Chapter 132 – Episode 130. S-Class Player. (One)

“Hey, it looks like this year was also wrong.”

Jamsil Baseball Stadium where the match between AT Thunders and Shilla Triggers is coming to an end. A fan sitting in the cheering seat at first base murmured. The muttering was not loud, but most of the fans sitting next to him could hear the fan’s voice and sympathize with the fan’s muttering.

“Last year, I did well until the summer, but this year it has been like this since the beginning. 1 win 5 fans if you lose today? Hey, how many defeats has Volcano now?”

“They are also losing right now, so wouldn’t it be 1-5?”

And most of the fans didn’t think that they would win the match that is being played right in front of them.

At the end of the 8th inning, the score was 6:4, with the Shinra Triggers leading by 2 points. It was a score difference that could be thought of as two runs in two innings, but none of the fans in the cheering seats sincerely thought that this game could be reversed.

It was the same pattern as the AT Thunders’ usual game, where they gave points and followed, but in the end they couldn’t turn around and only chased and then lost.

“Under…. How has this team not changed in over 10 years? Tsk, but this year, I will fail early, so I won’t be able to watch baseball.”

Fans of the man who will come back intuition right away tomorrow.

“Dad, why are you coming to watch AT always lose?”

“I’m just trying to spend quality time with my son.”

“Then can I cheer for Shinra? I want to root for the winning team.”

“Of course.”

Even the father’s fans shed tears of blood at the announcement of his son’s transfer.

“You bastards! Play some baseball right!”

“There! You shouldn’t swear and scream like that!”

In the end, even the fans who couldn’t overcome the alcohol and shouted all desperately wanted AT to win, but today they admitted that the AT Thunders would be boring.

[Now, at the end of the 8th inning, Kwan-Hyung Woo, the 6th hitter with two outs, enters the plate. Today’s score is 2 hits in 3 at-bats. He appears in six games and has a .375 batting average.]

However, when Woo Kwan-hyung appeared, the fans who acknowledged the team’s defeat in a corner of their hearts began to flinch.

‘If you’re the Woo-gwan type….’

A pinch hitter with less than 50 hits left to hit 3,000, a hitter who did not transfer despite countless temptations over the past 20 years, a living witness of the AT Thunders with the fall of the AT Thunders, and a hitter who won the series MVP in the last postseason the AT Thunders played. .

As the heart and pride of the AT Thunders entered the at-bat, even the crowd, which had been heavily defeated, smiled slightly. How many RBIs did Woo Kwan-hyung score for AT?

If it’s the Woo Kwan type again….

And to meet the expectations of all AT fans, Kwan-hyung Woo swung the bat.

Fuck!

The right-handed ball flew high. However, the batted ball that was not accompanied by distance was easily trapped in the infield.

[Ah! The right-handed batted ball gets stuck in the infield. Second baseman Park Chul-young gestures. Three out comfortably. At the end of the 8th inning, AT Thunders’ attack ends with a three-way attack.]

[Woo Kwan-hyung’s timing is a bit late. I’m sorry.]

[Then, let’s return to the last attack of both teams’ regular innings.]

As Caster finishes speaking, the red light turns off.

“Ugh, the AT Thunders won’t be easy this year either, right?”

“Well, if you look at the individual players, it’s not a team that will collapse like this, but it’s strange that the results aren’t coming out.”

“How do you feel, Commissioner?”

“Actually, I also selected AT as the team to be predicted for the postseason with this season’s prediction, but the results are not as good as expected, really.”

The commentator couldn’t hide the regretful feeling as he spoke. Especially now commenting on the game
Commentator Choi Jeong-hyeon said, “The AT situation was even more pitiful. After signing a large amount of free agency with the AT Thunders, a team he had supported since childhood, he was in a state of burden in his heart as he produced results called eating and running.

“It’s a little bit for me to say, but it’s definitely a team that doesn’t make sense that the AT Thunders aren’t performing.”

Haha, it is. Seeing that the commissioner also didn’t get good grades right after transferring to AT….”

As the broadcaster said, the team called AT Thunders was a very deformed team. People who don’t know baseball know that the AT Thunders are just a team that can’t play baseball, but people who know a little bit about baseball can’t play baseball. Because it was a team that thought like this.

In the case of hitters, 4-5 of the starting lineups were not weak enough to hit 30% every year, and even in the case of pitchers, it was a team with one or two 10-win pitchers and their own 3-point bullpen. Looking at his power alone, it wouldn’t be strange to ride the last train of fall baseball.

But strangely, the career highs of the players did not mesh, and even in one game, such a mismatch continued. In particular, looking at the season, the pitching power fell to the bottom when the batting power was at the top, and the batter’s performance fell to the bottom when the pitching power was at the top.

And the most chronic problem of AT Thunders. The AT Thunders had no S-class players. The absence of a player who dominated the league and put pressure on opponents just by appearing was painful for the AT Thunder.

The absence of an MVP player, which has never been seen in the history of professional baseball for more than 40 years, even before the club’s name was changed to AT. There were quite a few A-B players, but the absence of such S-class players did not change the way the game was pushed like today.

In order to solve such problems, AT Thunders recruited top players such as Ki Sang-joo and Choi Jin-cheol, but their condition was not improving yet, and the losing streak and high-intensity training were exhausting the players.

[In the beginning of the 9th inning, the lead batter of Shinra Triggers starts with the 5th hitter Yang Je-hyeong.]

And another factor that drives AT Thunders fans crazy.

[Out!]

[Swing Strike! Han Sang-hyun catches a two-out with a strikeout! Han Sang-hyun’s ball is dancing today!]

[This hit is second baseman! 2nd baseman catches it. Ji Maeng-ho showing great defense! This is the AT Thunders, who are still keeping the fire of the pursuit alive.]

Hope torture. It was that it instilled hope that even when they lost, they could always win with a small score, making fans unable to let go of hope.

-Ha fuck, this is the same pattern today.
ㄴThe chase is out ㅅㅅ

-He was going to lose anyway, but he just pretended to follow him like this
Please, please, please try

-It’s a 789 plant line, but I don’t expect it.
ㄴ Even if you don’t expect it, are you kneeling in front of the TV and praying?
A civilian temple, Evande.

-If I lose again today, I’m going to set fire to Jamsil

-2 points is enough to follow. Until Ji Maeng-ho, please
ㄴTo be honest, I’m the only one who’s looking forward to it when Ji Maeng-ho comes out these days?
ㄴ Because the slugging rate is over 1 in 50%, it’s strange that the kid who doesn’t expect ithaha

And the fans were desperately looking for an S-class player who would end the torture of hope.

*

It felt like the familiar energy surrounding the dugout was pressing on my chest. Actually, I never thought I would feel this way.

In high school, Hanchego was a weak team, but when I played as the starting player, it was a strong team that won three tournaments, and when I played in the national team, all players were the best players in Korea, and I was full of confidence that I could come back except for the US match. It was a full team.

However, the atmosphere of AT Thunders was very different from what I had felt so far. If I was losing, I didn’t think it would turn around, and if I was winning, I was thinking that I was going to turn around.

‘Is it because it’s three consecutive losses? 4 consecutive losses if I lose today?’

And the atmosphere of the team was even worse because of the high-intensity training from this morning. Perhaps these trainings will continue until the losing streak is broken….

Not only me, but most of the players also had expressions full of such worries. Especially the pitching staff.

I didn’t know much because I trained with the pitchers separately and didn’t have close seniors, but I heard that the pitchers have been continuing the same high-intensity training since spring camp. And these days, after a losing streak, my training volume has increased.

Of course, looking at the performance of hitters in the current lineup, Sands could have been dissatisfied with the pitchers, but the increased training did not mean that the players were good at it. Baseball is said to be trained like a game, but the players have not grown as much as the amount of training.

‘Oh, that’s why the pitchers are messed up right now.’

‘How do you train and become a bitch? Do you not know the common knowledge that the more you use your muscles, the stronger they become? Is it because he’s going to be a jerk?’

‘Mr. Rossby! At what time of the world are you saying that! If you do that these days, you’ll get shot by the fans!’

‘I’m weak, I’m so weak. Baseball wasn’t a girl’s sport like this…. Kids these days are so weak. Wasn’t it necessary to throw at least 250 innings in a season to be called a pitcher?’

‘When will you talk about the enemy….’

Maybe it’s because he was an active player about 100 years ago, so even though the scale was different, he was very different. The bigger problem was that, given our training volume these days, Sands seemed like a believer in that stupid theory.

“AT Thunders, pinch hitter! Han Sang-gyu!”

The fortunate thing is that the brain that runs the game is left when you see the pinch hitter?

Manager Sands replaced catcher Jung Yun-cheol with outfielder Han Sang-gyu as a pinch hitter. From my point of view, there were players there, but as an outfielder, Han Sang-gyu had a slightly better bat.

“Please continue with me!”

I didn’t want to go home after 4 consecutive losses, so I cheered for Han Sang-gyu with a loud voice. However, Han Sang-gyu’s expression showed that he was frozen even for a child.

And,

Widely!

A weak shortstop grounder. Unlike anyone else, Kim Hwan-yeong was not a player who would miss such a dull shortstop ground ball.

‘Ha, that’s why even Woo Kwan-hyung, who is 40 years old, doesn’t get a seat.’

“Pinch hit! Yoon Seong-tae!”

And hit once again. The bench choice was Yoon Seong-tae, who was the home run king of the second team last year.

‘Yes, Seong-tae is better than Kang Hee-seok. Please do well here and put some snow on it.’

Although she was close with Yoon Seong-tae, there was no element that Yoon Seong-tae would be pushed by Kang Hee-seok, either from her chemistry with her keystone duo, Na-na, or from her blows. Besides, I was young. The reason Kang Hee-seok is the main player is just because of his name as a veteran.

I prayed earnestly, hoping that Yoon Seong-tae would take this opportunity to get rid of Kang Hee-seok, who was playing like he was possessed by a ghost.