Chapter 25
25. The Switch Pitcher Dominating Double-A
The stands at the Blue Ghosts’ home stadium in Texas.
A regular Double-A game was a simple local festival and place of relaxation.
“That Tyler kid got too nervous last time. He needed to pitch with more confidence. He played worse than his actual ability.”
Home fans sat behind the backstop and first-base line, holding hot dogs and beer while looking lazily at the field.
Major League Houston sat in last place.
The prospects were not doing much better.
Naturally, the mood was poor.
Then the stadium announcer spoke brightly.
“Ladies and gentlemen! Today’s starting pitcher for the Corpus Christi Blue Ghosts, number forty-seven, Ji-tae Seo!”
A sixteen-year-old Asian pitcher climbed the mound.
Home fans had almost no expectations.
“How badly is this one going to get beaten? Wait, he’s starting? Things really are desperate.”
There was no excitement in their expressions.
Plenty of international amateur signings wandered through the minors and disappeared.
Tyler, another prospect, had just been destroyed too.
“They should fill the Major League roster instead of bringing in some Asian kid.”
“He’ll get crushed. Tell the bullpen to start warming up early.”
A middle-aged man drank his beer and muttered.
On the mound, Seo Ji-tae put the glove on his right hand and took the set position.
His right foot rose.
The first pitch came from the three-quarter slot.
“Hmm?”
The lazy expressions in the stands stiffened.
Rising fastball like a laser.
The hitter swung violently at fastball timing.
His bat cut through nothing.
A red number appeared on the scoreboard.
[97 mph, 156 km/h]
“Ninety-seven? That Asian kid?”
The middle-aged man froze mid-drink.
Beer ran down his chin.
He did not blink.
He was not the only one.
The sleepy crowd began stirring.
“Is the radar gun broken? It said ninety-seven.”
“What was his name? Ji-tae?”
“Wait, I looked it up. He’s sixteen! A kid throws like that?”
That was only the beginning.
Second pitch.
It looked like an outside fastball.
Then suddenly dropped.
High-speed splitter.
“That kid is sharp.”
Even at a glance, the quality was far above an ordinary minor league pitcher.
Third pitch.
Rising fastball.
The hitter made contact, but only produced a fly ball.
The next batter adjusted his helmet and entered with a serious expression.
“What is he doing now?”
Just as the crowd became interested, something even more shocking happened.
Seo Ji-tae suddenly moved the glove onto his left hand.
“What is he doing?”
“Why did he change gloves? Is that allowed?”
The scene made no sense under normal baseball expectations.
Then someone shouted.
“He’s a switch pitcher! He threw left-handed, and now he’s going right-handed!”
“That’s possible?”
“Can you even do something like that in Double-A?”
Fans behind the backstop stood.
Hot dogs were lowered.
Beer cups shook.
A switch pitcher straight from imagination had appeared.
The young pitcher really set up right-handed.
But simply changing hands was not the end.
Everyone watched his form.
His arm dropped downward.
“Submarine?”
Shockingly, the right-handed release point came from submarine.
Not only the crowd, but the hitters became confused.
“Hup!”
The hitter still had the memory of a 156 km/h left-handed fastball.
Now a ridiculous pitch came rising from near the ground.
The ball moved violently and destroyed the hitter’s timing.
He reacted instinctively.
The bat passed far below the ball.
The hitter lost balance.
“What the…?”
People began standing all across the stadium.
Some grabbed their heads.
Others stared between the scoreboard and the hitter sitting in the dirt.
What they were seeing destroyed normal baseball logic.
“My God. Is he using magic?”
“Ninety-seven with the left arm, and submarine movement with the right?”
Second pitch.
A filthy frisbee slider swept far outside.
Even Double-A hitters looked confused by the movement.
Swing and miss.
Then another upshoot.
Strike.
Strikeout.
The home stadium quickly became excited.
“I looked him up. Houston signed him this year.”
“Houston did? My God, they got a switch pitcher? The Apollos finally made a good move.”
The early disinterest completely disappeared.
Fans could no longer calmly eat hot dogs and watch.
“He’s good!”
By the end of the top of the first, home fans were standing.
They showered the sixteen-year-old Asian boy walking off the mound with cheers.
High in the press box behind home plate.
David, a reporter for a Houston-area sports newspaper, stared blankly between the mound and his laptop.
On the screen was the draft article he had written before the game.
[Houston front office makes a stupid 1.5 million dollar gamble. Seventeen-year-old Asian kid pushed into Double-A far too quickly.]
Houston’s front office, despite being a permanent last-place organization, had used nearly half its bonus-pool resources on an Asian pitcher.
“At first, I thought the Apollos were idiots…”
As a reporter, David naturally knew about Seo Ji-tae.
When he heard the kid was being promoted to Double-A so quickly, he had laughed.
Double-A was not a place where a child survived only by throwing hard.
Now David’s fingers froze above the keyboard.
“I’m glad I came to see this in person!”
Top of the fourth.
A 156 km/h fastball exploded from the three-quarter slot.
It isn’t one lucky 156 after averaging in the high 140s. Most of his fastballs are 153 to 156!
The hitter swung with everything he had.
Missed.
David began sweating.
Because of the rising-fastball illusion, hitters repeatedly swung under the pitch.
Strikeouts were one of the most exciting things a pitcher could show in baseball.
Seo Ji-tae’s left hand kept making hitters look foolish.
Of course, even fastballs could get crushed if they were only fast.
Seo Ji-tae suddenly dropped the velocity to 149 and stole the hitter’s timing.
“He’s experienced. Most young prospects proud of their fastball just throw as hard as possible, but he immediately changes timing!”
Seo Ji-tae was not a one-dimensional pitcher relying only on overwhelming stuff.
That was already shocking.
Then David stood again.
A right-handed hitter entered.
Seo Ji-tae changed gloves.
David’s forehead tightened and relaxed repeatedly.
I never thought I’d see this. A switch pitcher. And he’s using it smoothly through four innings.
Seo Ji-tae’s body sank toward the ground.
The right-handed submarine pitch came forward.
Different arm.
Different release height.
Monster.
David’s hand became slippery with sweat.
Another out.
A pitcher freely using two completely different forms.
Every hitter looked miserable.
David stared between the scoreboard and another angry hitter walking away.
His understanding of baseball was collapsing.
He quickly held down backspace.
The critical article draft disappeared.
On the blank white page, his trembling fingers typed a new headline.
[A switch has been installed to revive the collapsing Apollos!]
Seo Ji-tae’s Double-A appearance was creating a storm completely different from what anyone had expected.
Seo Ji-tae’s shocking Double-A debut.
Korean baseball communities exploded.
, What is Seo Ji-tae? Isn’t it still August? He went from rookie ball to Double-A already?
, …At this point, were we wrong?
His press conference before leaving Korea had made many people hate him.
He had tried to advise Korean baseball, but they treated it as arrogance.
Still, sports eventually spoke through skill.
When Seo Ji-tae reached Double-A in less than a month, the atmosphere slowly changed.
[Crazy, Seo Ji-tae Double-A debut fan video is out. Look at hitters missing and collapsing. Is that even a human pitch trajectory?]
, Damn, he really is good.
, Honestly, he never said anything wrong. People were coping because they hated him.
, So what? It’s only Double-A. Prospects always reach there.
, But his promotion speed is insane.
, I still don’t accept it.
, What are you going to do if you don’t accept it?
, Stop changing sides so fast. Let’s wait until the end of the season. Can he really survive Double-A? At least reach Triple-A.
, These days teams often develop pitching prospects in Double-A and call them straight to the Majors. Triple-A is used more for hitters.
, True. Triple-A is hitter-friendly. Teams don’t always send pitching prospects there.
The people who had insulted Seo Ji-tae became quieter.
, So saying he’d skip the KBO and go directly to the Majors wasn’t arrogance. It was just true.
, He uses both arms and even the mechanics are completely different. Isn’t that unprecedented?
, Where are all the people who said Seo Ji-tae would fail?
, They’re above you. He went from rookie ball in less than a month. That’s BK-level speed. Didn’t BK finish the minors in three months?
The mood was changing.
Baseball experts trapped in older theories looked awkward.
[We still need the final results. The call-up has been fast, but it’s only Double-A.]
Some people changed their argument and said evaluation was meaningless until the season ended.
But changing public opinion in less than one month already proved how shocking Seo Ji-tae’s performance had been.
[Texas Apollos prospect Ji-tae Seo fan cam]
[What do you think about Houston’s switch pitcher?]
[The Apollos have a switch pitcher?]
With every passing day, local Texas media and fans began looking more closely at the boy.
