Chapter 586 – Episode 578. Wall. (1)

[Two outs, top of the 6th inning. AT changes pitcher. The changed pitcher is Yang Ji-hoon. … Joong-il Yoon’s batted ball is caught by the center fielder and out! Choi Si-woo and Lee Yong-gi. AT Thunders end the inning with two runners on base but no runs!]

[The Volcanic Falcons, their offense is really not working. In the 4th inning, Lee Yong-gi, who is in good batting condition today, hit a solo home run to chase the scoring, but there are really no additional runs. Still, since the starting pitcher was removed in the 6th inning, I think we should look forward to the future.]

[The game now continues with the AT Thunders attack in the bottom of the 6th inning.]

The second game of the Korean Series was a starting matchup between Jang Yoon and Tinie. As expected by experts and fans, the pitcher who came off the mound first was AT Thunders’ starting pitcher Jang Yoon. Jang Yoon’s record was neither good nor bad, with 3 runs allowed in 5.2 innings, but he wasn’t good enough to continue on the mound in the Korean Series.

In the 6th episode when Jang Yoon went down, Tinie was still guarding the volcano mound.

In the bottom of the 3rd inning, Tinier gave up 4 runs by allowing a three run to Choi Jin-cheol, and had a hard time in the 4th inning with 9th batter Jeong Hwi-cheol and 2nd batter Ki Ki-joo on base, but found stability by allowing no runs and allowing just one run in the 5th inning. He was finding stability by putting only one batter on base.

And in the bottom of the 6th inning, Tinie found his pace. AT’s attack started with Baek Jeong-jin, the 8th batter.

[Tinier, the number of pitches has now exceeded 90. Usually, Tinie players have the stamina to easily throw about 100 to 110 balls, but I wonder when Coach Moon Ki-taek will make a decision. The first pitch against Baek Jeong-jin. Cheek. The speed is 156 km/h.]

[Hmm… It’s still fast, but it seems like the velocity has dropped a bit, right? I think we need to get the timing right when replacing pitchers.]

Tinye has thrown 93 balls to date. Even though he was slowly losing stamina, Tinier’s ball was still fast,

“Strike out!”

He struck out Baek Jeong-jin.

[Tiny strikes out Baek Jeong-jin! Now, Jeong Hwi-cheol is at bat. … Jeong Hwi-cheol’s batted ball! Two outs without being able to get out of the infield! … Suho Kim’s batting ball is flying high! The second baseman makes the call! Out! He catches three outs and creates a three-way inning.]

And the next batters, Jeong Hwi-cheol and Kim Su-ho, were caught in succession, leading to a three-way failure. However, Tinier’s pitch count exceeded 100, which is generally considered the limit for a starting pitcher, and reached 102, and Manager Moon Ki-taek’s concerns deepened.

‘The next batting line…, Ki Ki-ju, Williams, Ji Maeng-ho… Williams doesn’t seem to be in a good mood today… Change it? Then who is Minjun? Hyojun Oh? Hmm…’

If we had sent one player to the scoring range, we would have been able to change the pitcher without hesitation, but since Tinier’s pitch was vaguely good, it was quite difficult to make a decision.

“Director.”

“So, what’s your reaction to Tiny?”

“I want to pitch in the 7th inning as well.”

“Hmm…”

In addition, the pitcher was also showing his will to continue throwing, making the decision more difficult. In this case, the only thing you can trust is the catcher who catches the ball directly from the pitcher. Moon Ki-taek called out Lee Yong-gi, who was resting with his catcher’s gear half removed.

“Courage.”

“Yes, director.”

“How is it? Do you think we can go further to Tiny?”

“Minjun was waiting in the bullpen…”

“Yes, if Tinie goes down, I plan to bring up Minjun or Hyojun.”

“Honestly, I think it will be difficult for Minjun because he is almost two-pitch. It’s not just okay, Tinie has to endure Ji Maeng-ho.”

“…”

“As a result of my experience dealing with Ji Maeng-ho, it takes overwhelming power or restraint to catch him. So much so that even though he knew, he couldn’t hit it. Even if I try to raise Min-jun now, it won’t work against Maeng-ho cold-heartedly. … Or maybe he just filtered out the menacing tiger guy. “To be honest, among our pitchers, there is no pitcher who can catch him except Seonghyeon.”

Lee Yong-gi’s words that we must continue to lead Tinie… Lee Yong-gi’s ability to read the flow of the game and understand the hitter was something that even the manager himself acknowledged, so it was an empathetic statement. That was the reason why I chose Tinie and Oz from the list of mercenaries in the first place.

Moreover, the words about skipping Ji Maeng-ho also touched my heart. But, that wasn’t possible.

It wasn’t because I was afraid of being criticized by people. Because I was already receiving a lot of criticism for the rest of my life while being the manager of a professional team.

There is only one reason why that cannot be done. This was because the traps dug to catch him throughout the second half of the season were useless.

The reason a professional club exists is to give fans the gift of victory, but from the manager’s perspective, something else is just as important. Managing the players.

If he had left out Ji Maeng-ho even though it was not a special situation, it would have been a betrayal to the pitchers who believed in his words that they would help him win the Korean Series and pitched according to the ball combination he pitched throughout the second half of the season.

There may have been some players who thought it was important to present victory to the fans, but what was just as important to the players was their individual performance. Because it was related to his salary and his future life.

However, the players who believed in him and followed him only believed in his words and followed his strategy, which could be detrimental later on and lead to poor individual performance. But now you’re filtering out all of Ji Maeng-ho? It was clear that the morale of the players, especially the pitchers, would plummet.

If the team failed while following the plan, it would have been acceptable to praise Ji Maeng-ho’s skills, but changing the plan midway was a betrayal of the players’ trust. Ji Maeng-ho was already a player’s player recognized by all players, so in the former case it was something that could be resolved, but in the latter case, it was something that could not be undone…

Choosing the latter in this situation meant that it would no longer be difficult to control the team.

In Moon Ki-taek’s opinion, the Hwasan Falcons were a team with many opportunities in the future.

The Hwasan Falcons have been in the lower tier for several years, collecting promising players, and even in their own eyes, they have some pretty good players. Like Kim Hyeong-gun, who recorded a batting average of .288 and 9 home runs in a two-goal season with only a debut season, and Oh Hyo-jun, who played an active role as a setup man.

Although he may not be the best player in the country if he trains a little more under him, he was confident that he could coach him to become a player who can make a name for himself in the first team like Kim Hyeong-gun or Oh Hyo-jun.

Therefore, although they started this season as an underdog, they had a good chance of becoming a top dog next year.

But is the players’ morale low, and they can’t motivate them? Then the team was bound to become a ragtag mess and disintegrate. Then, no matter how good the players were, the ecosystem of professional baseball was such that they could not even step on the threshold of fall baseball.

Managing the morale of players and constantly motivating them. That was the secret to helping UG Overlords, who was in 7th place with good players in 2017, right before he took office, advance to the Korean Series for 6 consecutive years from 2018 to 2023.

Of course, the probability of winning would be high to skip Ji Maeng-ho, but it was not possible for the coach who had to lead the team for the three years of his contract.

‘… For now, we have to follow Yonggi’s words and go all the way to Tinie. After all, not every hit by Ji Maeng-ho becomes a home run.’

In the end, the choice is to continue with Tinie. Even in the midst of such worries, Park Jin-hyuk, who came to AT’s mound, blocked the lower-ranked batting line with a three-way throw and settled the inning without even having time to do anything.

“Courage. I believe. You must do well. If it’s two outs, skip it. If first base is filled, proceed as usual. “You know, right?”

“… Let’s try it.”

All we can do now is pray that Lee Yong-gi, who has the best BQ in the country, completely fools Ji Maeng-ho… We must trust Lee Yong-gi, the team’s starting catcher.

“Strike, out!”

And true to his belief, Lee Yong-gi strikes out the difficult hitter Ki Ki-joo and increases the out count by one. Now at the plate, Williams is slightly underperforming in the Korean Series, but this season he has a batting average of .302.1, 19 home runs, and an OPS of 0.896.

‘It’s a mountain beyond a mountain. What kind of people are gathered in one team?’

The only thing that comes out while looking at the AT Thunders’ overwhelming batting line is complaints. But there was no time to complain too long.

“Ugh!”

“Huh?”

“Ah…”

“Hit bye pitch ball!”

[Oh, Williams got hit in the body. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like a major injury… Williams looks at the pitcher and walks toward first base.]

[Usually, foreign players think that if they show pain when hit by a ball, they will lose the fight, right? It must have been painful, but Williams silently walks to first base.]

Tinier, who had not walked any batters so far, allowed Williams to hit a ball to his body.

[Now, with one out and a runner on first base, fourth batter Ji Maeng-ho comes to the plate.]

And the batter who came to bat was Ji Maeng-ho, the one who had caused his troubles and who had said countless arrogant words.

‘Please, if we get through this one time, he won’t be able to come back at bat once we get all the remaining batters out. If he somehow manages to score 1 point before then he’s good enough to win… Just this once…’

If only I could give that arrogant guy one punch… !

Ta – Aak!

However, before Moon Ki-taek’s prayer reached the sky, Ji Maeng-ho’s bat swung like a thunderbolt from the first pitch.

[I hit it! This batted ball! Far! High! And over the fence! It disappears! Ji Maeng-ho’s third home run in the Korean Series! And this home run is a two-run home run that adds two more runs! Score 6:3! AT Thunders are ahead again!]

“Ha…”

Ji Maeng-ho’s batted ball quickly passes over the fence, and all that comes out is a deep sigh.

Moon Ki-taek was trying to beat his opponent somehow, but right now, he couldn’t think of any way to stop Ji Maeng-ho.

A wall I felt for the first time during my career as a director. He tried, but there was no way he could beat him.

[… Game over. Bringing you the news that the AT Thunders won Game 2 of the Korean Series with a score of 7:4…]

Ji Maeng-ho’s two-run home run gave us the momentum, and we somehow scored one run, but the result of the game was a loss.

‘… Should I skip everything? If we skip everything, can we beat AT?’

The day after the game, he sat in the manager’s office, preparing for Game 3, smoking a cigarette, and all he could think about was how he wanted to get away with an intentional walk on every at-bat. As I was about to finish smoking the pack of cigarettes I bought yesterday, there was a knock on the door.

“… Who is it?”

“Director. “I am Seonghyeon.”

The person responsible for that knocking sound was Seonghyun, the team’s captain and spiritual leader. The reason for the visit was the obvious reason that the players wanted to work harder and win the championship, but coach Moon Ki-taek opened the door and asked Seong-hyeon why he came.

However, what Seonghyun said was unexpected.

“Director, you all filtered out Ji Maeng-ho during your UG days, right?”

“… “It was like that back then.”

“So, can you win?”

“… The probability is probably high. The idea is to give the guy at least 3 points, and all you have to do is score more than 3 points.”

“Then please do so. This is an opinion that the players also agreed with. And if I lose the 3rd game, I will compete in the 4th game. If you give me just one win before I leave, I will go to the 4th and 7th games and win. Then, even if I only get 2 wins and 1 loss, I just need to get 2 wins, so I can win.”

He asked everyone to filter out Ji Meng-ho, and he said that he would participate in games 4 and 7… Sung-hyun needed to be managed due to frequent injuries since his prime, but Moon Ki-taek, who didn’t have much emotion, almost brought tears to his eyes when he saw Sung-hyun take the initiative and say he would sacrifice himself for the team and bring the players’ hearts together to win. .

“… Thank you.”

All I can say for such a veteran is thank you.

‘There is a possibility in this way… !’

So, Moon Ki-taek entered the third game with the hope that he could win,

“Director! We’re in big trouble! Today’s number 1 is Jimaenghon?”

“Fuck! Lee Soo-hyun, you fucking bastard… !”

That hope was shattered when I saw the AT Thunders order sheet with Ji Maeng-ho’s name written on it as the number one hitter.