Chapter 54

Chapter 54, Joining the National Team

Manager Heo Jun had made his decision early.

He had done it while ignoring the normal order of decisions inside Korean baseball.

“I will take full responsibility. Choi Seong will become the greatest player in our country’s present, no, across its past and future. Perhaps he already has.”

Heo Jun absolutely needed a player like Choi Seong.

Without him, Korea might lose.

No.

Winning the tournament itself could become difficult.

“Japan has a rising star named Hoshino Yuki. Korea needs to answer with Choi Seong.”

Hoshino Yuki was dominating Japanese baseball with an ERA in the 1.00s.

Choi Seong was doing the same thing in Korea.

There was also a connection between the two.

Japanese media and Korean newspapers constantly published articles comparing the two rivals.

Wouldn’t they meet during the Olympics?

Heo Jun thought that while ending the press conference.

Because he had acted this way, sudden beanballs or excessive workloads against Choi Seong would probably disappear.

There were several other players on the roster he still needed to evaluate.

But if necessary, he was willing to include them immediately just to justify protecting Choi Seong.

In a short tournament, the performance of one person could change everything.

18 wins, 1 tie, 5 losses.

That was our current position.

We were playing the best baseball in Korea and crushing the league.

Unfortunately, we failed to sweep the Suwon Rangers.

We won the series instead.

Once we finished our final ninth matchup, we would have played against every team in the league.

In the meantime, the club gave me twenty million won for my no-hitter.

Every player who had participated in the game received five million won.

The club explained that a no-hitter was not a record belonging only to the pitcher.

If even one error had happened, my record could have disappeared.

“The Seoul Panthers are currently rebuilding.”

Manager Rodriguez explained this during the meeting before Game 1.

He was right.

The team had hired a superstar manager, but had collapsed even further.

With the Panthers hanging around the bottom of the standings, their fans were already demanding the manager’s dismissal.

“Let’s quickly become the first team to reach twenty wins, then start looking toward thirty.”

“Yes!”

The players shouted loudly.

I was not in the lineup for the first game against the Panthers.

My body still felt slightly stiff after the no-hitter.

I had also appeared at the plate in every remaining game against the Rangers.

Taking one full game of rest seemed reasonable.

The Panthers...

After this season, their long dark period would finally begin ending.

A new manager.

New players.

They would not immediately win a championship, but they would return to being a team that regularly played autumn baseball.

“Play ball!”

Today was Norman against the opposing third starter.

I thought it would be an easy win.

It was not.

The reason was simple.

Norman shook.

And the other players started shaking with him.

Norman completely lost his control and repeatedly issued walks.

The Panthers never wasted those opportunities.

Every time they created a chance, they produced another timely hit.

They scored again and again.

5-1.

The score had already opened up.

Manager Rodriguez simply watched without much reaction.

Maybe because we were three games ahead of second place, he looked fairly relaxed.

“It definitely feels unstable when you’re not playing.”

Kim Hak-seong told me after making an out and returning to the dugout.

“What are we, some one-man team?”

“I don’t know. It really feels that way somehow.”

I did not answer.

If that were true, we could never have reached first place.

We would have been destroyed in every game where I was not the starting pitcher.

“Everyone is simply having a bad day.”

“I, is that it?”

Our only run came from Yoon Jae-jun’s solo home run.

This team was like a swarm of grasshoppers.

If one part of the lineup failed to explode, everyone remained quiet.

But once one person started hitting, the entire lineup suddenly concentrated its firepower.

In other words, there was no middle ground.

“Either way, we play over a hundred games. This is only one of them.”

A first-place pennant-race team normally finished with a winning percentage between .600 and .700.

In other words, even the best teams usually lost three or four out of every ten games.

“Yeah. If that’s all it is, then fine. Anyway, Seong, don’t get injured, okay?”

I smiled at Kim Hak-seong’s desperate voice.

The first game against the Panthers ended in an 8-3 loss.

Loud cheers from Panthers fans filled Jamsil Stadium.

That made sense.

They had just defeated the hottest team in the league.

Because of the defeat, the team atmosphere had become slightly heavy.

Manager Rodriguez suddenly shouted loudly.

The interpreter beside him translated just as loudly.

“There are days when you lose! All you have to do is win tomorrow! Take a shower, sleep early, and prepare for the next game!”

Manager Rodriguez knew when to loosen the team.

He had probably decided that team morale could not be allowed to fall right now.

In any case, this made two straight losses for us.

The Seoul Panthers coaching staff gathered early the next morning.

The reason was simple.

They wanted to beat the Oceans again and knock them down a little.

“The problem is Choi Seong is playing again.”

“For some reason, whenever he plays, that entire batting lineup suddenly becomes more focused.”

“Is that what makes him the next generation’s superstar? Still, we need to hand them their first losing series...”

The coaches complained one after another.

The Panthers were already receiving heavy criticism for their poor play from the beginning of the season.

They had finished sixth last year, and rumors about firing the manager were already spreading.

Star manager Lee Jun-ho quietly listened to the coaching staff.

As a player, he had ranked first in career home runs in Korean baseball.

He also held titles for RBIs, on-base percentage, and most home runs in a single season.

He had been one of Korea’s representative sluggers.

“We’ll stick with the normal plan.”

If the Panthers lost several more games and dropped further down the standings during summer, Lee Jun-ho would become the number-one candidate to be fired.

Still, he remained calm.

“Let’s not do anything excessive.”

“But...”

Lee Jun-ho shook his head.

“If one hitter could win championships alone, I would’ve won eight championships already. No matter how big a star someone is, one person cannot control an entire game. Walk him or pitch completely around him. Most importantly, tell them to avoid hitting him.”

Lee Jun-ho respected everything Choi Seong had accomplished so far.

During this series, Choi Seong would appear as a hitter rather than a pitcher.

They could have considered deliberately throwing brushback pitches or hitting him to weaken his confidence.

Especially because the deadline the team owner had given Lee Jun-ho before firing him was rapidly approaching.

“When I was a rookie, I was hit by countless brushback pitches and beanballs. The only reason was that I hit a lot of home runs and extra-base hits.”

Everyone became quiet.

They all knew how many pitchers had envied and targeted him when Korea’s greatest slugger first appeared.

Even if they did not openly admit it, pitchers were probably already thinking about hitting Choi Seong as he walked his own road toward glory.

When Lee Jun-ho had once approached Korea’s single-season home run record, countless pitchers had chosen walks instead of actually challenging him.

“Let’s play straight baseball. Of course, we should still face him mostly with walks and chase pitches.”

Everyone nodded.

They did not want to simply hand away this game.

They wanted to give the first-place team a losing series.

The club would not wait much longer for Lee Jun-ho either.

He needed to prove himself somehow by reaching a postseason position.

“Play ball!”

Choi Seong was batting fourth.

He stood at the center of the lineup.

Choi Seong had missed both previous games.

The team had lost both.

He clearly possessed the qualities of a star player.

If the team kept losing whenever Choi Seong did not play, people would constantly talk about his influence whenever he returned to the lineup.

Lee Jun-ho himself had experienced that before.

Because of that, in the old, strict baseball culture, he had often been forced to play even with mild sprains.

The team’s victory had always been placed above the individual player’s body.

He hated that culture.

Fortunately, Manager Rodriguez did not seem to care about such things.

The actual problem was the Panthers’ performance.

“Walk!”

Their fourth starter walked Kwon Geon-woo.

The opposing lineup had national team players batting first through fourth.

First, Kwon Geon-woo.

Second, Go Gyeong-tae.

Third, Yoon Jae-jun.

Fourth, Choi Seong.

Even the hitters after them were dangerous.

If they gave the very first batter a walk...

Crack.

Exactly what they feared happened.

Go Gyeong-tae hit a single.

Top of the first.

Runners on first and second, no outs.

Yoon Jae-jun also added a single.

Now the only person remaining was Choi Seong.

“What should we do?”

The head coach asked Lee Jun-ho nervously.

Lee Jun-ho tightly closed his eyes.

“It’s fine if we walk him. Keep throwing outside chase pitches.”

It really was a terrifying batting lineup.

There was no one they could safely avoid.

Everyone was in excellent hitting form, producing walks and hits.

And the moment Choi Seong returned to the lineup, everyone’s eyes had completely changed.

“You mean...”

“Daniel Sanchez actually has the highest swinging-strikeout rate on that team. There’s no other choice. Avoid Choi Seong.”

Choi Seong currently ranked second in home runs.

He had nine.

At the same time, his strikeout rate was below ten percent.

That meant he put nearly every ball into play.

Contact and power.

A player who possessed both.

Trying to solve one problem could easily create an even bigger one.

Crack.

Choi Seong attacked the very first pitch outside.

It was clearly a slider breaking away from the zone.

Unfortunately, it went foul.

Crack.

He attacked the second pitch without hesitation too.

Lee Jun-ho could not stop himself from shouting.

“That pitch was completely outside!”

It was a home-run-distance foul ball.

Choi Seong looked expressionlessly at his bat, then returned to the box.

Two strikes, no balls.

“Keep it outside no matter what. Make him chase.”

The dugout sent the sign.

But Choi Seong continued making contact and fouling pitches away.

When pitches moved too far outside, he simply watched them.

Before anyone realized it, the count had become full.

Lee Jun-ho had to make a choice.

Should they throw the finishing pitch here?

Or simply walk him?

After thinking deeply, he opened his eyes.

“All right. Let’s do this.”

The coaches around him widened their eyes at his plan.

Then slowly smiled.

It was the most appropriate arrangement one former superstar could give the superstar of the present.