Opening Day Shockwaves – A Rookie Catcher Seizes the Plate
A heavy gloom hung over the Magpies' conference room.
They had come out of a Stove League fortified by the parent company's money, only to watch their roster get carved nearly in half on the eve of Opening Day.
Every seat was filled: the Magpies' general manager, the heads of each department, Manager Han Geunseong, and the entire on-field coaching staff.
"The injury report. Now."
At the general manager's words, the Magpies' rehab-unit coach stepped forward.
"I'll keep this brief. First, I'll brief you on the catching corps—that's where we're in the worst shape."
"Materials are ready."
"First, Park Gyeok-po needs about five months of rehab for a hamstring injury. Expected return is September."
"Hah... At least he'll be back during the season."
"That's right. The problem is Jung Kyungho. The fracture around his clavicle and shoulder is severe enough that it looks season-ending. We're not even sure he'll be back next year."
"Aigoo..."
"Hahh..."
Sighs rolled through the room at the news that one of their own had gone down hard. Jung Kyungho was a franchise catcher they had raised with real care, and that made the loss cut deeper.
"The silver lining is that Jo Oosoo should be able to return within three months. But because of his knee, he still can't handle a full starter's workload. He can appear about twice a week."
That, at least, was hopeful. In the end, Jo Oosoo was still the best catcher the Magpies had.
"Even so—three first-team catchers injured at the same time. Shouldn't we be rushing a trade on the catching side?"
The general manager sounded genuinely worried.
"Then we'd have to give up something of equal value, and we don't really have anyone to offer. With the players we currently hold, we can't bring in a good catcher."
"Then... what are we supposed to do? Three first-team catchers are going to be out for a while."
"We'll have to start Choi Seungtaek and call up a backup catcher from the second team."
The scouting department was firmly against a trade, which left them with the only answer they had.
"So we're going to have to trust a rookie... Manager Han, are you all right with that?"
The Magpies' general manager turned to Han Geunseong.
"Choi Seungtaek... he's more or less a passing grade. The problem is we don't have a backup catcher. That's going to be a little rough."
"Then how's the second-team catching situation?"
"What Manager Han cares about, in the end, is whether they can play basic defense—and we don't have a catcher at that level yet. The only one on the catching side who's cleared the minimum passing line is Jung Kyungho."
The second-team battery coach's answer was grim.
"Basic defense? Then what about Choi Seungtaek?"
"Choi Seungtaek is fine. Seungtaek's defensive ability isn't much different from Kyungho's right now. He's a rookie, but he's at about the level of a fourth- or fifth-year pro catcher."
"Really? We really brought in a good one, huh?"
"Yes. His hitting is solid too, so honestly he's a prospect worth getting excited about. If we use him for a few years, he might grow into an A Grade catcher."
The first-team battery coach's assessment of Choi Seungtaek was thoroughly positive.
"Then for a while we'll have to go with Choi Seungtaek as the starting catcher. Brief me on the other spots."
"Yes. Woo Jeong-geun has a wrist injury from batting and needs to focus on recovery for two months. Fortunately it isn't a major injury, so he might come back sooner."
"Lee Gun-taek?"
"Lee Gun-taek has a hernia, but it was caught early, so treatment isn't difficult. He can return next week."
"That's a relief. One week... Then Manager Han, this is actually better than expected, isn't it?"
"The first month is the problem... We'll do everything we can."
The rookie season has begun.
Batting attributes have been adjusted as a reward for winning the Presidential Cup.
"Whoa—damn, you scared me."
Choi Seungtaek had just parked at Daejeon Baseball Stadium for Opening Day when the letters materialized in front of him and nearly made him jump out of his skin.
"Come on... at least pop up when I'm in bed! Or sitting still! I almost had a heart attack."
But it was good news, so he hurriedly pulled up his own attributes.
Before, it would have been nothing but the bare letters. Now every batting number had a plus hanging off it.
So it's a full buff across the board? Nice.
This ability is scheduled to disappear after six months.
Six whole months? Meaning I have to grow the ability myself before then. If I work hard enough to earn those pluses on my own, it's basically permanent.
And that wasn't the end of what the System was giving him.
Starting catcher? Ah—right. They don't have any catchers left... Still, they actually didn't try a trade.
The popular baseball program Baseball Together had predicted Choi Seungtaek would start, but he hadn't thought they'd actually hand the job to a rookie like him.
With three first-team catchers injured, he'd assumed they would at least bring one in by trade.
But the Magpies had decided to trust Choi Seungtaek, and a strange feeling stirred in his chest because of it.
Me, the starter... so that's how it is. Maybe coming to the Magpies was the right call after all.
"This just keeps getting better."
Driving in toward the stadium, Choi Seungtaek was in a good mood.
This was a park that packed ten thousand fans every single day even when the team sat in last place, and for Opening Day the tickets had sold out.
The orange wave he'd seen rolling toward the stadium on the way in set his heart racing.
"Hah... All right! I'm the starting catcher now. Time to do this right."
He steeled himself and headed inside.
"Choi Seungtaek—you made it?"
Shortstop Hwang Ganggyeong acknowledged him as he came in.
"Yes! Just got here!"
He walked in looking pleased, but a corner of his mind was uneasy.
The two empty seats beside Hwang Ganggyeong. Those had belonged to a pair of .300 hitters.
Tch...
"Seungtaek, you weren't at night training yesterday either. How the hell do you keep skipping it? Calling in sick only works once or twice."
Hwang Ganggyeong asked like he genuinely wanted to know.
Ah... that.
God, I'm going to lose it. Nothing but catcher drills every day—I'm going to go insane.
By Choi Seungtaek's standards, the catching work they were putting him through was anything but modern.
From where he sat, the night sessions were tedious, useless repetition that didn't help him at all.
I'd be better off just resting, for my own sanity. So what do I do?
Unwilling to grind through those bizarre, repetitive drills, he finally put his head to work.
"Clubhouse manager, do I have night training?"
"Of course you do. Every night. Why?"
"I'd rather not take night training from here on."
"What? Did you get hurt too? You okay? Leg? Arm? What's wrong?"
A rookie catcher suddenly refusing night training.
Ordinarily it would have been, Who do you think you are, turning down drills the skipper ordered?—but the Magpies' catching corps was in a state of emergency. The clubhouse manager startled, half-convinced Seungtaek was injured too, and started checking him over.
"It's not that."
"Ah! You scared me. If you're hurt, you have to say so. The skipper's the type who pulls you out of training if you tell him you're in pain."
"Understood."
"Then why aren't you taking the training? You're not doing anything else now—just catcher work. If you want to be the starting catcher, you've got to train properly."
Haha... he could hardly say he just wanted to stop doing mindless reps. So Choi Seungtaek decided to borrow an anecdote about Manager Han Geunseong.
A jinx!
"Opening Day's coming up, isn't it? The thing is, I've got a jinx of my own. I don't train at night the day before a game."
"What?"
The clubhouse manager froze for a beat.
"Hold on... aha. Yeah, that can happen. The skipper's the type who thinks carefully about that kind of thing, but... let me ask him right now."
"Right now?"
"Yeah. Give me a second."
The clubhouse manager called Manager Han Geunseong.
"Skipper... uh... it isn't that, it's Seungtaek... he's asking to be excused from night training..."
"Yes! Yes! No. It isn't that, it's... he says he has a jinx of his own."
"Yes. He has to be at home, that..."
The clubhouse manager listened for a moment, then held the phone out to Choi Seungtaek.
"He wants you to explain it yourself."
Ah, crap...
Choi Seungtaek calmed the pounding in his chest and took the call.
Han Geunseong — "Choi Seungtaek. Explain."
Choi Seungtaek — "Ah! Skipper... the thing is, I have to do my own scouting, my own advance work..."
Manager Han Geunseong was in a strange mood.
It rankled him that a rookie catcher whose skills were nowhere near enough to satisfy him was talking back about skipping night training.
But a good catcher works to find the opponent's weaknesses.
A kid barely through the door of the pros was trying to do that on his own, and Han Geunseong found himself torn.
This kid... is he actually going to be something special?
Of course, this time Choi Seungtaek was lying through his teeth just to pull a ppang-ki and dodge the work—but a manager as experienced as Han Geunseong was the one who wavered.
Park Wangyu, the Incheon Cranes' second-team manager and a legendary master catcher, had had exactly the same habit.
"Nngh..."
Asking to skip night training was cheeky as hell, but Seungtaek's reason was, in its way, sound.
Han Geunseong — "Just look at it on game day."
Choi Seungtaek — "That won't work! I have to go over it the night before and sleep on it, or it doesn't stick."
Han Geunseong — "Hah... Fine. But if you make a mess of the Opening Day series, you don't get a single day off from here on. Even if you play the whole game, you're still doing night training."
Choi Seungtaek's silver tongue had beaten Manager Han Geunseong.
"Yes, sir! Understood."
Unable to explain that he'd been cooking up a way to slack off, Choi Seungtaek threw out a vague excuse.
"The skipper just gave me permission."
"What? Does that even make sense?"
"Well... with no catchers left, I figure it's a management thing."
"Yeah? Fair enough... catching's been blown to pieces right now..."
Hwang Ganggyeong bought it.
"It's time for us to go in."
"So it is. Let's hurry. Aren't you excited for Opening Day?"
"I really am. On the way in, wow—you wouldn't believe how many people there were."
"Good. You're a real pro now, so make sure you take a look around once you're in the stadium. The feeling's something else."
Changed and strapped into his catching gear, Choi Seungtaek headed for the dugout.
The park from down there was something else. Every seat was filling with an orange wave.
The thought of playing Opening Day not in those barren second-team yards he'd been looking at, but here, in Daejeon's first-team stadium, made his chest swell all over again.
Then Choi Seungtaek looked across at the other dugout. Players wearing the seagull emblem were waiting there.
"Nice. All familiar faces."
The Daejeon Magpies' Opening Day opponent was the Busan Seagulls.
"I might not know the other teams from this period, but I know the Seagulls."
Choi Seungtaek was confident he could keep skipping night training for a good long while.