Chapter 40. Giwon
Yang Giwon thought to himself.
I want to become someone like Choi Seong too.
He had talent, but he had never managed to turn that talent into real ability.
Because of the elbow ligament surgery he had received when he was young, he had ended up serving his military duty as a public service worker.
A baseball team like Sangmu had never even looked for him.
He had barely managed to enter the Busan Oceans as the tenth draft pick during the team’s dark era.
That was the level he had always believed he belonged to.
“Damn it.”
He gave up a huge double to the third batter.
Before the top of the first inning had even properly begun, there were already two outs with runners on second and third.
In the past, he had at least believed that his fastball would work.
He had joined the league as a traditional right-handed pitcher throwing in the mid-130 km/h range.
After training continuously, he had pushed that velocity all the way into the 150 km/h range.
But what did that matter?
It was as if God had decided that this was the limit of his talent and refused to give him any control.
His control was so bad that fans even joked that they had to pray—giwon—for him to throw the ball into the strike zone.
His situation wasn’t much different from Yu Gam, who occasionally hit a completely unexpected home run.
“From what I can see, there must be a reason they put you in as the fourth starter this time.”
Yang Giwon’s thoughts were interrupted.
Yoon Jaejun had climbed onto the mound after noticing him spacing out.
“What?”
There was absolutely no reason to choose him.
Last season, he had been used as a mop-up pitcher and recorded an ERA in the sevens.
He had sacrificed control in order to put more power behind his pitches.
Even Choi Seong, who hadn’t watched him for very long, had immediately figured out the problem and pointed it out whenever Yang Giwon asked.
“You were chosen because you have something they saw in you. There are plenty of guys trying to take a starting spot right now. I’ve caught your pitches plenty of times, sunbae. They didn’t put you in as the fourth starter just because you throw hard.”
Yoon Jaejun lightly tapped his shoulder before returning to the catcher’s box.
Then what was it?
Wasn’t he only chosen because there was no one better?
Yang Giwon shook away all those thoughts.
Choi Seong told me to just put the ball inside the strike zone first.
He kept thinking back on those words.
To do that, he would have to lower his velocity significantly.
But then his only strength would disappear…
Still, there had to be some way.
“Trust me and throw it, sunbae!”
Yoon Jaejun shouted loudly from behind the plate.
Right.
For now, he just had to trust him and pitch.
Their temporary captain had said the same thing, and every player who received his coaching had improved.
Maybe he could become like that too.
And if he couldn’t…
“Then I’m finished anyway.”
Yang Giwon clenched his teeth and threw the ball.
Yoon Jaejun had called for a fastball jammed tightly inside.
And Lee Byeonghwan, the hottest cleanup power hitter in Korea right now, swung and missed.
“Strike one!”
The scoreboard showed 137 km/h.
The pitch had worked because it aggressively attacked the inside.
Yang Giwon’s eyes widened.
He had been certain it would get crushed.
Another inside fastball.
Yoon Jaejun asked for the exact same location.
Was that Lee Byeonghwan’s weakness?
141 km/h
Yang Giwon added a little more velocity.
“Strike two!”
This time, Lee Byeonghwan couldn’t even swing.
He simply watched it pass.
This time, a curveball that misses completely at face level.
Yang Giwon didn’t understand.
But the moment he threw the pitch, he understood everything.
Lee Byeonghwan leaned backward as the ball came flying at the height of his face.
“Ball!”
Only after hearing the umpire’s loud call did Yang Giwon understand what Yoon Jaejun was aiming for.
He thinks my control is so bad that I might hit him.
That was why Lee Byeonghwan kept protecting himself.
Well, he was the cleanup hitter for his team and currently in great form.
Of course he wouldn’t want to get injured.
Inside fastball. Same course as the first and second pitches.
Yang Giwon nodded.
Then he threw.
The result—
“Strikeout!”
The inning ended with the umpire’s call.
Yang Giwon let out a relieved breath.
Then he walked toward Choi Seong.
Choi Seong was staring at the field with a serious expression.
“I listened to you and completely took the power out of my pitches.”
“You did well, sunbae.”
Choi Seong was usually blunt.
So Yang Giwon’s eyes widened at the praise.
“Th-Thanks…”
“Keep pitching like that from now on. Once your control becomes properly refined, you’ll be able to increase your velocity to the level you want. You’re still only in your late twenties.”
“Yeah… Thanks for the advice too…”
“You don’t need to thank me right now. Go to Yoon Jaejun. I’m not your battery partner. The person you should thank is the guy over there who called the entire sequence perfectly.”
Choi Seong’s gaze turned toward Yoon Jaejun, who was silently preparing to bat.
Yang Giwon hurried over to him.
Yang Giwon had managed to keep the first inning scoreless.
That would have a fairly large effect on the team’s early momentum.
The sub-mission was already over, but we still needed the feeling of stopping them from reaching ten wins first and reaching that mark ourselves.
Seven wins and four losses.
That was the current record of the third-place Busan Oceans.
The Daejeon Hawks had lost to us and were now 9–2, while the Gwangju Jaguars had added another win and moved into a tie for first.
No team had reached ten wins yet.
And around twenty percent of the teams that reached ten wins first eventually won the championship.
Baseball was a battle of records and jinxes.
Sometimes, things like that mattered more than anything else.
“Out!”
Kwon Geonwoo and Go Gyeongtae quickly handed over two outs.
It seemed the opponent’s fourth starter was having one of those days when everything worked.
His pitches were unusually sharp, and both hitters trudged back to the bench.
This was definitely going to be a difficult game.
Lower-rotation starters rarely pitched this well, but today happened to be one of those days.
If a pitcher made around twenty starts over an entire season, he would usually have only three or four games where everything clicked like this.
A pitcher who threw well in six or seven of those games could become a third starter.
If he did it in more than ten, he would be treated as the team’s ace.
If he were a rookie, he could probably even take home Rookie of the Year.
