Chapter 26 – I’ll Definitely Recruit That Guy
I calmly looked at Manager Rodriguez.
What was he going to say?
Was he going to scold me for giving advice while bypassing the manager and coaches?
As I quietly wondered about it, what he gave me was a thumbs-up.
“Good job.”
Fortunately, Manager Rodriguez was an open-minded man.
At his praise, I raised my thumb as well.
“How in the world did you figure out your opponent’s characteristics so accurately?”
I obviously couldn’t tell him that I had already experienced all of this in my previous life...
“I just happened to watch Hoshino Yuki pitch with some interest before. He’s quite an interesting guy.”
“The guy who was called Asia’s biggest prospect before you came along is merely ‘interesting’ to you? You’ve got more guts than I expected.”
“It’s an honor if you see it that way.”
After exchanging a few light jokes with Manager Rodriguez, I turned my attention back to the game.
They probably wouldn’t be able to touch my pitches easily.
There were several players on the other side who had made names for themselves in baseball during my previous life, but right now, they were nothing more than prospects.
Normally, when pitchers started games, they thought that if they were lucky, they could finish without giving up any runs.
And if they were pitching well, they usually aimed for one or two runs allowed over seven innings.
That was all they had in mind.
The game moved quickly.
“Strikeout!”
Hoshino Yuki’s pitches became faster and more persistent.
I could tell just by looking into his eyes.
He had started the game thinking it was only a casual practice match.
Now, however, he was pitching at one hundred percent.
“It’s probably going to be pretty difficult for us to score from now on.”
As though my words had become a prophecy, our batters couldn’t hit Hoshino Yuki’s pitches.
Of course, the Hiroshima batters were in the exact same situation.
They were completely devoured by my pitches.
Literally, “devoured” was probably the most accurate word.
They couldn’t even properly touch the ball.
“Strikeout!”
At the umpire’s strikeout call, everyone stared at me as if they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
With everyone looking at me like that, I simply grinned.
My fastball had especially good movement today.
Good movement meant there were that many more chances to get strikeouts.
I kept them scoreless through the eighth inning.
Ten strikeouts.
Four hits allowed.
After throwing around eighty pitches, I came off the mound to applause from everyone.
It was to prevent injury.
“Good! Bravo!”
I could hear cheers from Manager Rodriguez and the other coaches.
Everyone on our side was smiling at me.
Meanwhile, the atmosphere inside Hiroshima’s dugout wasn’t good at all.
It wasn’t because Yuki had given up three runs early in the game.
The batting coach had lined up the hitters who failed to score and was staring at them with a frightening expression.
“The momentum will probably change now.”
In this tight game with a three-run lead, our closer was Ahn Jae-hyun.
This was going to be difficult.
“Why would it change?”
Yoon Jae-jun carefully asked me, but I didn’t answer.
Tricky pitchers like submarine pitchers might be effective in Korea, but Japan was different.
A pitcher needed a certain level of ability, even as an overhand pitcher, just to reach Japan’s first team.
Tak.
The leadoff hitter connected on the fifth pitch.
It was a normal hit into the outfield.
Cheers erupted from Hiroshima’s bench for the first time in quite a while.
No outs.
Runner on first.
I could see Ahn Jae-hyun let out a small sigh.
“Hm...”
Could we win?
Or would they turn the game around?
It was already out of my hands.
All I could do now was watch the result.
Ahn Jae-hyun gave up another hit to the next batter.
No outs.
Runners on first and second.
A batter from the heart of their lineup stepped into the box.
From the bench, Hoshino Yuki quietly watched what was happening.
“Strike!”
The first pitch landed in the strike zone.
However, the batter didn’t react.
A little color returned to Ahn Jae-hyun’s face.
144 km/h.
A rising fastball came inside toward the batter again.
Clang!
At the same time, the opponent swung his bat.
Ahn Jae-hyun’s face instantly turned pale.
When he turned around on the mound, the center fielder was already charging toward the area in front of the second baseman.
It was a routine fly ball to the outfield.
At the same time, the runner on second pretended to head for third before returning to the base.
“One out!”
Only then did they finally get through one-third of Hiroshima’s final attack in the ninth inning.
Ahn Jae-hyun smiled brightly, seemingly having regained his confidence.
But that confidence was closer to poison.
Clang!
He immediately gave up a single to left field against the next batter.
The runner on second easily crossed home plate.
The score was now 3–1.
A dangerous two-run lead.
One out.
Runners on first and second.
“Don’t lose focus!”
The players on the bench shouted at once.
Getting too confident right now was definitely a bad idea.
He could start trusting his pitches too much and keep throwing straight down the middle of the strike zone.
Ahn Jae-hyun’s stuff wasn’t bad.
But during spring camp, that didn’t mean much.
Because of the lighter training during winter, his body still wasn’t fully ready.
If he kept throwing with his body in this condition, he would eventually get hit.
“Aim for the corners. The corners.”
I muttered quietly out of frustration.
The other players beside me heard it and immediately started shouting.
“Do you want to lose to Japan?! Aim for the corners!”
“Choi Seong says to aim for the corners! Throw pitches that just clip the strike zone!”
Ahn Jae-hyun, who had lost confidence again, looked toward us and firmly nodded.
Then he waited for the catcher’s sign again.
“Strike!”
Fortunately, against the next batter, he threw a pitch that barely caught the edge of the zone.
His control wasn’t bad right now.
The problem was that his pitches lacked sharpness.
To compensate for that, he needed to deceive the opponent.
He had to make his pitches look like something the batter could never follow.
“Ball!”
Disappointment appeared on Ahn Jae-hyun’s face.
His control slipped, and the ball missed the strike zone by about one and a half ball widths.
One strike, one ball.
It might seem like a small, insignificant moment.
But I believed the game could be decided starting right here.
Would he add another strike?
Or would he fall further behind in the count?
“Strike!”
Fortunately, this time he added another strike with a tempting pitch.
Now he needed to throw another pitch outside the zone.
Hot-headed pitchers often tried to get the strikeout here.
But a catcher wouldn’t allow that.
Because they had just earned themselves one more chance to tempt the hitter.
Clang!
Just like an experienced catcher, Yoon Jae-jun called for another bait pitch.
The opponent weakly made contact with it.
A ground ball toward the third baseman.
Perfect for a double play.
The defense smoothly connected the throw from second to first.
And just like that, the game against Hiroshima’s second team ended.
The players calmly came out and shook hands with one another.
Among them, Yuki’s expression was especially amusing.
“Next time, I’ll definitely beat you.”
He quietly whispered in Japanese as he shook my hand.
So naturally, I answered him.
“You?”
For the record, I said it in Japanese, not Korean.
Yuki’s face instantly turned red.
If I remembered correctly, “Yuki” meant “snow” in Japanese.
It felt strangely satisfying, as though I had slightly dirtied his pure white world.
“Choi Seong...”
At that moment, there was a Japanese man in the stands carefully watching Choi Seong.
“His average velocity is B-grade, his pitch quality is A-grade, and his control isn’t bad.”
As he spoke, he slowly wrote something in his notebook.
It was a world filled with cutting-edge electronic devices, but he insisted on using his old analog method.
There were things you could only notice by doing things in such a rough, old-fashioned way.
“He has more than enough potential as a pitcher. Seven years left until free agency. The problem is... whether he has any intention of coming to Japan.”
These days, most East Asian baseball players preferred heading directly to the Major Leagues instead of moving into another Asian league.
After all, America was everyone’s dream.
“As a hitter...”
He was already complete.
His potential as a pitcher was enormous, but as a hitter, his batting form, swing path, and power had already been refined into a complete package.
“Already a finished product. More than enough potential to become a two-way player.”
He slowly wrote his evaluation of Choi Seong in the notebook.
Then something suddenly made his pen stop.
“Oh?”
Yuki said something to Choi Seong with a frustrated expression.
Choi Seong smiled and answered him.
Then Yuki’s face instantly turned red.
The man had witnessed the entire exchange.
“He managed to properly provoke that machine-like guy. His star quality passes too.”
Choi Seong was already fairly famous for constantly doing unusual things.
Even people in Japan had been watching his actions with interest.
He had wondered what Choi Seong was really like back in Korea.
Apparently, the rumors were accurate.
“He really is the perfect guy for Yomiuri. Of course, those unusual parts of his personality might be difficult for his teammates to understand.”
He was the pitcher who had taken his team to the top of Korea’s equivalent of Koshien.
A player whose talent for baseball had suddenly blossomed, allowing him to surpass the previously expected first overall picks and become the country’s greatest prospect.
“I wonder if the Busan Oceans have enough money...”
Actually, because they had a financially powerful parent company behind them, stealing away a prospect like this wouldn’t be easy.
Still, he decided it was worth trying.
“Sasaki. What are you doing here?”
Someone spoke to him from the stands.
Naturally, the man looked nervous.
After all, Sasaki’s job was to recruit talented prospects from all across Japan.
Yomiuri certainly wasn’t a club lacking money.
With overwhelming financial power and the pride of being Japan’s number one club, they tempted prospects and made offers that would satisfy the other teams.
It was the kind of arrangement where everyone except the fans ended up satisfied.
For that reason, Hiroshima’s staff had no choice but to become nervous when Yomiuri’s chief scout, Sasaki, appeared.
“Me? Ah, don’t worry. I didn’t come here to look at your players.”
“What?”
The expressions of Hiroshima’s staff instantly turned cold.
They were relieved.
But at the same time, his words sounded almost insulting.
“I don’t have much time, so I’ll be going. Other than Hoshino Yuki, none of you have anyone impressive.”
Just then, the players from both teams finished greeting one another and began returning to their respective benches.
Before leaving, Sasaki wanted to meet Choi Seong and talk to him.
What he wanted to say was simple.
Come here and let your potential bloom.
He hurried down to meet Choi Seong.
Meeting with the Busan Oceans officials would come afterward.
As Sasaki wandered around the hallway waiting for Choi Seong, several Japanese people greeted him.
He had been working as a scout for many years, after all.
The Korean officials watched him suspiciously as he continued lingering around, but they didn’t take any special action against him.
Only after another thirty minutes did Choi Seong finally appear.
“Hello.”
“Who are you?”
When Choi Seong answered in Japanese with a familiar, natural accent, Sasaki’s eyes widened instead.
He thought to himself.
He can even adapt perfectly to life in Japan.
Sasaki smiled broadly.
He was a promising pitcher.
A complete hitter.
And on top of that, he spoke Japanese well.
“I’m Sasaki. This should tell you who I am.”
Sasaki quickly took a business card from his pocket and handed it to Choi Seong.
The title Yomiuri Chief Scout was printed boldly across it.
People nearby let out impressed exclamations.
However, Choi Seong looked at the business card once and then yawned.
“Why did you come here? I’m still a rookie. You’d have to wait another seven years before I become a free agent.”
Of course, if his club allowed it, he could go overseas as early as two years from now through early posting.
“Have you ever considered becoming the head of a snake instead of the tail of a dragon? We can offer enough money to satisfy you. We’re that kind of club.”
Choi Seong snorted.
One corner of his mouth rose.
It was clearly a mocking smile.
“So you’re telling me to go to Japan later instead of America.”
“Exactly. We can offer both you and your club more money than America would.”
“The head of a snake...”
Sasaki thought to himself.
For now, all he needed to do was create a tiny crack in Choi Seong’s dream.
Everyone dreamed of playing baseball in America.
But only a very small number of players ever succeeded there.
He didn’t know how much Choi Seong would develop in the future, but America wouldn’t offer a player who had only succeeded in the Korean league more money than Yomiuri could.
Then Choi Seong spoke.
“What are you going to do if I become the head of the dragon?”
Sasaki’s eyes widened.
His heart immediately told him one thing.
He had to recruit this guy no matter what.
