The Unexpected Encounter with the Returning Ace
Park Gayeong found Choi Seungtaek's words strangely off.
"You got hurt?"
They hadn't talked much since their Monday date, but they'd still traded a few short messages every day. Through all of that, Seungtaek had sounded like himself. She'd assumed he was just sulking over forgetting her birthday — but the man on the phone now was nothing like the Seungtaek she knew.
"Yeah.... Something came up, actually. I got pretty banged up."
On top of that, his voice was shaking. In all the time she'd known him, Seungtaek had never called her on the verge of tears, and a slow, creeping worry began to take hold.
What do I do? This sounds serious. I should put the assignment down for a minute.
Sensing that something was genuinely wrong, Gayeong glanced at the clock to see how much time she had left.
Seven in the evening.
The hour only deepened the unease. This was when a baseball game would be underway — which meant this was when Seungtaek couldn't get in touch at all.
That's not right. Something really must have happened to him.
"Seungtaek, what happened?"
"Something did, but it was kind of embarrassing, so I couldn't bring myself to say it. I'm sorry about that too. I should've told you. I've got a girlfriend I could've leaned on, and I still kept my mouth shut. Pretty stupid of me, huh?"
"Just tell me what happened."
"You still... didn't know?"
Huh?
Gayeong stopped working on her assignment and pulled up the internet. She typed the three syllables of his name into the search bar, and a flood of articles spilled out.
On a day when ballparks across the country filled with children, several stadiums played host to scenes no child should have had to watch.
Nowhere was it uglier than at Daejeon Baseball Stadium, where Magpies catcher Choi Seungtaek found himself surrounded by Gangnam Parrots players in a full-on brawl....
Choi Seungtaek of the Daejeon Magpies had cut a genuinely admirable figure at a Children's Day autograph session — only to present a far less flattering one in the middle of a bench-clearing brawl.
A disciplinary committee was hastily convened on May 6, 2015. Choi Seungtaek was handed a five-day suspension from play effective immediately, and the Magpies organization was fined five million won.
Oh!
She tapped the clip attached to one of the articles. Luck — if you could call it that — had edited the footage so that it never showed Seungtaek throwing a punch. All that remained was the stretch where the Gangnam Parrots players closed in around him and started hitting.
Oh no. Oh no, no, no.
Gayeong stared at the screen, stunned.
"Seungtaek! What were you thinking? You can't even fight — why would you do that?"
Worry had taken over her voice completely.
Huh? What is she talking about?
Seungtaek cocked his head at Gayeong's words. The feeling he'd been so carefully holding onto drained away in an instant.
"You should have told me something like this happened! How am I supposed to just sit here watching you get hit?"
Her tone had flipped entirely, which, as far as Seungtaek was concerned, was excellent news.
"Ah.... It was all over the news. I figured you already knew."
"I'm sorry. Nobody in my house really watches TV, so I had no idea. This is awful."
She was clearly watching the clip in real time; he could hear it in the way her voice jumped with every punch.
Yeah, except I beat the hell out of a few of them first, so I'm not exactly in a pitiful position here?
"Uh.... So I just keep getting hit the whole time?"
"Yeah. Oh! He got hit again. He starts off saying something, then he charges in, and after that he just keeps taking it?"
Okay.... Not sure I love leaving my girlfriend with the image of me getting my ass kicked.... Then again, that's still better than the image of me doing the kicking, right?
He corrected course almost immediately.
When a good situation presents itself, you use it.
"Yeah.... So my body's been killing me.... Then the next day they called a disciplinary hearing.... Then the seniors chewed me out.... I just didn't have it in me to wish you a happy birthday.... I'm sorry. I wanted to act like nothing had happened. It didn't really work out."
With his voice gone quiet again, Gayeong's heart softened.
"I keep trying to do things right, and it just doesn't work.... It was so good, doing that autograph session with the kids."
She remembered the way his voice had lit up on their date, when he'd told her he'd be signing for children on Children's Day.
"Anyway.... That's why I couldn't get ahold of you properly. I'm sorry, Gayeong."
"I'm sorry too, Seungtaek. I had no idea any of this was going on, and I just sat there thinking about myself."
The last of the tightness had left her voice.
"If something like this happens again, tell me. I'll make time whenever you need it and be there. I'm your girlfriend, remember?"
"Yeah. I will."
"Promise me."
"Yeah! I promise."
The seniors' advice had done its job.
After night training, Seungtaek came home and called Gayeong, and the two of them stayed on the phone until they both fell asleep.
Having steered his way through the crisis, he threw himself back into training with a lighter heart.
Training is showing results.
Pitch Blocking 51,505 / 100,000
Seungtaek scratched his head at the message before he'd even finished reading it.
Is this actually going up? Almost nothing feels different.
He'd been drilling since the wrap-up camp, but after spring camp the pitch blocking work had fallen off, and the number had barely moved. Lately, though, he'd been hammering blocking with real focus, and the count had climbed a fair amount.
He was just wrapping up the morning blocking session with the battery coach when the Magpies Head Coach came looking for him.
"Seungtaek."
"Yes, Coach!"
"The manager wants you down with the 2nd team today."
"The 2nd team?"
Seungtaek felt another wave of dizziness coming on.
What? Why? I did every bit of the training he told me to do!
It was the manager's order, though, so he couldn't let the displeasure show.
Wait. This is a chance to do less blocking. I'm suspended anyway — I can't play. I can go down there and finish the pitch framing.
"Ah! If the manager says go, I go right now!"
He immediately overdid it, stripping off his catcher's gear and starting to pack.
"Hey! Listening to the manager is fine, but you gotta hear a person out first."
"Sorry? Ah — what's the reason I'm going down?"
"We've got a new foreign pitcher in. He wants you to catch him a few times and get a feel for him."
"A foreigner? Wait — he's here already?"
"He is. They're planning to start him out of the 2nd team, and expectations are high. If he comes straight up to the first team, you'll be the one catching him, so the manager wants you down there early to take a look."
Seungtaek felt the blood start moving faster through his body.
There's only one foreign pitcher coming to the Magpies right now.
Antonio. The best pitcher the 2015 Daejeon Magpies would have.
Hell, you could make a case he was the best pitcher in the league that year, period.
Seungtaek had faced him himself, so he knew exactly what that presence felt like. He'd only seen him once, back with the Busan Seagulls — and even that once had been like running into a wall.
Holy shit. He's finally here. I've been so buried in training I haven't even been following club news. He'd wanted a proper look at that ball the moment the man arrived. This was perfect.
"Understood. I'll get down there fast and work on signs, timing — whatever it takes to get on the same page."
"Mm.... Yeah. Seungtaek always does what he's told."
With that, Seungtaek got in the car and drove out to Seosan, home of the 2nd team.
"Man. It's been a while."
Seungtaek arrived at Seosan and walked into the ballpark.
Yeah. Familiar faces, all over again.
Song Geumho and Ki Youngbae were both there — two more who hadn't been able to hold onto a first-team roster spot.
Those two just got called up the other day.... Wait. It actually was the other day. I knew they weren't going to last.
The Magpies' pitching staff was so thin that Manager Han Geunseong had been cycling through arms just to chew up innings. He'd keep doing it until the staff was actually built out — and if that never happened, he'd drop from a five-man rotation to four and keep burning starters that way instead.
Tsk. This week's going to be even uglier. The pitchers are going to get chewed up even faster.
He was still taking in the arms on the field when something else snagged his eye.
Fsssh—
Thump.
Fsssh—
Thump.
Damn. Antonio throws so filthy good.
The pitcher who'd spent years in the major leagues had just walked into Seungtaek's field of view. Coming from MLB all the way to a country on the far side of the Pacific, Antonio was here to claw his way back, and he was throwing like a man with his teeth clenched for a fight.
He was the kind of arm that would become a real pillar for the Magpies, and Seungtaek's expectations climbed another notch.
All right. Time for the bounce-back.
Seungtaek put on a smile and went looking for the Magpies 2nd Team Director.
"Good afternoon, sir!"
"Oh! Choi Seungtaek. Heard you really went at it."
"Haha.... Not at all."
"You're here to catch Antonio, right?"
"Yes. It seems the manager wants him in the first team as soon as possible. How's he look to you?"
"He's good. Good enough that you start wondering if he even needs a 2nd-team start."
The 2nd Team Director didn't hesitate to put a high grade on him.
"Still, he's got to loosen up for at least one game. We'll keep it light today and get him in tomorrow, or the day after."
"Understood. While I'm down here, I'll catch Antonio a bit, get some individual work in, and then head back up."
"Individual work?"
"Yes — training the manager ordered. Haha...."
Invoking the manager's name, Seungtaek bought himself time for framing work.
Then the two pitchers drifted back into view.
Song Geumho and Ki Youngbae. The two veteran arms were loosening up with faintly dark looks on their faces.
Yeah.... Maybe it's time I passed along a little of Song Gol-mae's advice. They crashed and burned no matter what they tried in the first team. At this point they'd grab at a straw.
If the rest of the staff's shoulders were going to survive, those two were going to be needed eventually. Seungtaek took a sip of water and drifted toward them as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Aigoo, how are you, seniors?"