Ace of Ace

Live Pitching(1)

Suwon SW Park.

Upon hearing the news about Gun Choi’s recovered pitching speed and control, AT telecom offered him a session of live pitching.

Live pitching is the final stage before full rehab, and he showed no hesitance in accepting the offer.

“Sure, that’s fabulous”

“Okay, what day is good for you?”

Live pitching occurs under same conditions as real game pitching so it wasn’t an event to occur spontaneously.

“I think 3 days from today would be good”

Team manager replied,

“What about batting? Usually they don’t batters leave the ball in live pitching”

Gun let out a grin and replied,

“I think it’s only real live pitching if the batter tries his best in batting the ball. If possible, please prepare both left, and right handed batters. I’d like to throw about 20 balls, and I’m aiming for at least 3 out-counts.”

This meant that Gun wanted to pitch against both left handed and right handed batters.

“Okay, understood”

Manager delivered Gun’s request immediately to the 2nd division’s coaching staff for preparation.

2nd division director and the batting coach immediately frowned upon hearing the request.

“Both left and right? Not sure if he’s arrogant or confident”

“I did hear that he was a decent pitcher before the injury”

“Yeah, yeah, major league blah blah…. I still don’t like the guy. He has no concrete achievements or statistical deeds to back up his supposed ‘skill set’”

“what would you like to do?”

The director replied with no hesitance.

“send out numbers 3, 4 and 5”

This was intended to send out the 2nd division’s best batters to crush Gun’s confidence.

“Director, isn’t that too much?”

The batting coach stressed that this may backfire and negatively impact the reputation of AT telecom’s 2nd division.

The director shook his head as he replied, “in either circumstances, it is a win-win situation for us.”

“If the clean up squad (best batters in the team) gets striked out by Gun, wouldn’t the team’s passion and morale be discouraged?”

The director raised his tone and volume and replied enthusiastically.

“Why do you think our batters in the 2nd division fail to move up to the 1st? because they are not skilled enough? Because they’re inexperienced? No, I personally do not believe so. I believe they are where they are because they fail to acknowledge the flaws in their skillset. They always blame it on luck, or lack of opportunity, or even other minor, petty circumstances. They are full of shit. I really want to use this opportunity to give them a wake up call.”

The batting coach agreed with the director’s comment.

“Yes, sir. I will do as you request.”

The 2nd division clean up squad was not happy at the news.

“why do we have to go out to another player’s live pitching session? There are plenty of other bench members”

“That’s right. This should be used as an opportunity for rookies to stand on the field. I heard he was once a major leaguer, it would be an even greater honour for them”

“I don’t want to help an arrogant person like him”

Main players in the 2nd division all had a sense of repulsion against Gun. The main ones that hated on Gun happened to be the veterans in the division.

The batting coach raised his voice upon hearing the 3 players’ comments.

“Batting is allowed in this live pitching session. I want you guys to go out there and crush the so-called ‘major leaguer’”

The players’ attitudes changed at hearing the coach’s comment.

“batting is allowed?”

“that is some exciting news”

“I will let the major league punk know that becoming a professional isn’t easy”

The players happily packed their bats.

However, the batting coach thought that Gun wasn’t going to fall so easily like the players planned.

‘…he threw around 148km at bullpen pitching, so I’d say he’ll throw around 150km. If you underestimate him, you 3 will be the ones to get crushed…’

Gun got up on the mound and began lightly warming up for the session.

He threw all his practice balls at approximately 50% of the force.

PANG!

The catcher for the session was Kang Han. He supported Gun after every pitch.

“nice ball!”

Gun thought that Kang Han’s fundamentals as a catcher were very solid and impressive.

‘I wonder why such a stable and skilled player is still only a bullpen catcher?’

He thought that Kang Han could easily make it into the 1st division as a back-up catcher.

Focusing entirely on his defence, Kang Han was definitely an impressive player.

However, his batting rate was critically low. His performance in the 2nd division did not reach above 0.200.

A catcher who could not bat above 0.200 in the 2nd division.

Just when he thought he could no longer continue his career as a professional baseball player, he got offered the position as a bullpen catcher.

He accepted the offer immediately, and since then he’s been providing service for pitchers in the 2nd division.

Gun threw 10 practice balls before he went into live pitching.

“we will now commence live pitching”

Upon trainer’s signal, Gun nodded.

“Yes, sir”

At the very moment he nodded, a new message popped up before his vision.

– commencing live pitching mission –

Conditions: Pitch out 3 batters in a row.

Rewards: a point to invest in skillset rank ups.

Gun was puzzled at the message.

‘I didn’t even request for such mission. A point for skillset rank up? I don’t know what this is about but I guess I’ve got nothing to lose.’

First in line was player Min Suk who has a batting rate of 0.331 in the 2nd division this season.

Min Suk went on the plate staring at Gun, determined to crush him.

‘Major League? Stop kidding me. I will show you that we are no joke’

Gun was again puzzled at the stare.

‘he seems too serious for a live pitching session. Is this also because of the system? Man, it’s going to be difficult’

After controlling his breath, and following up with his pre-pitch ritual, he commenced his first pitch.

First pitch was a fastball.

WHOOSH.

Min Suk went for an emphatic all out swing, but Gun’s ball reached the catcher’s mitt before the bat.

PANG.

“STRRRRIKE!”

The ball was faster than what Min Suk had expected.

‘this guy is pretty good…’

In the referee’s role was Shi Hyung, a 2nd division personal trainer.

He had an amateur referee certificate so was rightfully qualified for the position.

Upon realising that Gun’s fastballs were faster than 2nd division pitchers’ fastballs, he gripped onto the bat closer.

‘that’s okay, we also have a guy in our division that can throw 150km+ fastballs. But I was able pull off hits off him. 150km doesn’t actually mean much, just a number’

He prepared himself again for a fastball, but his bat once again only cut the air as a slider came flying in.

The angle of Gun’s slider was entirely on another level compared to the 2nd division pitchers.

‘damn… 150km+ fastball along with a killer slider? This is beyond 1st division pitching’

Gun received the ball expressionlessly.

‘2 strike, no ball. Following the traditional ball formulation, you’d go wide this time round…’

But instead of pitching wide to the side, he pitched high middle.

WHOOSH.

Along with a rapid gush of air, the fastball that left Gun’s hand raced threw the strike zone.

This was not only a good pitch, but a formulation that caught Min Suk off guard.

“STRRRRIKE! BATTER OUT!”

Min Suk was striked out without even touching the ball. Won Yong and Gil Sung, who make the rest of the clean up squad of the 2nd division frowned at Min Suk as he returned to the bench.

“oi, what’s with the 3 strikes?”

“They don’t pitch that formulation in Korea. You usually go safe when its 0-2… he completely caught me off guard”

“that’s true… that punk, he’s getting all cocky with his ‘fancy’ major league ball formulation” 
Won Yong approached the plate. His 2nd division performance was better than Min Suk, with his batting rate sitting at 0.347. He was an outstanding batter with a 15-home run record.