Revival
Who, in all my years as a professional baseball player, am I most grateful to?
I can answer that without a second's hesitation.
A benefactor so obvious I don't even need to think.
"Taeseong hyung. You free today?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Just grab some food together."
"Sounds good? Heh heh."
Taeseong hyung, of course.
The only one who looked after me through the rough years.
We used to be practically glued together back then…
But these days Taeseong hyung is busy too, so hanging out like before isn't easy.
So on days like today we'd meet outside for a meal and catch up on everything we'd missed.
"Isn't this place expensive?"
"You love sushi, hyung."
"Well, yeah, but…"
"It's fine. Every now and then you've got to eat somewhere like this."
I'd tracked down a pricey but highly rated sushi place just for Taeseong hyung, who loved the stuff.
Honestly I'd only come because people said it was expensive and delicious… then I saw the menu prices and was a little shocked.
"This is good."
"Right? The captain tipped me off. Pretty solid."
The captain quietly knows a ton of these places.
A hidden foodie for atmospheric spots, despite how he looks.
"Mm… but are you okay?"
"About what?"
"That interview. Manager Oh looked pretty pissed."
Not pretty. Extremely.
"Ah~ I called him."
"What'd he say?"
"Just… kept apologizing, basically."
When someone yells at you for sticking your nose into another team's business, "I'm sorry" is about all you've got left.
"You jumped the gun this time. What if it wasn't an injury but something else? Why say that?"
"It just looked too weird. He's not even at aging-curve age."
"Sigh… From their side it could look like you were trying to mess with them. And you said it right after a blowout loss, of all times."
"Didn't think that far. Just got a little mad for no good reason."
"Mad?"
"He's a player I respect. Watching him grind his career down like that… so I just blurted it out. Honestly I regret it."
That day I hadn't thought much of it.
But the next morning I woke up and wondered if I'd just stuck my nose where it didn't belong.
"What'd he say himself?"
"Just laughed."
"Huh?"
"Didn't say much. Just that it wasn't like that…"
Honestly, after the call with Kwon Jong-jin I regretted it even more. That weak little laugh of his made me feel terrible.
But looking back, Kwon Jong-jin's reaction had been strange.
Like he was talking about someone else.
That was how it felt to me.
"Keep your head down for a while."
"I will."
"How do you go a whole year without a single quiet stretch?"
"…"
Out of nowhere?
"When you had no skill you were too quiet, that was the problem… No middle ground with you. None!"
"…"
I got scolded.
Expensive sake + can't leave any + huge pours + Taeseong hyung is a lightweight = drunk. And scolded.
Perfect outcome.
I closed out the season with my 25th win in that final start.
About five games left… Manager Park said we should stop here, and I agreed.
I could still hit a bit more, and maybe make one more pitching appearance, but why bother?
No reason to push it at all.
Even if the physical load is lighter on me than most players…
I was still honestly pretty worn out. Being a two-way player is definitely no joke.
Those big-name guys in the majors who try it and fall apart aren't just unlucky.
Even here, with short travel, it's this hard… Do it in the majors with longer trips and more games… Ugh…
"That's literally what you're doing starting next year."
"… Somehow it'll work out."
"Guy with no plan…"
When have I ever lived thinking about later…
It'll work out somehow.
"You saying goodbye to everyone?"
"More or less? Still a few left."
"That many? You don't even have friends."
"…"
I was giving my own kind of farewell to the people I was grateful to, the ones I'd gotten close with.
Starting with Taeseong hyung, I'd been treating a few people to meals, and somehow the list had gotten pretty long.
Jo Sangjun, who taught me the splitter and is now our coach. Cho Hyun-joon, my hitting teacher.
I'd eaten with the captain and Kang Chanjung too.
Called all three foreign players together for a meal.
Even gathered the juniors—Na Seung-won, Ju Yang-gyu, Hyeon-bin, Jang Hak-yeon and the rest—and treated them big once.
Met up one by one with guys around my age like Lee Yong-hun and Jeong Jong-seong.
"Why make it so complicated? Just buy one big team dinner."
Ko Mandeok, who knew exactly why I was going around eating with people, still couldn't understand and asked.
"Then it's hard to actually talk. If you're meeting to say goodbye, you should have a real conversation."
"True. But what about me?"
"What about you, hyung?"
"You're not buying mine?"
"What are you talking about? You've crashed every single one."
"That's different!"
Ko Mandeok had tagged along to every last meal…
And still complained.
"So you're really leaving."
"Yeah."
"Why? You said you were thinking about staying."
"I did. Honestly I still want to stay… Haa…"
Circumstances I can't talk about.
Eating my way through all those meals, the season ended.
Final standings:
1. Savers
2. Raiders
3. Hawks
4. Unicorns
5. Jaguars
6. Falcons
7. Stars
8. Dolphins
9. Warriors
10. Dragons
First through third were exactly the same as last year.
The Hawks chased second place right to the end, but the Raiders poured everything into holding it.
As expected, the Unicorns, who'd been in the second-place fight, settled for fourth. The Jaguars, who'd made an early splash, finished fifth.
The real surprise—if you could call it that—was last year's fourth-place Warriors dropping all the way to ninth…
And once again the immovable tenth place belonged to the Dragons. Changing managers hadn't changed a thing with that team…
Then the Wild Card series opened.
The Jaguars, led by their two foreign pitchers, pulled off last year's upset all over again.
A fifth-place team sweeping a fourth-place team in two straight games and advancing to the semi-playoffs.
And the victim being last year's Cinderella Unicorns… well…
The experts said the Jaguars had accepted fifth early and prepared perfectly for the Wild Card, while the Unicorns had fought for second until the last day and got completely out-prepared.
Then the semi-playoffs.
A few days of rest gave the Hawks real strength.
In Game 1 the Jaguars' starter Hong Kyung-tae pitched decently, but they couldn't solve the Hawks' Game 1 starter.
In Game 2 they sent out Wild Card ace Gary Jordan, but the stuff from the previous series never showed up and they lost again.
Cornered, the Jaguars clawed one back in Game 3, only to fall to the Hawks once more in Game 4. That was the end of the Jaguars' uprising.
"Hawks are looking good."
Pitching and hitting both felt more stable than in the regular season somehow.
Especially that middle of the order that mashed six home runs in the semi-playoffs—pretty terrifying.
"Who do you want to come up?"
Raiders or Hawks…
"Raiders."
"Why?"
"Mm… fan loyalty?"
"… Bullshit."
I am a Kwon Jong-jin fan, okay? What?
Everyone was stunned. The internet communities exploded.
No one had expected the Raiders to start Kwon Jong-jin in Game 1.
Even though he'd finished second in wins behind me, Visner had been the best pitcher in the league all season. Everyone assumed he would take Game 1.
Everyone.
But Manager Oh Jeong-geun put Kwon Jong-jin out there.
A thoroughly rested Kwon Jong-jin.
"Whoa… hasn't pitched once since that game, and now he shows up for this one."
Someone among us watching TV together let out a long breath.
"Did they really rest him just for today?"
After my interview he hadn't taken the mound again, so the injury talk had been nonstop chaos.
"If he hits 150 km/h I'm gonna get chills."
"About a month off, right?"
"Roughly."
I figured a velocity that never showed up all year wasn't coming back just because he rested a month.
If a month of rest was enough to fix it, why hadn't it come back in the offseason?
Still, there had to be a reason for that month off.
"Stri~ke!"
144 km/h.
"Mm… doesn't look any different."
Velocity was exactly the same.
Whatever hope we'd been holding vanished in an instant.
But then…
"Out!"
Kwon Jong-jin was different.
"Isn't that something we've seen a lot of?"
"…"
"Whoa… he's using it properly."
"…"
"Was that why he stayed out a whole month?"
Kwon Jong-jin had brought out the curveball.
He'd always thrown a slow curve now and then to mess with timing.
Now he was throwing three different kinds of curves.
Just like me.
"Unbelievable. They know it's coming and still can't hit it."
"That's gonna be a headache."
Exactly as the broadcaster said, Kwon Jong-jin had revived completely.