The Pitcher Just Hits a Home Run - Chapter 402

Episode 402. Side Story 7) Choi Soo-won is passing by over there (1)

Never to be defeated The greatest player of all time lost when it seemed he would never be defeated.

In fact, more than 100 million people who watched the game were ‘convinced’ at that moment that Choi Su-won was on the mound in the 10th inning. And that was the ‘persuasive power’ that a great player named Choi Soo-won had built up over a long period of 17 years.

If an ordinary person were to say that they would capture Cerberus, the gatekeeper of Hades, it would sound like absurd nonsense. But what if it was Hercules who had already completed 11 tasks, including strangling the Nemean Lion whose spear and sword did not work and slaughtering the nine-headed Hydra?

‘Yes, Hercules can do that.’

I think.

Choi Soo-won’s last 17 years were like that too.

He always turned the ‘what if’ moment into ‘as expected.’

He has defied people’s expectations and has always exceeded them.

So people naturally assumed that he would do the same this time as he always did. Perhaps even Choi Soo-won himself thought so.

And that expectation was shattered.

New York, no, the United States, and perhaps all countries in the world that know the sport of baseball were boiling over.

And it was the same for those who cheered for the New York Mets, not Choi Soo-won.

People always cheer for the underdog, but funny enough, those who cheer for the underdog often say, ‘Huh?’ when the underdog bites the top dog and pulls him out of his place. This is because you start to think, ‘Isn’t this what I thought?’ It was like that this time too.

The moment Choi Soo-won took the mound in the 10th inning, not only those who were expecting him to write another legend, but also those who were expecting his long reign to end had doubts about the ‘choice’ that did not seem strange at the time. It started to be raised.

─No, does this make sense? Are you asking a pitcher who pitched 9 innings without allowing a run to go on the mound again in the 10th inning? And in Game 7 of the World Series? Well, it’s not like he was recording a perfect hit or a no-hitter?

─Director Lee Gae Baekjeong Director Lee Gae Baekjeong Director Lee Gae Baekjeong

─Alexander McDowell looks like x. uh? With the score 0-0 in the top of the 10th inning, does it make sense for a hitter with 711 career home runs to face a head-to-head game when 1st, 2nd, and 3rd bases are all empty?

─This World Series MVP is coach Jeff Clark.

─As soon as the Mets lost their owner, they finally realized how to spend their money properly. What do you do by paying players? All you have to do is buy the opposing team’s manager.

─It was too much money to refuse (Jeff Clark)

─The secretariat must thoroughly investigate this matter.

Just in one day.

All kinds of stories poured out like crazy.

“I know there are a lot of stories, but they are all speculation. “The manager clearly told me that I should stop pitching, but I said I would pitch one more inning.”

“Choi Soo-won, is there a reason you need to reveal that now?”

“It’s too cowardly to stay still. Coach Jeff deserves plenty of respect. So, this is just a disaster caused by my greed.”

Of course, Choi Soo-won’s one remark did not overturn public opinion. No, it’s safe to say that it actually had the opposite effect. Many people had a hard time accepting Choi Soo-won’s defeat, and the story that Choi Soo-won himself was responsible for it was even harder for them to accept.

─When the player said he would leave, he just sat there and said, ‘Yes, go ahead.’ What good is a director if you’re going to do it?

─In my view, the Yankees’ front office itself is the problem in the first place. No, what did you do instead of reinforcing players? I wonder if Suwon would have said he would run again in the 10th inning if there was no pitcher he could trust.

─That’s right, every day there are stories about someone being connected, but no player actually buys it. You know this is the third Yankees Payroll League, right?

─Honestly, it’s a bit tight even though it’s the most popular major club and makes the most money.

─Steinbrenner is dead. Steve Cohen should have bought the Yankees and not the Mets when he was alive.

─Did you see the interview with the Mets players immediately after winning this championship? I dedicate this victory to the boss. As I was saying this, tears came to my eyes.

─This is what happened, Choi Soo-won. Let’s abandon the Yankees and move to the Red Sox.

─Huh? Why Boston all of a sudden?

─That guy is doing this here too.

This was not the first time the Yankees failed to win the championship since Choi Soo-won debuted. However, this was the first time that the Yankees, led by Choi Su-won, who was not injured, failed to win the championship. Therefore, the shock people received was much greater than when he failed to win his 11th consecutive world championship.

“For me, this atmosphere is what our player Choi Su-won is. And I think this proves how great the Yankees, led by Choi Su-won, have been so far. In fact, it is not normal to win consecutive championships in a league with 30 teams, and even in a league that implements a franchise system rather than an open market. Even the great Michael Jordan only had two three-peats. However, for fans who have been watching the Major League since 2028, someone other than Choi Soo-won will win. The situation itself, where the Yankees advance to the postseason but fail to win, is very unfamiliar. “Isn’t that amazing?”

“It is definitely true after hearing it. So Commissioner Park Dong-sik, from now on. So, how do you see the situation after next year?”

“well. What is certain is that the Mets will never again show the same destructive power as they did this year. There is a very high probability that this year’s championship will be the last for Alexander McDowell and Ha-Min Baek. And in the case of the Yankees, although they suffered an unexpected blow this time, their overall team composition is very good. If I had to pick the strongest candidate to still win, I think I would pick the former New York Yankees. However, if I had to point out one thing that is unsettling, it would be that Choi Soo-won is not a player who is accustomed to failure. “It’s very difficult for someone who has never fallen before to get up again.”

***

After that happened, so many people were worried about me.

Even my wife, who always complains that I spend too little time with my family during the winter season, this time asked me if it would be okay to go on a family trip for a week, and looked at me like this, and I didn’t feel that bad.

Anyway, winter ended and spring came again.

Almost 20 years already. No, if you add the past that is now gone, the routine that has been repeated for well over 30 years was repeated again.

In fact, if you’ve done this much repetition, it’s normal to feel like you can do it with your eyes closed. In fact, I felt that way until last year.

But this year was a little different.

-Woah!!

“great.”

The guy who caught the ball repeatedly shouted good ball and raised his thumb. He even awkwardly shouted “hwaiting” as if he had just watched a Korean drama somewhere. The fact that it wasn’t too clearly about fighting was an element that made him more king… Oh right. My daughter said, ‘You get the king.’ I was told not to use the same word because it would make me look like an old man, but it’s really difficult because it’s a word I’m used to.

Anyway, my body wasn’t rising as much as I thought it would. In fact, I was planning to bring my body up a little more slowly as I now have experience and am older, but it was still a bit difficult to only have a speed of 93 mph even though it was almost March.

First exhibition match.

1.2 innings, 3 runs allowed.

Second exhibition match.

2 innings without a run.

And the third exhibition game.

2 runs in 3 innings.

Actually, giving up points wasn’t that big of a problem.

The problem was that even after three exhibition games and more than half of March had passed, the maximum speed was still hovering around 95 mph.

“No, I don’t see anything wrong with my body. “The elbow where the surgery was performed is clean, and overall, for a player in his late 30s, his body is very well maintained.”

I did a detailed examination, but the doctor said there was no problem.

Of course, there were some creaks here and there, but that’s normal for a player who has been a professional athlete for nearly 20 years.

─Curse of the changeup? Choi Soo-won’s arrest is reduced!!

As always, the media started talking about this and that. Well, maybe because I suffered in New York for about 17 years, I don’t mind such stories anymore.

And the fourth exhibition game.

4 runs in 3 innings.

─Dead arm? Aging? Soowon Choi. Decreased restraint for no known reason!!

“Anyway, Choi Soo-won was also born in 2008. Aren’t you going to turn 37 in just a few months? Moreover, although he was managed when he was younger, he has played a lot of innings in recent years. A cumulative 2,700 innings may be enough of a reason for the pitcher to spread. Choi Su-won even consistently pitched innings in the postseason, so if you add that in, he has already surpassed 3,000 innings.”

“Personally, I think ‘that incident’ last year was also a sign that something like this would happen. If it was before, Choi Soo-won could do it!! If I said that, it would definitely happen. But isn’t this aging just the inability to do things that we thought we could do based on past experience?”

On a TV show, baseball experts talked about something like that. Just last year, these are the guys who were already talking about being GOAT and that they just needed to get that last point.

Aging…

Okay, I thought maybe that was true. 2045. Everything I have experienced has already become the past. The children already entered school in August of last year. Will I even take my daughter to school in December? She asked and she said she was embarrassed that her dad was taking her. He shamefully abandoned me, saying he just wanted to ride the school bus. Ah, fortunately my son is still innocent and without any thoughts.

Fifth exhibition match.

No runs in 4 innings.

In this game, he surpassed 95 mph for the first time and threw a fastball of 95.4 mph. The media made a fuss about it, saying that it was just a matter of his body coming up a little slowly, or that he would still be the strongest Cy Young contender as long as his speed increased, but guess what? This time, I really gritted my teeth and threw, but I was a little embarrassed because that was all I could get.

And one day between the fifth and sixth exhibition games.

My wife came to visit with the kids because the school was on spring break.

“dad!! White hair!! “Dad, white hair!!”

At first, I thought they had seen the wrong hair in the light. I’m gray hair It’s not even my birthday yet, so I’m only 36. It’s nonsense to say that I’m gray.

But it was true.

Of course, in order to pull out that one gray hair, I had to pull out as many as four more strands of black hair, but among the hair that my son had pulled out, one gray hair was clearly showing off its presence.

Once again, I began to realize that I, too, was getting older.

Sixth exhibition game.

With the enthusiastic support of my family, I pitched 6 scoreless innings.

He threw a fastball of up to 96.1 mph.

That’s how my age 37 season began.