Chapter 28. Last Year’s Champions
The defending champions versus the team that had finished dead last.
No matter how many fans the last-place team had, the commentators couldn’t look favorably on this matchup.
The opening game was one of the most important games of the season.
Every team put their best pitcher in the number-one starter spot, whether that pitcher was Korean or foreign.
But this time, the Busan Oceans had thrown all of that convention aside and made an extremely unconventional decision.
“A twenty-year-old rookie pitcher-catcher battery. To be honest, there are some parts of this decision that are difficult to understand.”
Kim Gyeongman, who was handling the commentary, continued slowly.
“No matter how dominant they were in high school, professional baseball is a completely different wall. With professional baseball becoming more popular, I can’t help but wonder whether the Busan Oceans have decided to start tanking.”
“And just as you’re saying that—the second pitch!”
Kim Gyeongman suddenly rose from his seat after seeing Kim Ilgwon make contact.
He had caught the screwball cleanly.
“Is it going over the right-field wall?! It keeps flying! It keeps carrying!”
Kim Gyeongman shouted more excitedly than anyone else.
Because for a moment, it genuinely looked like the ball would go over the fence.
Even if Choi Seong had been the first overall pick in the most recent draft, the wall of professional baseball was high.
Kim Gyeongman wanted to show him that.
To Manager Rodriguez, who had brought out such a strange lineup, and to Choi Seong, the arrogant rookie pitcher.
“Foul! It’s foul!”
Kim Gyeongman sat back down.
However, the heat in the stands had already risen.
The rookie had shown signs that he could collapse right from the start.
That huge hit had shifted the early atmosphere slightly toward the Jaguars.
“I’ll say it again. A rookie battery like this may sound bold, but there are many problems with it. Look at Choi Seong’s expression right now. Doesn’t he look completely stiff? This is Opening Day. You shouldn’t present a lineup like this. If they lose this game, the fans are going to be disappointed.”
The Busan Oceans were known to have one of the largest fanbases among all Korean professional baseball teams.
They couldn’t throw cold water on baseball’s growing popularity with disappointing performances.
Kim Gyeongman calmly watched the next pitches.
“Strikeout!”
Choi Seong’s four-seam fastball went straight down the middle.
Yet Kim Ilgwon couldn’t even move his bat.
A clean called strikeout.
“His breaking balls are questionable, but his fastball itself doesn’t look bad.”
Kim Gyeongman reluctantly gave him some praise.
But he could never have predicted what happened next.
As Choi Seong faced the next batter, he kept shaking his head.
“Baseball really is fun.”
My well-placed screwball had been hit by the opposing batter.
It probably felt like winning the lottery to him.
The hit had looked like a home run, but unfortunately for him, it went foul.
If I had given up a run there...
Tick-tock. Tick-tock.
The sound of a clock squeezing around my heart rang in my ears.
My heart would have been destroyed immediately.
And yet, the dopamine pumping through me only increased.
I also realized that my breaking balls weren’t in as good condition as I had expected.
That hit had made it obvious.
Throw the power curve.
After striking out Kim Ilgwon on three pitches, that was the sign Yoon Jaejun gave me.
I shook my head.
Normally, I would try to battle the hitter with a variety of pitches.
I needed to judge my breaking balls depending on their condition, and it was still early in the game.
Then the curve?
I shook my head again.
Maybe it was because they were last year’s champions, but even their table setters had enough power to hit one out.
In that case, I had no choice but to challenge them honestly.
After I shook my head several times, Yoon Jaejun finally gave me the sign for a four-seam fastball.
He had finally realized what pitch I wanted.
If I gave up a hit or a run here, there was a high chance that the Jaguars would control the early part of the game.
Using a twenty-year-old rookie battery in the starting lineup was already unconventional.
If we got hammered on top of that...
The entire team’s morale would fall.
I couldn’t allow that.
—160 km/h.
I threw with everything I had.
Even if I ended up unable to pitch in the next inning because of stamina problems...
To overcome a crisis, I always had to give everything I had.
“Strike!”
The number-two batter let out a sigh as the pitch went straight down the middle.
The cheers from the crowd exploded once again.
That fastball had been pretty powerful.
After that, I calmly stuck to four-seam fastballs for every pitch.
Neither the dugout nor Yoon Jaejun raised any objections.
Everyone already knew this was something I tended to do.
Four-seam fastball.
Another four-seam fastball.
Until the end of the second inning, I retired every batter using nothing but four-seam fastballs.
Naturally, the stadium was burning with excitement.
“Are you planning to keep throwing only four-seam fastballs?”
Kim Hakseong asked after finishing his at-bat in the bottom of the second.
As the cleanup hitter, he had hit the ball pretty deep, but it ended up as a flyout to center field.
At another stadium, it probably would have been a home run.
“No. If I keep doing that, the hitters will get used to it. Starting from their second at-bats, I’ll have to use other pitches.”
“Still, a monster really is a monster. You completely shut down the main hitters of last year’s championship team. As expected of our first-round pick.”
“…Thank you.”
I couldn’t yet use the same pitching style I had used in my previous life, where I mainly relied on four-seam fastballs.
The opposing pitcher was also an ace, so our team wasn’t having any luck getting on base either.
Well, I had heard that the opposing pitcher had won both the most-wins title and the lowest-ERA title last season.
He was probably the best foreign pitcher in Korea right now.
The bottom of the second also ended cleanly with three straight outs.
Of course, the opposing team hadn’t managed to reach base against me either.
“I’m heading out.”
I walked toward the place where the countless cheers were calling me.
The dirt on the mound had become messy, so I raised my spikes and fixed it.
“You’re going to stick with the four-seam until the third inning, right?”
Yoon Jaejun checked one last time.
I nodded.
“After that, I’ll mainly use the screwball and slider.”
“Got it. Having so many pitches definitely gives us a lot more options, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah. And it’s not like I randomly learned a bunch of useless pitches either.”
When a pitcher had many different pitches, people sometimes called him a rainbow pitcher.
Back when my pitches were at their best, even I had a tendency to look down on finesse pitchers who relied on many breaking balls.
I had thought they threw so many different pitches because they lacked raw stuff and talent.
But that was also a kind of talent.
As long as a pitch could prevent a hit or home run, every pitch naturally had its own use.
I simply wanted to create a pitch that was uniquely mine.
The seventh batter was Kim Muwon, the guy who had provoked me earlier.
Just like before, he looked like he was enjoying himself.
He had guts.
This should have been his first professional game too.
Why don’t I remember someone like him at all?
