Talking Back?
Someone who saw me focusing more on the bet than on the team's victory might say that Gong Ji-hoo had lost sight of his original intentions.
To those people, I can say this with absolute confidence.
I have never once lost my original intentions.
What even were Gong Ji-hoo's original intentions to begin with?
From the moment I first picked up a bat in high school all the way until I signed with a pro team, I simply thought it would be nice to make some money.
Everyone around me who knew baseball kept saying I had talent, after all. To an orphan who had lived a life that was never quite lacking yet never quite enough, baseball looked like a staircase made of pure gold.
Maybe that's exactly why I ended up as a Minor League Yeopo, running with that kind of mindset…
But before I knew it, baseball had become part of my life. I couldn't even imagine a version of myself who wasn't a baseball player. In the end I quit after five years.
That about covers the original intentions of Minor League Yeopo Gong Ji-hoo.
So what about the original intentions of the regressed Gong Ji-hoo?
Simple.
Play baseball and enjoy it.
That was all.
Only after regressing did I realize I had loved baseball far more than I ever thought. That was why I decided to throw myself into enjoying the game even more passionately this time around.
In the end, I'm still holding true to my original intentions…
And frankly speaking—
It wasn't as if I was making a bet that did nothing for the team.
This was a bet meant to save Kim Young-su, who had been handed a critically important role until the end of the first half. It was a move that helped the team. I had even taken on a massive penalty myself.
Well, it's not like I'm making a batting-average bet and putting on some petty display of average management either.
More than anything else, the biggest purpose of the bet—pulling Kim Young-su out of his slump—had already started showing results after just his first at-bat.
"The effect is so good it's almost a problem."
Feeling a twinge of crisis that another clip might get added to the Gong Ji-hoo Clown Compilation, I stepped into the box.
"Good work~"
Of course, I still didn't think I had lost to Kim Young-su.
Because I believed in myself.
The bottom of the third began with a home run from the number-nine hitter, Kim Young-su. Lead-off man Jang Tae-wook kept the momentum going with a single. And then—
[Number-two hitter Gong Ji-hoo steps into the batter's box. Currently batting .430 with twenty-eight home runs, he is putting up truly incredible numbers.]
[All eyes are on whether he can maintain a .400 average and break the thirty-home-run barrier before the first half ends.]
[That's right. The odds of him clearing thirty home runs look extremely high—he's only two away. His average also ticked up slightly after that infield single in his first at-bat today. Simply remarkable.]
[Gong Ji-hoo may not be matching the absurd home-run pace he set early in the season, but he is still steadily adding to the total. More than anything, this player is lethal when he goes on a tear.]
[On the mound, Baek Jin-seong has already allowed a home run and a single to start the inning and is looking shaky. Facing the best hitter in the league, he needs to approach this carefully.]
[Agreed.]
[Baek Jin-seong's first pitch! Here it comes!]
Thwack!!
"Ball."
A pitch that missed the strike zone by a wide margin.
Gong Ji-hoo tilted his head after watching it go by.
"You trying to walk me?"
"Who knows."
Lee Mun-woo behind the plate mumbled a non-answer. But then—
Thwack!!
"Ball."
Another pitch that sailed wide.
[Ah, Baek Jin-seong continues to wobble. Ball two as well.]
[You can understand how Baek Jin-seong feels. The batter is Gong Ji-hoo, after all.]
Still tilting his head, Gong Ji-hoo watched another pitch come flying well outside the zone—
Whoosh!!
—and flicked it foul with a soft tick.
"Senior Lee Mun-woo."
"Huh…?"
"Someone who should know better is acting like this. Why?"
Seeing the faint madness in Gong Ji-hoo's eyes, Lee Mun-woo thought,
Ah, damn it, I told them not to intentional-walk him.
Bottom of the third, nobody out, runner on first. He silently cursed the Wolves dugout for deciding to put Gong Ji-hoo on this early.
I like walks.
They let me take a free base without any hassle.
I like intentional walks even more. They mean I'm that dangerous a hitter.
And if they walk me even in a situation where an intentional walk isn't necessary? There is almost nothing more satisfying.
However—
They're walking me in a game this important?
Today's game had a lot riding on it—well, only for me and Kim Young-su, technically—but interference was not allowed.
The little kid inside me whispered: punish the Wolves for desecrating a sacred contest.
Tick.
Foul on another fastball that was still missing.
Tick.
Foul again on a pitch sailing high over my head.
Tick.
I stretched the bat out and fouled off a ball that broke wildly outside the zone.
"Fuck…"
Lee Mun-woo's low curse.
"This is bringing back old memories."
Come to think of it, I wondered how that teary foreign pitcher was doing. Today was supposed to be his turn in the rotation, if I remembered right.
"What about that Wheeler guy? Why isn't he out here?"
"You seriously don't know?"
"I really don't."
Surely he hadn't run away because he was scared of me. A pitcher has his pride.
Ah, but looking at how easily he cries, maybe he isn't the prideful type after all?
Not that it mattered either way.
Whoosh!!
A dropping pitch.
Under normal circumstances it would have been an automatic take, but I fished it up before it hit the dirt and turned it into another foul.
Doing this again after so long is actually pretty fun.
Two strikes, two balls.
"Don't even think about walking me. Seriously."
"I never wanted to walk you either. Seriously."
I was prepared to swing at every pitch I could possibly reach. To walk a guy like me, there were only two real methods: throw the ball so far away that I physically couldn't hit it, or—
"Pitcher, pitch-clock violation!"
—just stand there holding the ball until the pitch clock ran out, like right now. Of course, both methods earned you the exact same thing:
—Boooooo~~
Jeers from the crowd. Not just from the Rhinos home fans, but from the Wolves fans packing the away section as well.
"That kid looks younger than me. His mental state must be taking a real beating."
It was still only the top of the third. No matter how good the hitter was, an intentional walk with nobody out and a man on first? Even Wolves fans had to find that ugly.
"Tsk."
Listening to the boos while staring at the Wolves dugout, Lee Mun-woo clicked his tongue hard.
"Ah, fuck it. Whatever happens, happens."
[Baek Jin-seong held the ball on the mound for too long. Pitch-clock violation, ball awarded.]
[…The rule was created to shorten game times, but right now it seems to be serving a completely different purpose.]
Do the Wolves battery have no shame?
Commentator Kim Jung-up thought that to himself. Naturally, the Wolves battery felt the same way.
Do we really have to go this far just to walk him?
I'm the one who's going to eat all the boos.
Neither of them liked the current situation. The dugout was still flashing the sign to put Gong Ji-hoo on, but when the two of them locked eyes, they realized they were thinking the exact same thing.
Just pitch to him!
Wolves pitcher Baek Jin-seong set himself with the determination to strike Gong Ji-hoo out.
Two strikes. And after forcing those ridiculous pitches foul, his swing is out of whack. A strikeout is more than possible!
Whoosh!!
The cutter that had been effective in Gong Ji-hoo's first at-bat—even if it had allowed that borderline infield single—came boring in on the inner half of the strike zone.
Perfect!
At minimum an infield grounder. At best a strikeout. An absolute gem of a pitch. But then—
CRAAACK!!
[A pitch buried deep inside! Gong Ji-hoo swings with everything he has! The ball is high! Far! Over the wall! And it is not coming back!]
[He just crushed an incredibly difficult pitch. People call that the T-Rex Swing. Very few hitters in the world can clear the fence with that kind of swing path. That home run was possible only because it was Gong Ji-hoo!]
[That's right! The league leader in home runs has just launched his twenty-ninth of the season, leaving him one away from thirty! The score is now 4–0!]
Rounding the bases, the score Gong Ji-hoo was keeping in his head was not 4–0.
6–9. Almost there, Young-su.
Bottom of the fourth. Kim Young-su's second at-bat ended in a strikeout.
Perfect.
Gong Ji-hoo was smiling even though a teammate had just handed over an out for free. Naturally the rest of the Rhinos got angry at the sight.
They did not.
"Wow, look at this guy grinning when his own draft classmate just struck out."
Everyone already knew about the bet between the two of them—the penalty was going to be uploaded to the Rhinos MuTube channel, after all. And the scoreboard currently read:
Daegu Rhinos 7 – 0 Seoul Wolves
It was still early, but the scales of victory had already tipped heavily toward the Rhinos.
"Competition is cold-blooded, after all."
Still unable to wipe the grin off his face, Gong Ji-hoo found himself back in the batter's box after only one inning.
Surely they won't try to walk me again?
Even the Wolves wouldn't deliberately do something their own fans hated a second time. They were already getting blown out. Sure, a late comeback was theoretically possible, but—
If it ever looks like they might actually come back…
The Rhinos still had their ultimate weapon: Oh Jin-muk. After resting yesterday, if he took the mound there would be no comeback. In the KBO, Oh Jin-muk was simply that kind of pitcher.
"Good work~"
I whistled my way into the box.
"You look like you're having fun."
"Thank you, senior."
"What?"
"For actually pitching to me."
I meant it. I had almost lost earlier. Of course I was still trailing 6–9, but—
Looking at the first pitch from the mop-up guy who had come in to eat garbage innings, I thought,
I'm about to take the lead.
And I was not wrong in the slightest.
Whoosh!!
CRAAACK!!
The score became 10–9.
Even carrying a five-point penalty, I had finally taken the lead.
What kind of dance should I make Young-su do?
By the way, was there even a record for most home runs in the first half?
After putting up ten runs through five innings and completely dismantling the Wolves pitching staff, the Rhinos started resting their starters in bulk in the sixth.
Enraged at being treated like an afterthought, the Wolves kept the embers of a comeback burning until the very end. But of course—
Thwack!!
"Strike three!!"
They never got past the wall that was Oh Jin-muk.
Having secured the series win, the Daegu Rhinos were less interested in celebrating the victory and far more interested in the penalty from the bet between the two draft classmates, Kim Young-su and Gong Ji-hoo.
"Alright, Young-su! What dance are we doing?!"
"Can't we just… call it a draw?"
Naturally, Kim Young-su's ridiculous suggestion was met with a flat rejection from the winner of the bet.
"Absolutely not."
"“Booo~ That's pathetic, Young-su.”"
The rest of the Rhinos, who had been looking forward to the penalty, felt the same way.
"No… that last at-bat was a really unlucky line drive! If the infielder hadn't made that diving catch…"
Kim Young-su tried to argue that it should at least have been a tie, or that he had actually won—
"The loser… is talking back?"
In the end, Kim Young-su had no choice but to perform the penalty through gritted teeth and tears.
After a fan vote on MuTube decided the dance, Kim Young-su had to perform it with no music at all.
"Ugh… I can't even tell whose penalty this is anymore. What the hell is that twerking ass?"
The performance turned out so horrifying that the teammates watching live—and Gong Ji-hoo himself—started dry-heaving. Every second of it was captured on camera.
"Hahaha… our players are just this fun-loving…"
That day, Gong Ji-hoo gifted Rhinos fans a video "as addictive as cocaine"—and at the same time, lost one of his worshippers.