die-hard AT fan? Otherwise, there’s no reason for her to work for a team like that.”

“That’s true.”

Is baseball that great? Well, baseball has been going on for over 150 years. Still, it was better to contact a pretty woman like Cheon So-young than boring guys. It was a good thing.

After returning the phone, I boarded the baseball team bus heading to Mokdong Stadium. As all the baseball team members got on the bus, the head coach stood in the middle of the bus and raised his voice.

“Listen up, listen up. Can you hear me?”

“Yes!”

“Yeah. Don’t let your guard down just because it’s the round of 32. Let’s win again this time and show that we are the strongest school this year!”

“We will!!!”

The atmosphere inside the bus was cheerful. We had finished first in the weekend league in the second half of the year. Well, my performance with three home runs was at the center of it.

I could have done more, but there was certainly some regret. However, since the pitchers weren’t throwing good balls, there was nothing I could do. My on-base percentage had increased, but as someone who wanted to hit more home runs to increase my value, it was unsatisfactory.

“Since Won-ho won’t be playing today, Young-chul, you’ll have to take charge of the mound. Got it?”

“Yes! I’ll do my best.”

“It’s more important to do well than to work hard.”

“I will do well!”

“Good luck! Let’s go. Check your seatbelts. Ready? Driver, let’s go.”

*

“As I mentioned before, the opposing pitcher is likely to be Shin Jung-hoon, the first pick of the Charlotte Blue Mariners. He only pitched two innings in the weekend league in the second half of the year, but in the Golden Lion Cup, he had 15.2 innings with 2 runs, and in the first half, he had 9 innings with no runs. I believe you already know more about him without me explaining further. Wasn’t John present during the analysis session yesterday?”

“Yes!”

“Yeah. Since he’s a sidearm pitcher, left-handed hitters need to step up. Of course, it won’t be easy. But if we want to win, we have to overcome this mountain, right?”

“I understand!”

“Yeah, the opponent is Gyeongnam Jeil High School, a prestigious school in Busan, but which school won the Golden Lion Cup last time?”

“Hanche High School!”

“Yeah, we are stronger now! Go and crush them!”

“The center of Korean sports! Hanche High School! Fighting!”

They’re working hard. Did tasting victory turn the coach into a passionate one? Well, he wasn’t originally that kind of character.

According to what I heard from Hyojin noona, the director is dreaming of becoming a pro coach again. It wouldn’t be strange for someone with a career like Yigicheol to become a professional leader. However, since that timing coincides with the time when Hyojin noona and he decided to have a child, there might have been some connection.

But I wasn’t particularly curious. Come to think of it, Hyojin noona said she was coming back from the obstetrics and gynecology department today, and I was a little nervous about the results. Since I’ve always been optimistic after talking to Hyojin noona, it seemed okay to have a little hope.

He said he would do his best not to get pregnant when having sex with the coach, but I wondered if the child born would be mine or the coach’s if they did have a child.

“What do you think about Rosbich?”

“What does it matter whose child it is? It’ll probably be a monkey anyway.”

“Oh, come on, just answer.”

“You’re so annoyingly sentimental. If I had a bat in my hand, I would have broken your bones first.”

“…I’m sorry.”

“Haha, you don’t even raise it yourself, so why bother? ”

“But I’m still curious.”

“Given her personality, if she gets pregnant, wouldn’t it likely be your child?”

“Since Rosbich says so, I feel a little relieved.”

“Oh, is Mangho meditating again? It’s become a routine now.”

“Mangho senior, you need to go to the on-deck circle.”

Have two batters already been out? Useless bastards. Before going to the on-deck circle with a bat in hand, I stretched my arms.

“Senior, here’s the arm guard.”

“Are there any other colors besides this one?”

“Sorry. Junhyeon senior already took them.”

“Geez, even a talentless guy knows how to act cute…”

As I stood still with my arm raised, the junior filled the arm guard on my arm. Then another junior put a guard on my left ankle.

“Alright, go.”

“Yes! Please hit a home run.”

The reason they fussed over putting protective gear on me was simple. Because I was good at baseball.

To play baseball in Korea and go to college, you need competition or award achievements. As you rise higher, you get more opportunities to build those achievements. Typically, the minimum number of at-bats needed to go to college is 40, and for pitchers, it’s 10 innings pitched.

But how could a coach put candidates in a close game to make it a mess? Moreover, Yigicheol was a coach who was thorough in winning. Unless we played as many games as possible to avoid garbage innings, sending out players with lower skills was risky. To them, I was their only savior, creating garbage innings with home runs.

Busy during the match and unable to grab protective gear, after a junior filled the guard for me, having them put on protective gear became a kind of ritual, and it wasn’t too bad when the juniors who used to ignore me voluntarily looked up to me.

“Swing! Strikeout!”

“Ah, damn, I was all set, but it’s a strikeout. Hey, Joo Hyun!”

“Ah, hyung.”

“Damn, can’t you get on base once? Go a bit forward so I won’t brush you off.”

“I’m sorry.”

“And that’s my favorite color, so next time, wear a different color.”

“Yes.”

The expression of our team’s third batter, Joo Hyun, fell. I inwardly mocked him as I saw his expression. Until earlier this year, he used to look at me like I was a bug, ignoring me. How would it feel for him to be ignored by me? Just imagining it was satisfying.

“But what can you do? They’re guys who won’t even go to college without me.”

“You don’t seem to have any sense of team.”

“Huh? Team? What’s gotten into Rosbich, talking about the team?”

“Haha, it’s nice to see progress. Indeed, by continuously hitting even a monkey on the head, learning ability emerges.”

“The team is crap. They were the ones who ignored me anyway.

“Senior, I’ve got the glove!”

“Yeah, put mine in my spot and guard the black armguard. That’s all I care about.”

“Yes!”

The junior handed me the glove, took my bat and protective gear, and headed to the dugout. Baseball is going well as usual. It’s comfortable like this.

I walked onto the field with the glove.

“Senior, I trust you.”

Today’s starting pitcher, Park Young-chul, took off his cap and greeted me. After saving a few times during the game, he became a reliable ally.

“Yeah. Send it my way. And don’t worry about getting a hit, just focus on hitting the ball. Even if you get a hit, I’ll score, so just shorten the defensive time.”

“Yes! I’m counting on you today too.”

After warming up on the field, the first inning of Gyeongnam Jeil High School began. It’s the first time I’ve seen them directly after being eliminated from the Golden Lion Cup.

“Play ball!”

As the game started, Young-chul threw a strike down the middle.

“I see his pitches are pretty good today. No wonder he’s been a starter since sophomore year.”

As expected, Young-chul managed to induce groundouts from all three batters quickly, ending Gyeongnam Jeil High School’s offensive in the first inning.

“Bro, we finished quickly as you said, so please score!”

“Yeah, wait for it.”

After finishing defense and heading to the dugout, the juniors welcomed me with water, bats, and equipment.

“We have the water ready.”

“Yes!”

They quickly prepared the equipment and looked at me with hopeful eyes. Will you score a lot today too? I could sense their expectations.

“Yeah, I’ll do my best for you guys.”

After swinging the bat a few times in the on-deck circle, I walked to the batter’s box.

“Hello.”

“First, greet the umpire. How about the catcher? He looks quite serious. It won’t be easy. Ross B, please help me out.”

“Sure.”

“But since that guy’s control is a mess, you don’t have to tell me where to position the bat.”

The opposing starting pitcher, Shin Jung-hoon, throws a 153 km/h fastball with a sidearm close to underhand delivery. He also has a 110 km/h curveball with an off-speed pitch, making him quite a challenging opponent.

“Why does he keep nodding? What’s going on?”

“It seems like he’s rejecting the curveball sign. He’s gripping the fastball grip tightly.”

Is this guy really an ace? The ace players from the opposing school always used to be stubborn in the first at-bat against me. Of course, if they hit a home run, manners would follow.

“Time!”

When he hesitated, I also called time and swung the bat with a full swing.

Swish! Swish!

The sound of the bat cutting through the air overwhelmed the surroundings. The catcher’s face seemed even more stern than before.

“Strike!”

Wow, look at that pitch. There was definitely a reason he was a first-round pick from Charlotte. His pitch curved towards my knees like a snake.

“Ross B, where was the catcher’s mitt?”

“In the middle.”

Phew. He threw it in the middle, but what a movement? It was unlikely to throw a wild pitch early in the game.

Should I aim for the off-speed pitch then?

“Tsk tsk, always avoiding it like that? Split your zone in half, ignore any balls coming towards your body, and only swing at those coming outside. Then you’ll hit the middle.”

“Got it.”

As expected, it’s Rosby. The major league rice is nowhere to be found. After listening to Rosby’s advice, I reset John and stepped into the batter’s box. The expression on Shin Jung-hoon’s face on the mound seemed slightly mocking.

Yeah, it’s good to feed them a false swing, right? Let’s try it.

“Fastball.”

I won’t miss this time! The ball’s trajectory feels far outside. This ball!

Thwack!

I hit the ball and stylishly swung the bat. Then, I watched the ball flying slowly towards first base. The ball I hit was high and far towards the left field fence. Continuously to the left, to the left, to the left…

“Foul!”

Damn. Did I put too much power? The ball kept curving outside the foul pole. I picked up the bat that had fallen far away, then returned to the batter’s box.

“Oh, it didn’t go over? Lucky me.”

“…You’re throwing a two-seamer, but living like Judy,”

“What’s Judy? Use standard language. And it’s just your brother worrying about you. If you throw another two-seamer, I’ll smash the scoreboard.”

“You two, quiet down.”

“Sorry.”

“Got it.”

Apologizing to the umpire, I refocused on the batter’s box. Perhaps due to hitting a grand foul home run, the battery exchange between Gyeongnam Jeil High School was quite long.

“Curve.”

Yeah, getting hit by a two-seamer like that must be terrifying, right? It seemed like Shin Jung-hoon’s curve, thrown in front of the plate, bounced and missed widely.

“What? I thought it was a soft ball? Isn’t the mound too far away? Can’t even make it to home.”

“…Quiet down.”

“Speak informally. How old are you?”

“If you keep yelling, it’s a warning.”

“Sorry.”

“Got it.”

He scratched me a bit, will he throw a two-seamer?

“Fastball.”

The catcher, also from Gyeongsang Province, seemed fiery as well. He threw a fastball right after scratching me.

“Be careful. The mitt is inside.”

…Darn it.

The ball left the pitcher’s hand and flew towards me. Without flinching, I aimed at the pitcher and hit the ball. The two-seamer he threw seemed to have been caught very close to my knee. Though slightly intimidated, I couldn’t back down, so I continued to focus on the pitcher.

Scared? Kid, can’t even look me in the eye?

“It’s a curve. Since the mitt is inside, it’s probably a backdoor slider.”

“Yes. I’ll swing this time.”

“Yeah, I saw earlier that the speed wasn’t that fast, so if it doesn’t seem like it, I can endure it, right?”

“Of course.”

A common strikeout with a changeup showing the body side. There wouldn’t be any fools falling for the curve knowing the pitch type, and I wasn’t one of those fools. This time, I timed the curve and waited for his pitch.

And,

Crack!

Hitting the curve with precise timing, it made a clean sound as it soared into the sky. There was no need to watch. I walked towards the dugout, threw the bat in that direction, and put my hand to my ear. As my massive hit sailed through the air, the once quiet baseball field erupted into chaos as if a war had broken out.

Of course, most of the noise came from our dugout.

“Wow!! Ji Maeng-ho! Ji Maeng-ho!”

“Senior Maeng-ho! We believed in you!!”

“Crazy guy!”

“Maeng-ho oppa! Love you!!!”

Brats. They have strong voices. But who’s the last one?

Empty. The ball hitting the top of the scoreboard falls back onto the field. Stepping on home plate, I muttered softly enough for only the catcher to hear.

“Saw that? Ham said he’d hit the scoreboard.”

Is this how you use dialects?