That's the Right Answer!
At the very least, Kim Young-su has probably only ever played baseball until now.
That form absolutely does not belong to someone who's ever gone out and partied.
People keep saying they're worried about Gong Ji-hoo because his closest friend on the team is Jang Tae-wook, but at least Ji-hoo will never go down that road.
This isn't just me playing armchair prophet.
The bastard simply has no free time.
He plays the game, goes home, and has to write. Where the hell is he supposed to find time for side quests?
Does Gong Ji-hoo get forty-eight hours in a day all to himself?
We finished third in the regular season last year and celebrated finally escaping the dark ages.
Then the shortstop we carefully raised got NTR'd off to Gwangju,
and after a recent four-game losing streak we're right back where we belong in last place.
And in the middle of all that, those bastards are uploading rookie singing contest videos on MuTube.
Please, just once this series, go easy on us.
“As expected…”
After checking the community reactions, I nodded to myself, once again reminded of a fundamental truth of the sports world.
When the results are good, the fans have room to breathe.
Daegu Rhinos and Daejeon Powderz currently occupied opposite ends of the standings. Both teams were famous within the KBO for making excellent use of MuTube, yet the fans’ reactions to those same channels could not have been more different.
“I’d be pissed too if we were on a four-game skid and a singing contest video dropped.”
Of course, I had zero intention of going easy on them the way the Powderz fans were hoping.
Our own situation wasn’t exactly overflowing with margin, after all. For starters, the foreign pitcher who had been struggling got released, leaving a hole in the rotation.
A hole in the rotation inevitably overloaded the bullpen. An overloaded bullpen inevitably led to more runs allowed. And that meant the hitters had to produce even more runs if we wanted to win.
And on top of all that, a starter went down with an injury…
There was a reason I had worked so hard to save Kim Young-su. It was for the team, and it was for him. He didn’t seem to see it that way, though. Lately whenever we crossed paths the first words out of his mouth were “get lost.”
Loser…
Anyway. Lately I had been monitoring the communities with extreme diligence. Because soon—
I was about to stack the whole ballot but still had enough conscience left to put Kim Jae-sang at catcher.
Ho-san, sorry. That’s just how it went.
—the All-Star voting was about to close.
Unlike its original purpose of assembling the absolute best players for a showdown, the KBO All-Star Game was closer to a pure popularity contest.
Other leagues weren’t exactly pure either, but the KBO took it to another level. Because, well—
There’s nothing actually riding on the All-Star Game.
In the dual-league system of Major League Baseball, the league that won the All-Star Game used to receive home-field advantage in the World Series. Fans therefore selected players with genuine care, and the players themselves competed with everything they had.
These days even over there it’s supposedly turned into more of an exhibition event.
I’d heard that ballot-stacking still popped up from time to time.
But the true originator of ballot-stacking was, of course, the KBO.
You’re supposed to vote for the good players, you bastards
Which meant, naturally, that the players with the biggest advantage in All-Star voting were the ones on popular teams.
Looked at another way, it was only natural for fans to want to bestow the honor of an All-Star selection on the players of the team they rooted for. Especially Rhinos fans, currently riding high in first place and absolutely swimming in that sweet, sweet team dopamine.
In the end, for a non-Rhinos player to make the 2025 Dream All-Stars, there were only two paths.
Starter Do Jeong-hoo and catcher Kim Jae-sang are never getting beaten
Either you were a nationwide star like Do Jeong-hoo and Kim Jae-sang—
Dream:
Infielders → Wizards
Outfielders → Stars
Nanum:
Whatever they tell you over there
Vote now
—or the unpopular teams banded together.
Honestly speaking…
Even when unpopular teams formed an alliance, they were still unpopular teams. I knew that better than anyone because I had once played for the Wizards. I’d only been in the second team, but Coach Kim Phil-jung had given me a pretty clear picture of what the first-team guys were dealing with.
Even the players themselves said they didn’t really expect anything…
Even back when the Swallows were permanently terrible and the Rhinos had failed to make the postseason for years—when both fanbases’ firepower was dead—it had still been that bad.
This season? Their odds of getting selected in the All-Star vote were hovering somewhere near absolute zero.
Or so I had thought.
The Rhinos stacking the ballot? Completely natural.
If the Magpies were a popular team, Magpie fans would stack for the Magpies too.
No need to trash the Rhinos for it.
Heung-Cham-Dong Alliance? Even if you combine the Wizards, Stars, Jaguars, and Gamers, the second the Irons and Rhinos join hands the game is over.
So we
go after the hearts of every baseball fan.
A single post that appeared on the Wizards fan community flipped the entire board.
—We focus on the story of the Wizards infield.
Voting wasn’t finished yet, but third base and catcher were already locked in for me and Kim Jae-sang. And both of us were deeply connected to the Wizards infield.
—2020 Draft All-Stars. That’s the slogan we push. Honestly, wouldn’t everyone want to see that at least once?
Third baseman. Shortstop. Second baseman. First baseman. And catcher.
A group of same-age infielders wearing the same uniform and playing together. It was the kind of sight that made your chest swell, like something straight out of a baseball manga. And if those players happened to be the so-called present and future of Korean baseball—the 2020 draft class—then even more so.
—How are baseball fans supposed to resist that? I bet even some of the Rhinos fans currently stacking ballots would want to see it.
And furthermore—
—The Rhinos’ second baseman and first baseman aren’t exactly popular anyway. Their stats aren’t great either.
They were my teammates, but I couldn’t deny the truth.
The Rhinos’ first base situation was either Song Han-su occasionally moonlighting or a starter who carried the bizarre title of “defensive first baseman.”
Once Senior Su-hyun comes back, Kim Young-su will probably shift to first.
Second base was the same story. They had prioritized defense over offense when choosing the starter. And a hitter who couldn’t hit was, naturally, not popular.
An incredible play that targets the Rhinos’ weakness and the Wizards’ strength…
You could call him the Zhuge Liang of All-Star voting without exaggeration. Which was why I myself voted for the Wizards infield.
Honestly, it just sounds fun.
And so, with the voting deadline almost upon us, the top vote-getters at second base and first base for the Dream All-Stars changed.
To An Sung-woo and Lee Dae-beom.
Victory for the Wizards’ Zhuge Liang. However—
Jang Tae-wook and Park Ji-han are going to fight it out to the end
Park Ji-han and Jang Tae-wook. First place at shortstop still hadn’t been decided. And then—
“Ji-hoo. I need some advice too.”
Uh… this is obviously about the All-Stars. I’m starting to feel a little guilty.
Jang Tae-wook, seeking counseling from the very traitor who had voted for Park Ji-han again today.
“You’re the only one I can talk to about this.”
Do these people actually think I’m a professional counselor or something?
Jang Tae-wook’s consultation topic was exactly what I expected.
“So you’re asking how to beat Ji-han?”
“Yeah. Isn’t Park Ji-han being super cheap? He’s just riding the draft-class wave.”
“Technically you’re riding the team wave too, hyung.”
“That’s fair. Without the Rhinos I’m nothing.”
With that much overflowing love and loyalty for the Rhinos, of course the fans adored him. In that case—
“Can’t you just trust the Rhinos fans? You’re still in first.”
“Still… you never know.”
The truth was that both Jang Tae-wook and Park Ji-han would make the All-Star team. There were manager recommendations, and both of them had the numbers to deserve it. But—
“I just don’t want to lose the fan vote number one spot.”
“That’s fair.”
“What if you did an interview saying you want to play with Tae-wook hyung in the All-Star Game?”
“That’s a bit much.”
“Yeah, figured.”
Jang Tae-wook accepted the rejection instantly.
“Then tell me a way I can beat Park Ji-han.”
“The attitude of someone asking for a favor is really something…”
“So you don’t want to?”
“No, I’ll think about it.”
Let’s compare Jang Tae-wook and Park Ji-han.
One was a team-devoted grinder who always overflowed with fighting spirit through endless at-bats. The other was a young captain who led his team while hitting double-digit home runs every season.
Power-hitting shortstops tend to be more popular, but…
Jang Tae-wook was a type of player who could hold his own in the popularity department. Purely from a baseball standpoint, he was romance incarnate.
What about the non-baseball side, then?
Jang Tae-wook, who kept absolute fidelity to his team yet was an absolute playboy off the field, versus Park Ji-han, the pure-hearted romantic who married his longtime girlfriend the moment he turned pro.
Looking at it like this, they’re complete opposites.
Even their personalities were polar opposites.
My head hurt.
In the end, the answer I cooked up was simple.
“Rhinos fans will vote for you no matter what, and people who want to see the 2020 draft classmates play together will vote for Ji-han, right?”
“Right.”
“Then everyone else will just vote for whoever’s playing better baseball.”
After all, popular players were the ones who played well.
“So if you put on a good show against the Powderz this series, that should do it.”
“That’s all it takes?”
And on top of that—
“Maybe throw in a desperate interview about how badly you want to make the All-Stars…”
A desperate plea from someone who normally overflowed with confidence? Impossible to resist.
“Yeah. In the end it just comes down to me playing well. Such an obvious fact and I completely missed it. Thanks, Ji-hoo.”
Of course, that didn’t mean—
“Don’t go expanding your swing trying to hit home runs, okay? You were born a ttuk-ttak-i.”
“Got it.”
He heard me correctly, right?
Powderz home game. Top of the first.
Leadoff hitter Jang Tae-wook’s at-bat.
Tick.
“Foul!”
Tick.
“Foul!”
[Leadoff hitter Jang Tae-wook is already grinding out a tenacious battle from the top of the first. We’re already at a ten-pitch at-bat.]
[It’s an absolute nightmare. With Gong Ji-hoo on deck, the pressure on the pitcher is beyond imagination.]
Watching from the on-deck circle as Jang Tae-wook maximized his greatest strength, Gong Ji-hoo couldn’t help but feel admiration.
“That’s the right answer! Ttuk-ttak-i!”