Chapter 22 — You’re Telling Me That Ball Keeps Carrying?
The Blue-White intra-squad game was simple enough.
Yun Jaejun, Kwon Geonwoo, and I were placed on the same team.
One team was made up mainly of rookies, while the other consisted mostly of the existing senior players.
Coach Rodriguez's method of dividing the teams wasn't complicated.
"We've divided the players who were already expected to join spring training and the players with the highest potential into the Blue Team and White Team."
We were the White Team.
The challengers.
"We'll be evaluating not only individual performance, but also team performance, willingness to sacrifice for the team, and everything else."
Being placed on the challenge team wasn't bad.
I had always been someone who challenged others, after all.
The problem was that pitchers could only show what they had for a single inning.
But that issue was quickly solved.
"Each pitcher will be responsible for one inning. And according to the newly introduced 'Choi Seong Rule,' instead of using a designated hitter, Choi Seong will remain in the game for the White Team."
Everyone's eyes turned toward me.
I simply looked straight back at the coach with confidence.
Wasn't a rule change of this level only natural?
I was a third-year high school player who had created all kinds of records in just one year.
A special talent deserved special treatment.
"Thank you."
In fact, the first thing the Busan Oceans' front office had done was change the rules.
General Manager Kim Sangwon quickly called a board meeting and had the regulations revised.
Surprisingly, the other teams accepted it without much resistance.
The reason was simple.
Professional baseball needed a new star.
Its popularity would steadily grow in the future, but right now, the league was going through a temporary slump.
They needed a star player who could change that.
More importantly, the fact that the Oceans had practically made last place their permanent home played a big role.
Their ranking probably wouldn't change much anyway.
From the other teams' perspective, changing one rule and making the Oceans owe them a favor wasn't such a bad deal.
"And does the Blue Team have any pitcher they'd specifically like to face? If not, we'll proceed like this."
Not a single pitcher raised his hand.
I would remain in the game for all nine innings, while the other hitters would rotate every three innings.
The White Team's starting lineup included me, Yun Jaejun, and Kwon Geonwoo.
I would start as the pitcher for the first inning.
Then another pitcher would replace me.
Immediately afterward, I would switch to designated hitter and stay in the game.
"Play ball!"
The coaches served as umpires.
Filming had been approved, and the Oceans' YouTube channel was broadcasting the game live.
At least we were lucky enough to play on one of the warmer days in December.
The opposing team's leadoff hitter was left fielder Park Hyeonghwan.
He had been with this team for a long time and usually posted a batting average in the upper .200s.
He was fast, which made him a regular table-setter.
The only unfortunate part was that he would become a free agent after this year.
There was no guarantee he'd remain with the team for much longer.
My power curve clipped the outer edge of the strike zone.
Park Hyeonghwan let out a sigh.
What could he do?
His opponent was me.
Even judging only by the stats currently floating in front of my eyes, I'd already raised them quite a bit.
That was because I'd spent the entire offseason training.
Choi Seong
Pitching Stats (Super Rookie +10%)
Stamina: 95/200
Fastball: 70+7/100
Slider: 44+4/100
Circle Changeup: 20+2/100
Power Curve: 10+1/100
Curve: 3+0/100
Screwball: 1/100 (Championship Mercenary)
Injury Risk While Pitching: 0%
(Increasing the number of pitch slots will increase injury risk.)
Batting Stats
Power: 55+5/100
(Can break through the limit after exceeding 100.)
Contact: 50+5/100
(Can break through the limit after exceeding 100.)
Speed: 16+1/100
(Can break through the limit after exceeding 100.)
Potential Abilities
(Activate when specific conditions are fulfilled.)
Indomitable Will: Choi Seong from his previous life created miracles no matter the situation. Reduces emotional disturbance.
Sweet Revenge: Activates when hit by a pitch, intentionally walked, or placed in similar situations during a game. It can also activate when Choi Seong experiences emotional agitation. All stats temporarily increase by 20%.
Championship Mercenary: Activates when the team finished near the bottom of the standings in the previous season. One desired breaking-ball pitch can be used for the entire season without injury risk.
(Selected pitch: Screwball)
Super Rookie: All stats increase by 10% during the first professional season. If an award such as MVP or Rookie of the Year is won, additional stats will be awarded and the potential will evolve.
Even raising a stat by a single point could cause a sharp increase in average velocity and RPM.
However, the higher the stats became, the slower they increased.
Should I throw a four-seam fastball for the first time in a while?
A well-controlled pitch rose high through the zone.
Yun Jaejun had suggested throwing one pitch that appeared to miss high, so I played along.
Park Hyeonghwan swung.
And completely missed.
His timing was far too late.
"Crazy..."
Park Hyeonghwan saw the velocity displayed on the speed gun and sighed again in disbelief.
He was a player expected to command a free-agent contract in the twenty-billion-won range next year.
His batting average wasn't especially high, but he had good plate discipline, so his walk rate was excellent.
And yet, even he had instinctively swung at that pitch.
Two strikes.
No balls.
Once the count reached this point, there wasn't much a hitter could do.
He had no choice but to be dragged along by the pitcher.
I suddenly remembered a Major League pitcher from my past life.
Every season, he recorded around two hundred strikeouts and remained beloved by the media.
There were even stories claiming that his pitches occasionally tore through a catcher's glove.
In terms of pure stuff, he had probably been the greatest pitcher in Major League history.
Standing around 190 centimeters tall, he fired fastballs downward from his towering frame and led Arizona to a championship.
His name was Jos.
A man who was literally like a shark.
"Mr. Han. Get to two strikes somehow. There's only one trick to getting strikeouts. It's a battle over whether the pitcher gets two strikes first or the hitter gets three balls first."
I'd agreed with his words.
After that, the way I struck hitters out in the Major Leagues evolved into a style focused on getting two strikes first.
In other words, I stopped wasting pitches.
I controlled every pitch right on the razor-thin line between a strike and a ball.
Remembering Jos's advice, I went into my windup.
Then I threw.
This time, the circle changeup headed toward the inside of Park Hyeonghwan's body.
Since the ball broke toward the right—
"Ugh!"
Park Hyeonghwan instinctively backed away.
The velocity itself wasn't particularly high at only 125 km/h, but the movement was significant.
More importantly, my earlier slider and fastball had forced his attention toward the outside and upper parts of the zone.
That was why he'd hurriedly pulled himself backward.
He thought it was about to hit him.
Unfortunately for him, the ball dropped directly into the strike zone.
"Strikeout!"
One of the coaches standing behind the plate in protective gear called him out.
Park Hyeonghwan slowly trudged back toward the dugout.
Everyone probably understood that they wouldn't have many opportunities.
Simply being selected for spring training practically meant becoming a first-team starting candidate.
Naturally, competition inside the club was fierce.
And this time, the selection would be made based solely on this game.
The second batter was right fielder Yu Gam.
His physical ability wasn't bad, but fans constantly mocked him for making plays that were, quite literally, "regrettable."
Unlike a typical outfielder, his body carried a considerable amount of muscle.
Yu Gam, the man constantly called "regrettable" by the fans, calmly stepped into the box.
He was a classic slugger who had hit twenty home runs the previous season.
The problem was that he'd also struck out 161 times.
If he connected, it could become a home run.
But the chances of him actually connecting weren't particularly high.
Even against a slow curveball, he confidently swung through it.
Yet he was still grinning.
He was currently in his mid-twenties and would eventually have his time dominating the KBO.
But for now, he was still a late-blooming star.
Interesting.
He was smiling even after seeing my pitches.
He flailed helplessly at an outside slider.
But on the following four-seam fastball, he showed a completely different side.
The moment the fastball came in, he reacted quickly and hammered it.
There was clearly a reason he had been placed second in the modern style of using a powerful hitter in the two-hole.
The ball flew beyond the infield and into the outfield.
But center fielder Kwon Geonwoo caught it safely.
"Pretty interesting."
He really was a hitter who had invested everything into power.
I struck out the next batter, the new foreign player Daniel Sanchez, then stepped down from the mound.
Now it was time to hit.
The Busan Oceans' YouTube channel had three hundred thousand subscribers.
Around one-sixth of them, roughly fifty thousand people, were currently watching the intra-squad game live.
It was an unusually high number.
General Manager Kim Sangwon, who had come out as a guest commentator for the day, awkwardly smiled at the other commentator, scout Kim Minsu.
This was all part of the club's marketing strategy.
The team might be mocked as the "Last-Place Oceans" because of its performance, but it still had one of the largest fanbases in the league.
"Choi Seong, next year's most highly anticipated prospect, steps into the batter's box after recording two strikeouts and one fly ball to the outfield in the first inning."
"General Manager, weren't you the one who pushed hard to allow him to both pitch and hit? Thanks to the Choi Seong Rule, he'll be able to perform even more freely."
"Exactly. Do you have any idea how hard I worked to get the Choi Seong Rule implemented? If more two-way players appear on other teams and it contributes to the development of Korean baseball—"
At those words, complaints exploded in the live chat.
Stop praising yourselves and talk about Choi Seong.
This is the level of the Last-Place Oceans front office... You're in last place and you're seriously saying this?
But Choi Seong is legit. He pitched insanely well earlier.
Kim Minsu felt somewhat disappointed inside.
The front office had genuinely worked hard.
Yet because of the team's poor results, everyone there was being criticized together.
Kim Sangwon, however, remained calm.
"The opposing pitcher was newly signed this year. Wright. He's a player who had fairly respectable results in the Major Leagues."
A white pitcher stood on the mound.
But no one particularly cared about him.
Because Choi Seong, batting ninth, was about to take his first plate appearance.
"That's right. Wright is a right-handed overhand pitcher whose strengths are a fastball in the mid-to-upper 140s and a high-spin curveball. You have no idea how much effort it took us to convince him to come here from the United States. He recorded ten wins in his rookie Major League season and then spent five straight seasons as Cleveland's fifth starter."
Choi Seong stepped into the batter's box without doing any particular stretches or preparation.
Wright threw the first pitch.
It was a curveball that bounced before even reaching the plate.
"Wright makes a clean first pitch after coming to Korea, but Choi Seong doesn't react. The score is currently tied 3–3. Is it all right for us to expect a home run from Choi Seong, our three-billion-won golden arm?"
"Since he's still a rookie, there's a good chance it'll be difficult. Of course, he hit many home runs in high school, but professional baseball is a completely different world."
"That's true, General Manager. Wright was still Cleveland's fifth starter as recently as this year. This definitely won't be easy."
At that moment, Wright threw his second pitch.
The fastball barely missed the outside edge.
But the home plate umpire called it a strike.
"That looked a little outside..."
Even so, Choi Seong didn't look at the umpire or show any kind of reaction.
He simply stepped out of the batter's box for a moment before calmly stepping back in.
"Whenever I watch Choi Seong, he never seems shaken at all. He's a fascinating player. His mentality is completely made of steel."
Kim Minsu, the man who had brought Choi Seong to the team, praised him.
Wright went into his windup again and threw.
This time, the fastball barely entered the lower-outside edge of the strike zone.
Choi Seong swung without hesitation.
"Ah! The bat broke!"
The wooden bat, which wasn't particularly durable, snapped.
But the ball kept flying.
"What a shame... Wait, you're telling me that ball keeps carrying?!"
General Manager Kim Sangwon's shocked voice rang out.
A ball traveling that far after the bat had broken was practically impossible without overwhelming physical power behind the swing.
"Uh... huh? It's still going! The center fielder watches the ball and gives up chasing it!"
The ball kept flying.
Far.
Very far.
And it shattered the balance of the game.
"At the most important moment, he hits a solo home run! The score is now 4–3! Choi Seong is incredible right from the start!"
"Ah... Ah... I can feel it... This kid is special... Has Choi Seong's jersey number already been decided?"
"As far as I know, it's number 30. He said his goal is to record thirty wins in a single season."
"Then you absolutely have to give it to him."
There were already plenty of people in the chat saying that the moment Choi Seong's jersey number became official, they would buy his uniform and have his name printed on it.
Kim Sangwon cleverly revealed Choi Seong's number ahead of time.
A player who had thrown a scoreless inning and was perfect at the plate as well...
This was undeniable.
As Choi Seong calmly rounded the bases and returned, every player applauded him.
"The players in the dugout are applauding. It looks like applause for perhaps the greatest genius prospect we've ever seen."
"Wright doesn't need to lose confidence either. The season hasn't even started yet."
After giving up the home run, Wright cleanly retired the next three batters and left the mound.
The 4–3 score quickly changed again.
Despite Choi Seong's home run, the White Team couldn't protect the lead.
"The Blue Team has taken the lead again, 7–4. The regular starters really are different."
"At this rate, none of the White Team players are going to make spring training. The Blue Team players seem even more focused than usual today."
In the bottom of the seventh inning, Choi Seong stepped up to bat once again.
But there was someone receiving even more attention than Choi Seong.
The pitcher who had just taken the mound.
Last season's hold leader, Park Geonwoo.
Last-Place Oceans spent 7 billion won on a middle reliever LOL.
Burning 7 billion won just to protect one inning? Only the Last-Place Oceans can do it.
This year will be different. 7 billion overpay LOLLLLL.
The mockery continued in the comments.
"He was one of the main reasons the Jaguars won the championship last year. The Oceans signed him for seven billion won over four years, and after Choi Seong, he's probably the player under the most pressure to prove himself."
"Park Geonwoo has led the league in holds for three consecutive years and recorded more than thirty holds in each of the past two seasons. His ERA is also in the low twos. Can Choi Seong actually hit him?"
"He's a classic two-pitch pitcher who dominated the league with his fastball and slider. I think this matchup will probably be difficult for Choi Seong."
As those words ended, Park Geonwoo delivered the pitch.
As expected from the league's best setup man the previous season, his motion was incredibly quick.
Rather than loading up to put more power behind the pitch, he used a quick motion designed to prevent stolen bases.
Crack.
Choi Seong attacked the first pitch immediately.
"Huh?"
A mixture of gasps and screams erupted from everyone watching.
