Chapter 53, I Was Just Angry
No-hitter.
I could feel myself trembling from the incredible achievement.
I tried not to show it, but I could not stop smiling.
I had thrown nearly one hundred and twenty pitches and created a miracle.
“Seong! Today is your day! You hit the jackpot!”
Yoon Jae-jun hugged me and lifted me into the air.
He really was as strong as an ox.
I rose like a sheet of paper.
The other players rushed onto the mound and tossed me into the air.
“Seong, I knew you could do it! How can one guy bring this much luck?”
Yugam and the others kept hitting my back and making a huge fuss.
Sajik Stadium had already turned into a sea of madness.
Thousands of fans leaned forward as though they wanted to enter the field.
I lightly greeted them.
Strangely, the smile I had shown during the game disappeared.
“Looks like you finally calmed down.”
Yoon Jae-jun laughed awkwardly.
Was that so?
Did I look angry when I smiled?
“That’s good.”
The Suwon Rangers players hurriedly left the stadium.
That made sense.
A no-hitter.
It had only happened fourteen times in league history before I added another one.
In my previous life, I had recorded one perfect game and one no-hitter.
The perfect game had happened in Japan.
The no-hitter had happened in America.
That made my first Korean no-hitter especially meaningful.
“Calling you a god, a baseball god, would still not be enough. Player Choi Seong, you’ve just thrown a no-hitter. Please tell us how you feel.”
This announcer seemed almost assigned to me.
She had handled my previous interviews too.
“Haha. I’m simply happy. It’s one of the rarest records in baseball history. I’m grateful to Jae-jun for working with me today and to the fielders for making every play without an error.”
“Oh, that sounded incredibly sincere. I think this might be the first time Choi Seong has openly thanked someone! You threw around one hundred and twenty pitches today. Was there any moment of danger?”
Was this really the first time I had thanked anyone in this life?
Probably not.
Anyway.
Had there been a crisis today?
Looking back, no.
There had simply been a moment when I temporarily lost my calm.
When the opposing hitters recklessly used their bodies to reach base.
Memories of my old injuries had returned, and that had made me irritated.
“There was one dangerous moment right at the beginning.”
“Was it because of the hit-by-pitch against the Rangers? The bench-clearing confrontation could definitely have shaken you, but you handled it very well.”
I shook my head.
That was not what I meant.
“I was simply angry. I hated seeing someone carelessly use his own body just to reach base.”
“Pardon?”
“Players have to keep throwing and hitting for years. That’s how they prove themselves. I genuinely hated seeing someone ready to throw that away for such a short-term result.”
The announcer looked moved.
“That’s all. So after that, I started pitching seriously.”
“There was almost another bench-clearing confrontation because you kept smiling...”
“I was trying to hide my anger. No matter what happens on the mound, a pitcher has to show the opponent that he is calm.”
“Your smile looked really cool.”
I would not do that again.
I had reflected quite a bit after the second confrontation.
Apparently smiling made people think I was easy to provoke.
Especially when the pitcher was young.
I decided I would maintain my poker face from beginning to end from now on.
“If people see it that way, I’m always grateful.”
“All right. We’ll end this short interview here.”
There was no helping it.
The broadcast needed to return to commercials.
“Nice. Bravo. Wonderful.”
Manager Rodriguez had unusually remained in the dugout until my interview ended.
The other players had already entered the locker room.
“Thank you.”
“No pain in your elbow?”
“I don’t think so.”
“You’re our team’s treasure. No, you represent Korean baseball now. If anything feels wrong, tell me immediately. Understand?”
I nodded.
For some reason, the tip of my nose tingled slightly.
In my previous life, a Korean manager had abused me.
This time, a foreign manager was adjusting everything to protect me.
Life really was impossible to understand.
“Understood.”
My injury risk had already increased to forty percent.
If I pitched beyond my stamina limit, my body could completely break down.
It was something I had not known before, so I needed to remember it.
“Long live Choi Seong!”
The moment I entered the locker room, Oceans players set off party poppers they had prepared from somewhere.
Kim Hak-seong, who had been ejected earlier, smiled awkwardly.
“Congratulations on your first no-hitter.”
“Thank you, everyone.”
“You little monster!”
The players surrounded me in another group hug.
It was not even their own achievement.
In a way, I was one of their competitors.
Yet they celebrated this much for me.
I felt grateful.
[Choi Seong, Youngest No-Hitter in History, 15th in Korean Baseball]
[A Super-Monster Pitcher Has Appeared in Korea, Who Is Choi Seong?]
[Korean Corporations Showing Strong Interest in Choi Seong, A New Icon of the Era]
[President Also Thanks Choi Seong, “Korean Baseball Can Continue Developing”]
Kim Beom-jin bit his lip.
All attention was focused on Choi Seong.
Meanwhile, what was Kim Beom-jin doing with the Daejeon Hawks?
Nothing.
He had made two starts in the first team, but his ERA was 5.50.
The difference between high school baseball and professional baseball had been greater than expected.
“I was his rival... How is even the president talking about him now...?”
No matter what anyone else said, Kim Beom-jin believed he could call himself Choi Seong’s rival.
But the gap was growing wider and wider.
Thirty-two innings, one earned run.
0.28 ERA.
Had any starting pitcher ever recorded numbers like that?
“No one...”
Kim Beom-jin bit his lip harder.
He had originally been the clear projected first pick in the previous draft.
The Busan Oceans could not directly contact players because of tampering restrictions, but he had still felt their interest.
Then Choi Seong had suddenly appeared and taken everything.
“I’ll beat you someday...”
Kim Beom-jin repeatedly swore to himself.
He was currently lifting weights to increase his velocity.
He had partly changed his pitching form too.
He was searching for a new finishing pitch.
Kim Beom-jin swore he would never fall behind Choi Seong again.
“Beom-jin, looks like you’re going back to the first team.”
His opportunity came immediately afterward.
First-team manager Park Pil-seong called Kim Beom-jin up again.
One of their foreign pitchers had been injured.
Another opportunity had arrived.
Kim Beom-jin made a decision.
This time, he would prove his real value during the call-up.
The world changed after I threw the no-hitter.
There was no other way to describe it.
“Build a statue? Please stop. I’m begging you. Do it after I die or turn sixty.”
“The mayor of Busan wants to meet me? Please reject it.”
“Seriously... The president is even more ridiculous.”
Busan had finally produced a true star pitcher after a long time.
Apparently the level of national interest was enormous.
The club repeatedly told me that meeting requests had arrived, but I rejected all of them.
It was ridiculous.
When I played in America, I had even rejected invitations from their president.
There was even less reason to accept things like this now.
It was only a no-hitter.
It was not like I had brought Korea an Olympic gold medal.
“I’ll just keep doing what I normally do.”
Around four advertising offers came from financial companies.
The financial sector always tried to spotlight the next generation of star players.
I shook my head.
“Limited-edition Mister Choi shoes? I’m not that free.”
A famous domestic shoe company contacted us about producing limited-edition shoes named after me.
Of course I rejected it.
In my previous life, I had once accepted an offer like that and launched a brand.
Later, I became trapped in a trademark dispute.
“A Choi Seong savings account? I’ll do that.”
Among all the chaos, there was only one proposal I accepted.
A bank wanted to rename its long-running Busan Oceans savings account as the Choi Seong Savings Account.
For some strange reason, that proposal felt different.
If the Busan Oceans won the championship, the existing three-percent interest rate would rise to five percent.
Not bad.
A savings product that had existed for decades would now carry my name.
I accepted immediately.
In my previous life, articles sometimes mocked that account as a scam because the Oceans never won.
“Whew...”
An unbelievable number of messages had arrived.
Dozens, then hundreds of phone calls.
Somehow my number had leaked, and countless reporters were requesting interviews.
That was not all.
Even people who normally had no reason to worry about me began contacting me.
[You seem busy. Could we talk on the phone later?]
There was a missed call from Heo Jun, the national team manager.
“Yes, Manager. What’s going on?”
“Nothing complicated. I want you to become captain of the national team.”
“?”
There was strange relief in his voice.
I could only feel confused.
For a rookie, simply being selected for the national team was already incredible.
Now he wanted me to be captain too?
“Can I ask why?”
I asked him directly.
I wanted to know why he saw me that way.
Even on the Oceans, we had an excellent captain named Kim Hak-seong.
Considering his career and his warm personality, someone like him was far more suited to the role.
I was so young that many older players could easily ignore me.
“It’s simple. Korea needs a star player. And now that overseas baseball is also paying attention to you, someone like Choi Seong needs to take that role.”
“I don’t have to be captain to do that.”
“I saw enough possibility when you served as temporary captain. I’m asking you to show everyone what kind of player you are.”
“For now... understood.”
“We’ll announce the final roster a little earlier tomorrow. There’s only one thing I want to emphasize to you. First, protect your body. Second, protect your body. Third, protect your body. Don’t recklessly damage a national-treasure-level arm.”
“That’s obvious.”
A captain at twenty years old...
It did not seem bad.
It was only a short tournament lasting around a month anyway.
The next day, Heo Jun immediately held an emergency press conference.
He announced the final national team roster much earlier than usual.
It included not only me, but also Kwon Geon-woo and Yoon Jae-jun, both of whom had been performing well.
Go Gyeong-tae was included too.
Four players from the first-place team.
Some might consider that fewer than expected, but only twenty-four players were selected in total.
Ten pitchers and fourteen position players.
With ten clubs in the league, four players from one team was above average.
I calmly watched the press conference.
There had never been a case where the roster was selected this early.
“Why did you suddenly decide to announce the final roster so soon?”
A reporter asked.
Heo Jun’s answer was simple.
“It’s simple. We select them for the national team now and protect them from injury. We want to prevent players like Choi Seong from missing the tournament because of an unexpected injury. Think of it as something being done at the national level.”
I calmly nodded.
At this point, I had earned that kind of treatment.
My ERA was 0.28.
It was the best among every pitcher who had thrown more than thirty innings.
“Lastly, the captain of this roster will be Choi Seong. We need to develop him into a player who truly represents our country.”
My face became slightly hot, but I could accept it.
However, his next words were something I absolutely could not accept.
