Just Got That Feeling
Top of the second. Starting with Ferza, I retired Kim Hyunggu and even Yoon Hyo-jung—who used to play for the Savers—one after another.
My control slipped a little midway through, and I nearly walked someone, but luckily the batter swung on his own and I got out of it clean.
The reason my command had wavered… was because something kept stirring around inside my head.
Bottom of the first. Watching the opposing pitcher’s stuff, I could tell he was throwing some really good pitches—and at the same time, I felt like something was just a little off.
The opposing pitcher, Martinez, threw from a three-quarter arm slot.
Or should I even call it three-quarter? No matter how I looked at it, the arm angle felt closer to sidearm. He released the ball from that low an angle.
That was probably why Martinez’s curveball didn’t follow the usual top-to-bottom drop people expected. It was more accurate to say it resembled a horizontal slider.
The trajectory was somewhat similar to my own slider… but it was actually closer to the slider of that legendary senior who’d thrown what they called a magic ball back in the majors.
Which explained why our hitters were having such a hard time with it.
Still… I could guess why he never stuck in the majors.
That curve sitting around 125 km/h… lefties weren’t going to fall for it. When a curve starts breaking that far out and comes looping in, there’s no way a left-handed batter can’t sit on it.
And the rest of his pitches… honestly, they weren’t all that impressive next to the curve.
For those reasons, I wasn’t particularly worried about today’s game.
The hitters had been caught off guard in the first inning, but as the innings rolled on they’d naturally adjust. Or maybe the lefties would start tagging him before that.
I wasn’t worried about the game… and yet something still kept rattling around in my head.
That elusive something grew even stronger when I stepped into the on-deck circle and watched the pitcher’s stuff from right behind him.
“There’s definitely something there…”
Crack.
Too bad. I’d wanted to watch a few more pitches.
Shane had laced the third-pitch fastball for a single.
Sure enough, that curve didn’t work on lefties. Just now Shane had waited patiently and casually poked it out for a hit.
I stepped into the box.
And just as expected, the first pitch was a curve.
A ball that felt like it started from somewhere behind my back finished by painting the outside corner for a called strike.
Yeah, it’s a curve all right. Definitely no sharp late break.
Rather than snapping in front of the plate like a slider, it came in smoothly bent from the start.
If I want to hit this, I’ve got to predict it and start the swing early.
Last season’s me probably would’ve struggled pretty hard. With that big, violent swing of mine, catching this pitch cleanly would’ve been…
But this was the me who’d rebuilt my form with Coach Cho Hyun-joon before the season started.
Coach Cho had said he wanted to tear everything down from the start, and he’d told me this:
“When I watched you last year, honestly, you didn’t look like you had any talent for bat control, so I had you swinging for power…”
“And?”
“Well… you use your wrists better than I thought. And it looks like you’ve gotten stronger through the season. If you just square it up, you should be able to clear the fence without swinging that big.”
With those words, my swing had completely changed.
No more twisting my whole body into every cut. Now the focus was on tracking the ball all the way and making solid contact.
There wouldn’t be any more of those post-swing staggers like last season.
I settled back into my stance and waited for the second pitch.
I casually flicked the low outside fastball foul.
Third pitch: high inside fastball. I took it for ball one, two strikes.
About time.
The pitch I’d been waiting for came in. The curve that looked like a slider.
Crack.
“Waaaaaah!!”
I’d been looking for it, but I also got lucky. The ball had drifted a little toward the middle.
Without getting greedy, I just made easy contact, and the ball dropped between the left fielder and center fielder.
Nobody out, runners on first and second.
“Nice.”
“Coach. That thing… ah, never mind.”
Without thinking, I’d almost asked the first-base coach about the idea that had just popped into my head.
Then I suddenly realized the opposing first baseman was standing right next to me and quickly shut my mouth.
It had really come out of nowhere.
A curve that looked like a slider. A slider that looked like a curve.
Whatever had been scrambling my thoughts cleared up the moment I thought of it—like that was exactly what my brain had been trying to dig up.
Ah… what was that called again? I definitely tried throwing it once before.
I had my own dumb head to blame…
It was a pitch I’d experimented with back when I was trying all sorts of things to develop a vertical breaking ball.
Of course, I couldn’t get it to do what I wanted, so I’d given up.
Something that looked like a curve but with a different grip. And a velocity way faster than a power curve.
“Ah~ this stupid head of mine…”
I couldn’t remember…
You might wonder how a baseball player doesn’t even know the name of a pitch, but I genuinely drew a blank.
All that kept floating up was “sweeper, sweeper” from this idiot brain.
“Puhaha. Why the sudden head-bashing?”
Dolphins first baseman Kim Hyunggu asked with a laugh, and I almost asked him if he knew the name of that pitch.
Crack!
Ko Mandeok’s grounder to third.
“Out!”
“Out!”
Nobody out, first and second, turned into two outs, runner on third.
While Ko Mandeok trudged back to the dugout with his head hanging after hitting into the double play, I scrambled into the dugout looking for one person.
“Len! Where’s Len?”
Michael Len.
Usually quiet, but actually a player with an incredible amount of baseball knowledge.
Whenever I got stuck on something and asked him, he always answered without any trouble.
If Jo Sangjun had been around I would’ve asked him, but right now Michael Len was the best teacher I could turn to for answers.
“He’s over there. What’s up?”
Someone asked, puzzled by me suddenly hunting for Michael Len in a rush, but I ignored everyone and went straight to him.
“What’s that thing? That one.”
“What?”
“The curve that’s a slider!”
“Huh? Ah! You mean the Deathball?”
Yes!
I knew he’d know.
“That’s it! The grip! Do you know the grip? Can you throw it?”
“…I can’t throw it. I know the grip and how to throw it, but it just doesn’t suit me.”
“Teach me!”
Michael Len just stared at me for a moment after my blunt demand. Then…
“You’ve already got a nasty curve and a splitter. Do you really need it?”
Fair point.
I already had dropping pitches. Both of them were working well.
So why did I need it?
“It just clicked.”
What other reason was there? Watching that pitcher throw it had suddenly brought it back, and now it was stuck in my head.
“Ha! Okay. Watch closely. The grip goes like this.”
Michael Len showed me the grip.
Then he calmly explained how to throw it, what to focus on, and so on.
The other players watched our little session with blank expressions.
Especially Ko Mandeok.
“You… why are you learning that now? Learn it calmly after the game… Wait, you crazy bastard, you’re not seriously planning to throw it in today’s game, are you?”
Ko Mandeok knew me too well, as always.
After the interpreter relayed Ko Mandeok’s words, Michael Len looked at me like I was insane.
“…Ah, no, of course not.”
I really wanted to try it, though… Maybe I could just pretend not to see the splitter sign and throw it?
Bottom of the second, Na Seung-won’s RBI single puts the Savers on the board first. Leading 1-0, they head into the top of the third.
Catcher Ko Mandeok is having quite a long conversation with Kang Hajin on the mound right now.
That’s right. I wonder what they’re talking about. Judging by the expressions alone, it looks like Ko Mandeok is trying to talk Kang Hajin out of something. Doesn’t he look a little angry?
Doesn’t he? I really wonder what it is. We’ll definitely have to ask after the game.
Ko Mandeok didn’t believe a word I said.
“Hey. For real, that’s not happening. You know that, right?”
“No, so… I’ll throw it when the count’s in my favor.”
“What kind of lunatic develops a new pitch mid-game? Does that even make sense?”
“I’m telling you, the feeling just hit me. I think I can do it.”
“Ha… this absolute maniac. Why do I always have to deal with this because of you… ha… damn it…”
“Hehe.”
“So how does it move?”
“…It, uh, drops?”
“Oh for fuck’s sake… is that all?”
“Probably? But hyung, you’re the guy who catches knuckleballs. Why are you worrying about something like this? Just catch it assuming it’s gonna drop.”
“This bastard, acting like he’s not the one who has to catch it…”
In the end, Ko Mandeok gave in to my stubbornness.
Honestly, I knew I was being unreasonable. What kind of sense did it make to throw a pitch I’d never thrown before in the middle of a game?
Ah… never thrown before? Not quite. I’d tried it once a long time ago. Of course, it had failed spectacularly.
Even so, the reason I was throwing this tantrum… well, it had clicked, and also… I kind of believed in the effects of the medicine.
If the drug was working, maybe it would just work out somehow… something like that.
“I’ll be the one giving the signs.”
“Of course.”
“Don’t just throw whatever you want like last time.”
“Yes, sir!”
Ko Mandeok headed back and the top of the third began.
When the seventh hitter, Song Young-jin, stepped in, Ko Mandeok flashed the first-pitch sign.
“Heh. Typical…”
He was telling me to throw it from the very first pitch.
The ball whose grip I’d just learned moments ago.
First pitch. Ah~ it dropped a little early. Bounced well in front of the plate. Starts the at-bat with a ball.
That last pitch… was he trying to throw a curve? Not the kind of pitch you’d expect from Kang Hajin. Didn’t look like it slipped out of his hand, though.
Kang Hajin gives an awkward smile, takes a new ball, and prepares for the next pitch. Second pitch. Swing and a miss.
Uh… was that a splitter just now? Doesn’t seem like it.
It came in at 141 km/h. Wasn’t that a splitter?
Uh… I’d like to see the grip. Uh… uh? Uh-uh?
It worked.
It was an absurd thing to try, and I’d only done it on a whim. But it worked.
It flew in like a fastball and then dropped right in front of the batter.
The pitch created a huge gap with the batter’s bat and produced a clean whiff.
“Holy shit, that’s insane. It actually worked.”
Ko Mandeok’s face was pure disbelief.
He shot up, yanked off his mask, and just stared at me blankly.
When he sat back down and put down the next sign, his fingers started moving faster than usual.
Horizontal slider.
“Striiiiike!”
Dropping slider. In other words, the Deathball.
“Striiiiike! Out!”
Four-seam.
“Striiiiike!”
Horizontal.
“Foul.”
Vertical.
“Out!”
As if no other pitches were even necessary, I finished the top of the third with a three-up, three-down inning using only the fastball and two kinds of sliders.
“You crazy son of a bitch… you really are a maniac.”
“Hehe.”
I headed into the dugout while Ko Mandeok called me a crazy bastard and a maniac.
“Fuck! @#%@#$^%$^@$%^@$^@$#^%@%$^@!!! %^%$%^@$#%@$#%@!!”
Whoa… besides the first “Fuck,” I couldn’t understand a single word.
Our Len… sure knows how to talk.