Chapter 684 – Episode 671. Moon Ki-Taek Is Smiling. (2)

Teams facing Ji Maeng-ho were always bound to fall into unanswerable concerns. Especially in fall baseball, where each game is important.

First, the basic way to deal with Ji Maeng-ho was to skip Ji Maeng-ho when the runner was on second base.

However, in other situations, teams facing Ji Maeng-ho had two options. Either compete with Ji Maeng-ho or skip it.

However, it was difficult to produce good results no matter which option was chosen.

Dealing with Ji Maeng-ho?

Ji Maeng-ho, who hit .400 in the regular season for three consecutive years, hit 60 home runs for four consecutive years, and is the titleholder in all categories except hits?

What about Ji Maeng-ho, whose batting average has never fallen below .500 in fall baseball and whose OPS is over 2.0 even though the number of games is small?

Ji Maeng-ho, who is strong in big games as proven in international competitions?

Ji Maeng-ho was a hitter who had no answer for a head-to-head match.

However, I couldn’t help but feel uneasy about skipping Ji Maeng-ho. The purpose of baseball is to count out. No matter how great Ji Maeng-ho was, there was no other batter whose on-base percentage was 1.000%, and getting Ji Maeng-ho on base meant adding .400 to his .600 on-base percentage.

And the on-base percentage of .400 was that of most all-star hitters.

Moreover, if Ji Maeng-ho had been a typical slow-footed slugger-type hitter, he would have been chosen without any hesitation, but Ji Maeng-ho was the player who won the stolen bases for four consecutive years and recorded 294 stolen bases and 2 errors during the four regular seasons. In his first Korean series, he shocked the world by stealing 20 bases.

If you skip it, it’s like giving yourself third base for free. In other words, if you put Ji Maeng-ho on base with no runners on base, he would be facing a batter with an OPS of 4.0.

That wasn’t the only problem. The AT Thunders’ batting lineup was highly praised by experts as being the highest level batting lineup in recent years, and behind Ji Maeng-ho were all-star hitters such as Choi Jin-cheol and Yoon Seong-tae. Although Choi Jin-cheol’s performance this year was not good, he started burning in the second half and proved his explosive power in the wild card game.

If you skip Ji Maeng-ho, you will have to face batters like Choi Jin-cheol and Yoon Seong-tae in situations where runners have the right to score. And the result was that only the home run wasn’t hit, but the score was the same, and in fall baseball, where every run is important, such a score was fatal.

But that didn’t mean they couldn’t avoid dealing with Ji Maeng-ho, so clubs playing fall baseball came in prepared with preparations for Ji Maeng-ho.

And in this postseason, each club entered the game with their own preparations.

Among them, Charlotte, who faced off in the wild card match, chose ‘deliberate throw’ as a way to deal with Ji Maeng-ho, and lost points to Choi Jin-cheol and Yoon Seong-tae.

Silla, who faced off in the semi-playoff match, chose to ‘win’ as a way to deal with Ji Maeng-ho, and sank after hitting five home runs in four games.

And Hyunseong Mad Cats, like Silla, chose ‘win’. This is a choice you can make because you are confident in your pitching staff. But the results were still not good. And what remains is the third game. Fortunately or unfortunately, Hyunseong’s coaches were not the type of coaches who stuck to only one method.

[… A weatherman who picks walks. Ji Maeng-ho is now at bat. And, … Oh, Ji Maeng-ho is eliminated at 1st base with 2 outs. Now the situation is 2 outs, 1st and 2nd bases! And Choi Jin-cheol, the 5th batter, comes to bat.]

In a situation where one more loss could end the season, Hyunseong’s coaching staff ultimately decided to skip Ji Maengho.

‘Oh, were you thinking the same thing as me?’

And Moon Ki-taek, who was watching the game at that choice, was a little surprised to find that there was a coach who had the same thoughts as him.

In a professional baseball world full of idiots, there is a manager who can think similarly to you!

[… Choi Jin-cheol’s batted ball! Out! It is treated as a fly ball to left field. The game now goes to the top of the second inning!]

‘Well, maybe I was just trying to filter it out and got lucky and ended up using a strategy similar to mine.’

However, he still needed to make sure that he had really reached his level. And in the bottom of the third inning. The opportunity to check it has come.

[Bottom of the 3rd inning, the leadoff hitter is Kim Su-ho. … Out! The second batter, Baek Jeong-jin, comes to bat… … Out! Now it’s time to bat.]

With two outs, Ki Ki-joo comes to bat. If he were in charge of this game, Moon Ki-taek would have ordered Ki-taek Ki to walk.

Because that was the most effective way to stop Ji Maeng-ho.

They trap Ji Maeng-ho at first base and face the batter behind him. As confirmed in the regular season, this method was the best way to avoid giving points against Ji Maeng-ho.

[… … Strike! Out!]

However, the inning ended with the weather note being ruled out. Moon Ki-taek laughed at that sight.

‘What? You were just filtering it, right? I thought you had reached my level.’

The important thing when dealing with Ji Maeng-ho was controlling the batting lineup.

Rather than simply dealing with one Ji Maeng-ho, AT’s batting lineup had to be controlled so that Ji Maeng-ho could come to the plate in the most non-lethal situation and create a situation where Ji Maeng-ho could not run to deal with Ji Maeng-ho.

All Hyeonseong is doing is relying on luck and filtering out Ji Maengho. If Ki Ki-joo is out here, Ji Maeng-ho comes to the plate with no outs. And that situation was the most fatal situation Moon Ki-taek thought of.

That was the same as giving AT a point as a gift!

If you hit a home run, it was still 1 point, and you either got a hit or a walk. If Ji Maeng-ho gets on base, the out count is equal to 1 point. Ji Maeng-ho, who had no outs, gave the team 1 point with the same probability as Ji Maeng-ho’s on-base percentage.

‘Surely you won’t skip it even when you’re the lead hitter?’

And in that situation, the worst move is to skip Ji Maeng-ho. If you play against him, there is a 40% chance that he will not give you points, but if you skip him, he will give you points unconditionally.

Moon Ki-taek watched the game, hoping that the standard of professional baseball coaches would not be so disastrous.

And then came the bottom of the 4th inning.

[The leading batter is Ji Maeng-ho. The first pitch is a ball that deviates.]

Ji Maeng-ho, the lead hitter, is hit by a ball that deviates from the first pitch. Hyunseong’s starter today is mercenary pitcher Nick. He was a player with basic ball control, so throwing a ball like that was not just an intentional throw, it was the same as making an intentional throw.

[Walk! Ji Maeng-ho successfully gets on base as the leadoff hitter!]

And as Moon Ki-taek expected, Ji Maeng-ho walks to first base.

‘After all, there are only idiots.’

At the same time, it was natural for a sigh to come out of Moon Ki-taek’s mouth.

This was just like making a fuss about not giving up points. Did the fear of Ji Maeng-ho cause him to lose his mind? Moon Ki-taek also experienced such a situation in his first Korean series against Ji Maeng-ho, so he knew better than anyone else what Coach Hyun-seong was thinking.

[… Ji Maeng-ho takes advantage of a sacrifice hit and digs home! AT Thunders take the lead! Score 1:0!]

‘Tsk, you idiots. I’m not really thinking about what’s important. There’s no need to look any further.’

Just like that, Moon Ki-taek turned off the TV. Because there was nothing to gain from the match with Hyunseong.

‘I felt stupid. ‘I can’t believe you’re wasting time like this.’

Could he have found a better way than he did? He felt like a fool for expecting that.

And since he confirmed that there was no such thing, winning or losing today’s game no longer had anything to do with him.

Even if AT Thunders lost today, it didn’t seem like they would lose even one win in the remaining two games, and if AT were to get a reverse sweep, it was a good situation because they wouldn’t have to face Ji Maeng-ho.

In other words, from Moon Ki-taek’s perspective, this match is as good as a dead match. Now checking on the players was more valuable than watching the game.

Just like that, Moon Ki-taek left the lounge where the TV was installed and walked towards the players who were sweating beautifully despite the cold weather.

And he laughed a little at the fact that no director has reached his level yet.

*

[Game over! AT Thunders defeats Hyunseong 6:3 and secures their ticket to the Korean Series! AT Thunders, the Prince of Autumn, who won three consecutive Korean Series championships, is once again heading towards the throne!]

*

“Hey, I heard you hit .400 in fall baseball for the first time?”

On the day of training, the day before the Korean Series, I went to work as usual, and a senior from Sangju, who had come to work first, approached me and started talking to me. By the way, he hit .400 for the first time in fall baseball. What does that mean?

“What? “Is there even a record like that?”

“Don’t you read the articles? “I heard an article came out.”

“Hey, I haven’t read articles much since then.”

“Well, you deserve it.”

To be honest, it was a bit fun to look up my articles, but after the scandal, there were so many trashy articles that I stopped using the Internet at all these days.

“Hmm, then maybe I should have hit it right last time?”

Still, if I had known there was such a record, I would have taken a look.

“What? Didn’t you hit it right last time? Somehow, he came back after striking out.”

“No, the economy is going down, but it’s like a volcano. That bastard Moon Ki-taek is there. “It would be troublesome if that bastard kept skipping again, so I pretended that I wasn’t feeling well.”

“This guy doesn’t seem like that, but he’s secretly smart?”

“Secretly?”

By the way, me. How many people are smarter than I in this club? Anyway, even Sangju senior is jealous.

“Ji Maeng-ho.”

“Yes, director.”

While I was having a casual conversation with my senior Sangju, the director called me.

‘What’s going on?’

You called me before training even started. I was a little curious.

“Tomorrow, number 1. Is it possible?”

And the words that came out of the director’s mouth were unexpected. Changing the batting order. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting it at all, probably because I’ve been playing at number 4 all year.

“Number 1?”

“Okay. Because the opponent is Senior Moon. Something happened when you debuted. I guess it’s because I’m anxious.”

Well, the director’s concerns had some validity. Since I didn’t know what that ugly guy would do, there was no harm in being prepared. And it was a batting order I had seen many times.

“So, do you think it will be difficult? If you’re having a hard time, think of another way.”

When I don’t answer, the director shows weakness. As always, there is only one thing I can say to a director like this.

“Hey, director. Of course, it is possible.”

“I knew so.”

Number 1? Number 4? Of course, it didn’t matter. Because wherever I was in the batting order, I was the center of the team.