Chapter 293 – Episode 291. Game 4 of the Semi-Playoffs. (3)

[In the end, Park Hee-min leaves the mound here. The next pitcher is, uh, Patrick? He was thought to be the starting pitcher for Game 5 in the rotation, but coach Dae-hoon Park made the decision.]

[You have no choice but to make a decision, right? The season is over if we lose today. He scored three runs in the first inning, three runs in the second, and one run in the third. Currently, the score difference is 3 points, but if the score increases, today’s game cannot be overturned.]

[Ki Sang-joo’s hit eventually puts Park Hee-min down and calls for a new pitcher. Now the next batter is Ji Maeng-ho. The match between Patrick and Ji Maeng-ho will continue.]

‘Under… ‘Are we done here?’

Joo Seung-cheol thought to himself as he watched Patrick take the mound. The score is 4 points, and the batter is Ji Maeng-ho. And the pitcher coming up is Patrick, who was announced as the starter for Game 5.

‘No matter how we prevent today’s game, the chances of winning game 5 will be slim. Plus, the opposing batter is a fierce… The possibility of being able to prevent it is slim.’

Moreover, the state of AT Thunders today was different from usual. No, not today, but since Woo Kwan-hyung was replaced, the guys’ concentration has changed noticeably. Starting pitcher Park Jun-hyung, who had been throwing difficult pitches at the beginning of the game, seemed to have awakened and was targeting the corners of the strike zone, and batters were consistently getting on base.

A situation where colleagues are being pressured by the blazing momentum of these guys. If you hit a home run under these circumstances, today’s game will be…

‘No. Let’s not think these negative thoughts. There are still six innings left to turn the game around.’

Joo Seung-cheol tried to focus on the game by trying to drive away his negative thoughts. Joo Seung-cheol’s eyes catch the sight of Patrick practicing pitching.

‘Patrick, are you okay?’

Phut! Phut! The ball gets stuck in the mitt. But the sound was not as cheerful as usual. As I was watching Patrick’s pitching, the allowed practice pitching was over and Ji Maeng-ho came to bat.

‘… Ji Maeng-ho.’

Ji Maeng-ho. Personally, he is a close brother whom I have had drinks with several times, and is currently the best hitter in the KBA league. .400 and 60 home runs. He is a batsman who achieved records he never thought possible and even almost surpassed the records of his father, the person he admired the most.

‘If it weren’t for the Asian Games, I would have broken my father’s record.’

When Ji Meng-ho tried to challenge his father’s record, Joo Seung-cheol felt impatient inside. He became a baseball player with the determination to one day surpass his father, but his father’s records were too far behind. So, when Ji Maeng-ho’s record stopped at the Asian Games, Joo Seung-cheol sighed in relief.

However, it was obvious that Ji Meng-ho could surpass his father’s record even next season, and the moment Joo Seung-cheol realized that fact, he had no choice but to admit it.
The player who will surpass his father’s reputation and leave a mark in the history of Korean baseball is not him, but Ji Maeng-ho.

‘It would be better if Meng Hao were his father’s son…’

It wasn’t just a day or two that I thought about that while watching Ji Maeng-ho’s batting. Because Ji Maeng-ho was showing the kind of player he wanted to be. Joo Seung-cheol envied everything about Ji Maeng-ho. Ji Maeng-ho’s batting form, Ji Maeng-ho’s bat speed, Ji Maeng-ho’s strength, Ji Maeng-ho’s aim. And just one year after his debut, he was compared to his father and even public opinion evaluated him as surpassing him.

In fact, it was much before now that Joo Seung-cheol recognized Ji Maeng-ho. As I watched Ji Maeng-ho batting during the time of the WBC national team, I instinctively felt that this hitter was the type of hitter who would surpass his father’s reputation. He is the batsman who will surpass his father, something he has dreamed of for a long time. The moment he fully realized that fact was when he made a perfect hit on Ohtani’s ball, which he couldn’t even touch.

The next day, as he was talking with Ji Meng-ho, who thought nothing of it, the devil whispered in Joo Seung-cheol’s heart.

‘Why not try some medicine? You want to get over that guy, right?’

The devil’s whisper to overcome Ji Maeng-ho, even if it means using medicine. In fact, it wasn’t the first time the devil had whispered. The first time the devil came to me was when I was in high school. He is always compared to his father and feels hopeless that he will never be able to surpass his father even if he tries his whole life. People who look at themselves with pitiful eyes. But what I couldn’t stand more than anything was the people looking at me with pitiful eyes.

And that person approached him. The man, who introduced himself as someone I knew from my father’s time as a major-leaguer, handed it to me.

-‘Seungcheol, you seem to be worried a lot these days. After… Originally, I wasn’t giving it to just anyone. I’m giving it to you because I feel sorry for you. This is a nutritional supplement, but it will be more effective for kids like you. If you try it and find it effective, contact me. The instructions on how to use it are written there, so use it well, so you don’t get caught.’

Although the man did not say the exact name, Joo Seung-cheol instinctively realized that it was a prohibited drug. And as time passed, on the day when he lost the game in which he played as the starter, giving up no hits, Joo Seung-cheol gave in to temptation.

-‘If you want to surpass your father, this is the only way…’ .’

Joo Seung-cheol took out what he had been keeping. Then, as he took out the syringe according to the method of administration and placed it on the skin, Joo Seung-cheol saw it. The eyes of his younger sister, Jia, who was looking at him through the door. The moment their eyes met, Jia turned behind her and went to her own room, but the tearful look in her eyes that he saw in that split second was stuck in Joo Seung-cheol’s heart.

Resentment, disgust, betrayal. Jia’s eyes are a mixture of these emotions. Remembering those eyes, Joo Seung-cheol couldn’t press the syringe.

-“Yes, if you surpass your father with something like this, you will only receive more criticism. … “What about medicine?”

In that way, Joo Seung-cheol kept the drugs he had received from that man. The moment a sense of inferiority and defeat wells up in his heart, he looks at the medicine to recall the look in Jia’s eyes that he saw that day. And Jia quit playing tennis, which she had been playing since middle school. She said that she doesn’t like exercising anymore because it’s hard.

Jia said she didn’t like exercising because it was hard, but Joo Seung-cheol knew. Jia’s heart broke when she saw herself trying to take her medicine.

-‘Sorry. Jiya…’

In that way, Joo Seung-cheol looked at the medicine every time the devil came and whispered to him, and his heart was strengthened. Thinking of her younger sister who had stopped playing sports and of herself as a weakling. Every time she looked at the medicine, she remembered her sister’s eyes looking at her and her heart ached, but Joo Seung-cheol tried to endure the pain.

Try, try, and try again. Whenever the devil came to his mind, Joo Seung-cheol kept trying while looking at the medicine. The good news was that the genes of my father, who was a national hero, had not gone away. As a freshman in high school, my body grew as time went by, and my hitting skills also improved significantly to match that body.

When my father told me that he had grown up in high school, I was happy because it felt like I was becoming a father too. When I surpassed my father’s rookie year and received the Rookie of the Year Award, which my father also did not receive, I was so happy that I even shed tears.

So after his debut, pride grew in Joo Seung-cheol’s mind as he bombed the KBA. After he debuted in the KBA, he stopped looking for it, and he drank, went to clubs, became Joo Seung-cheol, not Joo Hyung-jin’s son, and lived like a normal 20-something. Then, at a time when he couldn’t even remember where he kept it, Seungcheol Joo saw Ji Menghao. Ji Meng Hao stimulates his own inferiority complex.

The devil in his heart visited him again and stimulated him, and after returning from Korea, Joo Seung-cheol was desperate to see the drug. After recovering from his injury, he quit his favorite drink and devoted himself to his training, just like he did in high school. Every time he was weak, he tried harder, thinking about the looks in his and Jia’s eyes when he was young and acting like a fool because of his inferiority complex.

And advanced to fall baseball. He met Ji Meng-hao on the way to higher places. Joo Seung-cheol knew very well that he could not defeat Ji Maeng-ho with skill. Because the more he trained and worked, the distance between him and Ji Meng Hao seemed to grow further.

However, the match between the teams was a different story, so I wanted to win at least in this match. He was with his beloved colleagues…

Ta-ah!

Those thoughts fly away with the bat. The ball that Ji Maeng-ho kicked up was a ball that Joo Seung-cheol and other outfielders could not move.

Empty! The batted ball falls after hitting the electric sign. And a tear fell from Joo Seung-cheol’s eyes. This home run gives us 5 points. There was virtually no possibility of turning the game around. Even if he scored, it was clear that as long as Ji Meng-ho was there, the AT guys would continue to run away like this.

‘Yes, ultimately talent cannot be defeated.’

The devil in my heart whispers again.

‘How about taking medicine? You wanted to do it in high school, right? Look longer and swing faster. If you do that, wouldn’t you be able to hit .400 and hit 60 home runs?’

The name of that devil is inferiority complex. It’s frustrating. And you are ugly. But, I feel relieved. I don’t know why, but Ji Maeng-ho’s refreshing home run that hit the electronic display board seemed to blow away all the negative thoughts I had had so far.

“Heavy rain!”

You can see Ji Maeng-ho yelling, stepping on second base and pointing at himself with his finger. It seemed like he was scolding himself for being so poor and obsessed with an inferiority complex.

‘Do you want me to take medicine? Fuck you.’

Joo Seung-cheol, who answered the devil, picked up the baseball that had fallen after being hit by the electronic display board and threw it to a young fan who was crying while wearing the team’s uniform. The young fan stops crying and smiles bloom.

‘But I guess I have no choice but to try. To avoid making the fan start again.’

Joo Seung-cheol chased away the devil again. This time he didn’t even see the medicine.

‘Fuck, is a 5-point difference a big deal? Let’s do something.’

And he lifted my broken heart. Looking at the smile of a young fan.

Joo Seung-cheol, who had his heart together, made a big hit every time he had a chance to bat, and once went over the fence and chased down AT.

However,

[14:9! Game over! AT is making the playoffs! Today’s star is this player! Ji Maengho! We lead today’s game to victory by hitting three home runs!]

[Ah, Ji Maeng-ho, you are truly amazing. Hancheol’s Joo Seung-cheol also showed his fiery hitting ability and wanted to chase AT, but in the end he couldn’t get past AT’s batting lineup led by Ji Maeng-ho!]

[Now AT goes to Daegu. I’m going to Daegu, the place where I cried 21 years ago! Will Hyunseong’s pitching staff be able to block AT’s heated batting lineup? The strongest spear and the strongest shield compete in Daegu.]

Joo Seung-cheol was ultimately unable to overcome AT led by Ji Maeng-ho. A clean defeat for both the individual and the team. It was a defeat that was so clean that I was rather relieved. Even though he had impressive records of 10 hits and 3 home runs in 13 at-bats during the semi-playoff period, Ji Maeng-ho was several steps ahead of him.

‘Even if I play again, will I be able to surpass this score and beat Meng Hao? … Probably impossible. Yes, Ji Maeng-ho. ‘You are the best in Korea.’

And deep in his heart, Ji Meng-hao’s name began to loom larger than that of his father, whom he respected so much.

“Brother, are you crying?”

“Yeah, dude. “I’m crying because I was eliminated.”

“Why? It’s good, right? I can rest now. Hehe.”

“Get out, you bastard.”

He ended up crying in front of Ji Maeng-ho, who came up to him after the game and made fun of him, but those tears were tears of relief. Tears meant to wash away the sense of inferiority he felt under his father’s shadow.

“Let’s have a drink after the season.”

“Then it will take a week.”

“What bullshit. “I’m going to win.”

“Ji Maeng-ho! Please prepare for the interview!”

“Yes!”

At the sound of a staff member’s voice coming from afar, today’s Distinguished Player and semi-playoff MVP Ji Maeng-ho ran towards it. Although his back looked bigger than that of his father, whom he admired, he did not feel inferior. Rather, he felt like he wanted to chase after them.

‘I’ll catch up with you soon. It’s Meng Hao. And if you already beat me, win the championship.’

Joo Seung-cheol, who had made up his mind, wiped away his tears and walked to the stands to say hello to the fans.