episode_0132

“Hey, looks like I missed this year again.”

Jamsil Baseball Stadium, where the game between AT Thunders and Shilla Triggers is coming to an end. A fan sitting in the first base cheering section muttered. Although the murmur was not loud, most of the fans sitting next to him could hear the fan’s voice and sympathize with the fan’s murmur.

“Last year, we did well until the summer, but this year it’s been like this from the beginning. If we lose today, will we have 1 win and 5 fans? Hey, how many losses has the volcano lost so far?”

“They were losing right now, so maybe that would put them at 1 win and 5 losses?”

And most fans didn’t think they would win the game that was taking place right now.

At the bottom of the 8th inning, Shilla Triggers is ahead by 2 points, 6:4. It was a score gap that could have been thought to be enough to keep up with 2 runs in 2 innings, but none of the fans in the cheering stands truly thought that this game could be turned around.

It was the same pattern as the AT Thunders’ usual game of giving points and chasing, but ultimately failing to turn the tables and only chasing and losing.

“under… . How has this team not changed for over 10 years? Tsk, but I guess I’ll fail early this year so I won’t be able to watch baseball.”

There are also uncle fans who will come back tomorrow.

“Dad, why are you coming to watch AT when they always lose?”

“I’m just trying to spend quality time with my son.”

“Then can I support Silla? “I want to cheer for the winning team.”

“of course.”

Even the father’s fan shed tears of blood at his son’s announcement of his transfer.

“You bastards! “Play baseball properly!”

“there! “You can’t swear and scream like that!”

In the end, even the fans who couldn’t control their drinking and screamed desperately wanted AT to win, but they also acknowledged the fact that AT Thunders would lose today.

[Now, in the bottom of the 8th inning, with 2 outs and 6th batter Woo Kwan-hyung comes to the plate. Today’s score was 2 hits in 3 at-bats. He appeared in 6 games and has a batting average of 0.375.]

However, when Woo Kwan-hyung appeared, the fans who acknowledged the team’s defeat began to flinch in a corner of their hearts.

‘If it’s Woo Gwan-hyung… .’

A pinch hitter who is less than 50 hits away from reaching 3,000 hits, a hitter who has not moved despite countless temptations over the past 20 years, a living witness to the AT Thunders’ downfall, and a hitter who won the series MVP in the last postseason played by the AT Thunders. .

As the heart and pride of the AT Thunders stepped up to the plate, a little laughter returned from the darkly defeated audience. How many RBIs did Woo Kwan-hyung score for AT so far?

If it’s Woo Gwan-hyung again… .

And to live up to the expectations of all AT fans, Woo Kwan-hyung swung the bat.

Sigh!

Woo Gwan-hyeong’s batted ball flew high. However, batted balls without distance were easily trapped in the infield.

[ah! Woo Gwan-hyeong’s batted ball gets stuck in the infield. Second baseman Park Cheol-young gestures. Comfortably three out. AT Thunders’ attack in the bottom of the 8th inning ends in a three-way strike.]

[Woo Kwan-hyung’s timing was a little late. It’s a shame.]

[Then we will return to the final attack of both teams’ regular innings.]

As the caster finishes speaking, the red light goes out.

“Ugh, it won’t be easy for AT Thunders this year either, right?”

“Well, if you look at each player individually, it’s not like the team is going to collapse like this, but strangely, the results are not good.”

“What do you think, Commissioner?”

“Actually, I also selected AT as the expected post-season team based on my predictions for this season, but the results are not as good as their strength, really.”

The commentator could not hide his sad feelings while speaking. Especially now that I am commentating the game.

Commentator Choi Jeong-hyeon couldn’t help but feel more sorry about AT’s situation. He transferred to the AT Thunders, a team he had supported since he was young, after signing a huge free agent contract, and was feeling burdened by the so-called poor performance.

“It’s a bit hard for me to say it, but AT Thunders is definitely a team that doesn’t make sense because they aren’t performing well.”

“Haha, that’s right. If you look at the committee member’s poor performance as soon as he transferred to AT… .”

As the broadcasters said, AT Thunders was a truly deformed team. People who don’t know much about baseball might think that the AT Thunders are a team that can’t play baseball, but people who know something about baseball might wonder, “Why can’t this team play baseball?” Because this was a team that thought like this.

In the case of hitters, the team was not a team with a weak batting lineup, with 4-5 players in the starting lineup hitting .300 every year, and in terms of pitchers, it was a team with one or two 10-win pitchers and bullpens in the 3-point range. Looking at his power alone, it wouldn’t be surprising if he caught the last train of fall baseball.

But strangely, the players’ career highs did not match, and the discrepancy continued even in one game. In particular, if you look at the season, when batting was at the top, pitching ability sank to the bottom, and when pitching ability was at the top, hitters’ performance sank to the bottom.

And the most chronic problem of AT Thunders. AT Thunders had no S-level players. The absence of a player who dominated the league and put pressure on the opposing team just by appearing was painful for the AT Thunders.

The absence of an MVP player, which has never happened in the 40-year history of professional baseball, even before the club changed its name to AT. There were quite a few A-B level players, but the absence of these S-level players did not change the losing streak of the game like today.

To solve that problem, AT Thunders recruited top players like Ki Ki-joo and Choi Jin-cheol, but their condition was not yet improving, and consecutive losses and high-intensity training were tiring the players.

[In the top of the 9th inning, the leadoff batter for the Shilla Triggers starts with 5th batter Yang Je-hyung.]

And another factor that drives AT Thunders fans crazy.

[out!]

[Swing strike! Sang-Hyun Han gets two outs with a strikeout! Han Sang-hyun’s ball is dancing today!]

[This hit is from second base! The second baseman catches it. Ji Maeng-ho showing great defense! AT Thunders are still keeping the chase alive.]

Hope torture. Even when they lose, it instills hope that they can always win by a small margin, making fans unable to give up hope.

-Ha fuck, it’s this pattern again today.

ㄴThe chase came out ㅅㅂ

-They knew they were going to lose anyway, so they just pretended to follow along.

ㄴPlease try to rephrase it.

-I don’t have any expectations since it’s 789 Plant’s batting line anyway.

Even if you don’t expect it, you’re kneeling in front of the TV and praying, right?

ㄴㄴCivilian inspection Evande haha.

-If I lose today again, I’m going to set fire to Jamsil.

-2 points is enough to keep up. Just as far as Ji Maeng-ho, please

ㄴHonestly, am I the only one these days who gets excited when Ji Maeng-ho appears??

ㄴㄴ.500 and the slugging percentage is over 1, so it’s strange that the kid doesn’t have expectations haha.

And fans were desperately looking for an S-class player who would end the torture of hope.

*

I felt like a familiar energy surrounding the dugout was pressing on my chest. Actually, I never thought I would feel this way.

When I was in high school, Hankyoreh High School was a weak team, but when I played as a starter, it was a strong team that won three competitions. When I played for the national team, all the players were the best in Korea and, except for the game against the United States, I was full of confidence that we could turn things around. It was the team that was in charge.

However, the atmosphere at AT Thunders was very different from the atmosphere I had felt so far. If we were losing, I didn’t think we would get a comeback, and if we were winning, I thought we would get a comeback.

‘Is it because it’s a 3-game losing streak? If we lose today, will it be our 4th loss in a row?’

And perhaps because of the high-intensity training this morning, the team’s mood was even worse. This type of training will probably continue until the losing streak is broken… .

Not only me but most of the players also had expressions filled with such worry. Especially the pitching staff.

I didn’t know much about it since I trained separately from the pitchers and didn’t have any close seniors, but I heard that the pitchers have been going through the same high-intensity training since spring training. And these days, after losing streak, my training volume has increased.

Of course, looking at the performance of the hitters in the current lineup, it was natural for Manager Sands to be dissatisfied with the pitchers, but increased training did not mean that the players did well. In baseball, even though training is done like a game, the players do not grow as much as the amount of training.

‘Tsk, so the pitchers are a mess now.’

‘How can I train like this? Don’t you know the common sense that the more you use your muscles, the stronger they become? ‘Is it because it’s so annoying?’

‘Mr Rossby! What kind of time is it in the world right now that people are saying things like that! If you do that these days, you’ll get shot by the fans!’

‘I’m weak, I’m so weak. Baseball wasn’t a sport for these girls… . Kids these days are so weak. Didn’t you have to throw at least 250 innings in a season to be called a pitcher?’

‘When on earth did we talk about the enemy…? .’

Perhaps because he was active about 100 years ago, the scale was very different. The bigger problem was that, looking at our training these days, Coach Sands seemed to be a believer in that stupid theory.

“AT Thunders, pinch hit! Han Sang-gyu!”

The good news is that pinch-hitters still have the brains to run the game?

Manager Sands replaced catcher Jeong Yun-cheol with outfielder Han Sang-gyu as a pinch hitter. In my opinion, they were all good players, but since he was an outfielder, Han Sang-gyu had slightly better hitting.

“Please just continue to me!”

I did not want to go home after losing four games in a row like this, so I cheered for Han Sang-gyu in a loud voice. However, Han Sang-gyu’s expression was clearly frozen, even to a child.

and,

widely!

A weak shortstop grounder. Unlike others, Kim Hwan-young was not a player who would miss a ground ball from a weak shortstop.

‘Ha, that’s why I’m losing my position even to Woo Gwan-hyung, who is 40 years old.’

“Pinch! Seongtae Yoon!”

And pinch hit again. The bench selection was Yoon Seong-tae, last year’s second-team home run king.

‘Yes, Seongtae is better than Kang Hee-seok. Please play well here and make a mark.’

Although I was close to Yoon Seong-tae, there was nothing that made Yoon Seong-tae lose to Kang Hee-seok, whether it was his chemistry with me or his batting skills, which was the Keystone duo. Plus, he was young. The reason Kang Hee-seok is the starter is simply because he is a veteran.

I took this opportunity to pray earnestly, hoping that Yoon Seong-tae would get rid of Kang Hee-seok, who was playing like he was possessed by a ghost.