The Broken Bat and the Bald Spot
By the time I rounded the bases and came back, the dugout was buzzing.
“Who's leading the league in home runs right now?”
“The Pumas' foreign hitter. He's probably sitting on 16 or so.”
“Wow. I thought Kang Hyuk's pace at 13 was fast, but there's someone even crazier out there.”
“Well, he just added one more. Make it 14 now.”
Apparently the seniors had been talking about me.
When I set the home run bat down on the rack, Kim Hyeong-jun came sidling over, eyes gleaming.
“Hyuk-ah. Can I borrow your bat?”
“Hyung, you're batting ninth. I don't think the lineup's getting that far this inning.”
“Oh. Right.”
“…But I've got a spare bat. Just take that one.”
“Thanks!”
He grabbed the spare with a thrilled face, then turned and stared at the new bat in my hands with unmistakable longing.
Seriously? You're eyeing this one too?
It wasn't like he could swing it two-handed. It seemed the bat in my hands—any bat in my hands—was irresistible to him.
I did my best to avoid his gaze, sat down on the bench, and was peeling off my batting gloves when—
Crack—
Aaaah—
The sound of a ball meeting wood was followed by a roar from the home crowd.
Adam had apparently swung at the very first pitch again.
Won-taek, who'd developed an obsession with pitch counts lately, grumbled under his breath.
“Why does he keep hacking at the first pitch and getting out? I finally got our pitcher to throw six balls.”
“Guess he really wanted to hit something.”
Statistically, first-pitch swings did produce a higher chance of hits.
But I'd just round-tripped the bases and the inning was over. Right now, I could sympathize a little with the fans who pathologically despised first-pitch hacking.
“Fuck!”
Unable to contain himself, Adam hurled his bat down the moment he stepped into the dugout.
The dull clatter of the bat dropped a wet blanket over the dugout, and silence hung in the air.
Jin-mo, surveying the mood, clapped his hands to lift everyone's spirits.
“Alright, boys. Let's get ready for defense.”
“Hyung, you're the DH. You don't even play defense.”
“I'm cheering my heart out right here, aren't I? Kang Hyuk just got us on the board. Let's keep it going a little longer.”
As I strapped on my catcher's gear, I glanced at Adam, who had his head hung low.
At least he didn't tell the umpire it was his nephew's shoe.
Lately, the bullpen and Adam accounted for the lion's share of the manager's stress—no exaggeration.
Nine home runs wasn't bad, but with his average stuck at .260, he simply didn't meet the numbers you expect from a foreign slugger.
I heard a rumor the manager's going bald…….
Not that I'd ever been able to verify it, since he always wore a cap.
The fans hurled criticism at the manager for keeping Adam in the cleanup spot, but honestly, he'd had no other choice.
The team was starved for power hitters.
The only real candidates were Jin-mo and me. Jin-mo's slugging fell short of Adam's, and I'd been locked into the three-hole to maximize my plate appearances.
Sensing me staring at Adam, Kwon Jae-hyuk spoke up.
“Can't you fix Adam the way you fixed Won-taek?”
“I'm not a coach, you know. I couldn't even if I wanted to.”
More to the point, I'd never exchanged a single word with Adam.
From what I'd heard, he barely interacted with anyone—even Romero and Dustin hardly ever talked to him.
“Probably something from his NPB days?”
“NPB?”
“Yeah. Over there, unlike the KBO, foreign players are treated as, well, literal mercenaries.”
According to Kwon Jae-hyuk, while Korea valued on-field integration, Japanese leagues—with their developmental player system—didn't make much effort to communicate with their foreign signings.
“Wait, how do you know all that, hyung?”
“Learned it from the wiki.”
“…I see.”
His credibility plummeted in an instant.
“Anyway, I hope things work out for him.”
If we wanted to climb any higher, we desperately needed our foreign bats to produce.
If the cleanup hitter pulled his weight, pitchers wouldn't be able to pitch around me either.
In a league where a team leading 14–1 could somehow cough up a tie, a one-run lead was nothing—a gap that could flip at any moment.
The Hawks, who'd taken the lead on my early home run, coughed it up by the end of the fifth, falling behind 4–2.
The one silver lining? Our top of the order was due up, starting from the nine-hole.
“Off I go!”
Hyeong-jun, clutching the bat I'd lent him, strode to the plate with a resolute look on his face.
And so the comeback began. Frozen stiff through three pitches, Hyeong-jun finally swung at the fourth.
Crack—
[He hit it! The bat shattered, and the ball is— oh!]
[Whoa. That bat shard just flew out there along with the ball. Trying to barehand that could get a fielder hurt. They had no choice but to let it drop.]
[A lucky hit for Kim Hyeong-jun of the Daejeon Hawks. The leadoff hitter reaches base!]
Next up at the plate.
Won-taek was retired on a popup to the infield, but the pitcher's control betrayed him—second hitter Seo Ji-hoon took one off the body and reached first.
One out, runners on first and second.
The moment I stepped into the batter's box, the Kingdoms' dugout burst into activity.
Are they going to pull the pitcher this time?
But the man who'd huddled with his catcher remained on the mound.
[No pitching change. The starter stays on.]
[He must have talked his way into staying, huh? Struck Kang Hyuk out last at-bat—confidence must be sky-high.]
Whish—
“Strike!”
I couldn't help but admire the way their pitcher fearlessly buried a fastball in the heart of the zone.
That was the worthy adversary I'd given a thumbs-up after our ten-pitch war last game.
Watching him burn with competitive fire, I thought:
Of all the players who left great footprints on this game, how many were good from the very start?
Only those who refused to quit until the end, who never snapped—only they got to leave footprints that great.
I need to work even harder.
Whish—
As his second strike came screaming in, I read it out of his hand and swung with everything I had.
Craaack—!
And my second home run of the day became the game-winner for the Hawks.
Home Run Factory Back in Business: Kang Hyuk Crushes Two in One Game to Power Hawks to Victory
As the Home Run Race Heats Up, a Rookie Catcher Turns Heads
'Overconfidence Is Poison.' Han Jiseong's Gamble Hands Over the Game — Some Fans Question the Manager's Reluctance to Pull Him……
Kang Hyuk: 'I Simply Got Lucky. I Consider Him the Better Pitcher.' Shows Respect for His Rival, Calling Him a Truly Worthy Opponent
Right after the series against the Kingdoms wrapped up, Manager Eom Tae-hoon paid a visit to the Hawks' general manager's office.
The GM rattled off the usual pleasantries.
“You've been delivering results beyond expectations lately, haven't you?”
“Thank you.”
Most experts and club officials had projected the Hawks to finish somewhere around seventh or eighth this season.
But riding the strength of their starters' quality outings, the Hawks currently sat in fourth place.
Granted, a leaky bullpen and slumping team offense left them a step behind the top of the table—but even so, the record wouldn't have looked strange if someone said the team was aiming for the postseason.
“So, what brings you here today?”
“I have a favor to ask.”
“……?”
“I'd like to replace our foreign hitter.”
“I believe I told you further investment wasn't feasible this season?”
That much had been agreed upon before the year began. The front office would refrain from applying pressure over results, and in exchange they'd extracted two promises from the manager: develop the prospects actively, and make no further roster spending.
“When I first took the helm, I was in full agreement with you, sir.”
“And now?”
“The situation has changed.”
“Because you're in fourth place?”
“I consider the standings a separate matter. What matters is that the team's fundamental framework is complete.”
Manager Eom Tae-hoon laid out the current state of the roster.
With the foreign pitchers adapting successfully, the five-man rotation had solidified. That left two major avenues for strengthening the team.
The first was the bullpen.
“Whether it's the reshuffled Futures coaching staff or something else, quite a few pitchers are looking good in the Futures League now.”
“Mm.”
“I plan to call up a few of them in the second half and give them a test run.”
He'd already been briefed on this, so the GM nodded.
“And the other thing?”
“The generational handover among the position players has succeeded. Beyond expectations, even.”
At this point last year, the Hawks' hitters were such a mess that the team's wRC+ was barely clawing its way out of the negatives.
But now? Things were different.
Still a notch below the top-tier clubs, sure—but the lineup was scoring runs game after game, and prospects like Kim Hyeong-jun and Kang Hyuk, who should have been riding the bench as backups, had seized starting jobs outright.
“And Kang Hyuk's growth, in particular, has been astonishing.”
“Mm……”
“'Growth' doesn't even do him justice, frankly. I'd call him a finished product. This season's overperformance owes a great deal to him.”
That was no exaggeration.
Kang Hyuk himself was churning out monstrous hitting metrics, and with him locked into the starting catcher role, Park Jin-mo—previously weighed down by defensive duties—had been moved to designated hitter to focus purely on his bat.
“On top of that, the coaching staff speaks very highly of his pitch-calling and defensive leadership.”
“So I've heard.”
“But if we keep things as they are with our foreign hitter, the burden on the boy will only keep growing.”
“You believe in the umbrella effect too, Manager?”
“I know the statistical effect is marginal. But the felt experience on the field is a different animal.”
“Hmm.”
“The more pressure a hitter feels, the bigger his swing gets. And when the swing gets bigger, his mechanics can fall apart. We've seen it with Park Jin-mo, haven't we?”
Park Jin-mo, the man who had held up the franchise through its dark years, had originally been regarded as a hitter blessed with both power and precision.
But when the team's average cratered, he'd tried to convert himself into a slugger—and in hindsight, that had proven a costly mistake. His home run totals climbed, but his contact ability eroded.
“I'm not asking for anything unreasonable. Just replace the foreign hitter for me.”
“……”
“Do that, and this season—we'll pay you back with a trip to October.”
Startled by the sight of the manager bowing his head and removing his cap, the GM flinched.
He tapped the desk with his fingers, lost in thought.
What should I do……
It wasn't as if the GM hadn't been entertaining the same idea. The grand rebuilding plan was targeted at three years—but winning meant slamming the pedal the moment possibility appeared, whenever it appeared.
If they really could play October baseball this season?
The players would bank tournament experience, and next year they might set their sights on the whole crown.
A mental list of foreign hitters he'd pre-screened flashed through the GM's mind.
Garcia in the Mexican League? Too much controversy around him.
Alex Carter in Triple-A? His numbers this season are far too ugly. Could easily turn into a bomb……
But among the faces flickering past, one hitter stood out.
He'd considered signing him instead of Adam before, only to abandon the pursuit when the man's camp demanded an exorbitant price at the negotiating table.
Not sure he'd come midseason……
But the scouts all agreed on one thing: the skill was beyond question.
The GM glanced at Eom Tae-hoon and opened his mouth.
“A trade won't work.”
“Then what about—”
“I'll review the foreign player replacement positively.”
“Thank you.”
The manager beamed.
And that bright smile made the GM remember the sight of the manager's uncovered head from moments ago. The circular baldness had progressed quite a bit—the very center of that scalp was gleaming.
He's still so young, too……
Unlike the front office men working behind desks, the crushing weight and stress shouldered at the field level were clearly immense.
Granted, foreign sluggers cost a fortune.
But then again—wasn't that price perhaps a bargain, for the sake of restoring one father's dignity?