On the day of the draft, I was at Yuri's house with my family.
It seemed like the Oceans were preparing to pull a fast one. They were planning to use my lack of attendance at the draft as a signal to other teams, only to later make it look like they negotiated in earnest after the pick through media manipulation.
"Those scam artists at the Oceans."
My father grumbled. Being a Changwon Pirates fan, it was clear he didn’t like the Oceans’ general manager's tactics.
“No complaining while eating this expensive beef.”
Yuri's father chimed in with a teasing remark. The two men were childhood friends and once Oceans fans, but now...
"Those guys can’t even play baseball, yet they’re always scheming."
"This year is different."
“Haven’t you been saying that for almost 40 years now? The season’s almost over, where are the Oceans in the standings?”
“The season isn’t over yet, okay? And let’s get it straight — it’s only been about 30-something years.”
“Let’s see. How long has it been since they won the Korean Series…?”
“Are you really in any position to say that? You were the one who nearly set fire to Sajik Stadium's trash cans after a loss, only to get smacked on the back by your wife.”
“What? When did I do that?”
“During the 2010 playoffs.”
“Oh yeah, I remember that. It was right after Geon-woo’s first birthday party.”
“No, honey. When did I ever…?”
“Oh! It's starting!”
It's typical for die-hard fans to bicker about the smallest things. This wasn’t unique to Korea—American fans were the same.
Hyun-soo, whose smartphone had been confiscated by Yuri, shouted, causing the two uncles to stop their argument.
- Hello, Korean professional baseball fans! We will now begin the professional baseball rookie draft. First up, with the first pick of the first round, is the Busan Oceans.
As the announcer finished speaking, the camera focused on Park Joon-gi, the general manager of the Busan Oceans.
The general manager adjusted his tie, bowed his head to greet those gathered at the draft venue, and then put on a determined expression in his own way.
Then he took the microphone.
- The Busan Oceans will make their pick.
We all know that he’s going to call my name. Yet, for some reason, everyone is on the edge of their seats, glued to the TV screen with sweaty palms.
The general manager bit his lip slightly, then slowly opened his mouth. Perhaps because we already knew, his act seemed unconvincing.
- The Busan Oceans select Kang Geon-woo, a pitcher and hitter from Gimhae High School.
"Oceans pick Kang Geon-woo!"
"Geon-woo, congratulations! And congrats to Geon-woo's mom too!"
"Noona! Now give me the smartphone!"
The house grew noisy, and so did the draft venue.
From various parts of the draft room, voices could be heard saying things like, "What?", "Kang Geon-woo?", and "What about Yoo Byung-seong?"
[Name: Kang Geon-woo. Position: Pitcher/Batter.]
[Date of Birth: September 17, 2009.]
[School: Gimhae High School.]
[Type: Right-handed pitcher, right-handed batter.]
[Physical Stats: 188 cm/84 kg.]
The camera panned to an empty chair, and my profile appeared on the screen.
Even the announcer seemed a bit flustered.
- Ah, yes. Defying everyone's expectations, the Busan Oceans have selected Kang Geon-woo as the first overall pick. Kang Geon-woo has already declared his intent to enter Major League Baseball and is not even present here today... Yes. We will have to wait and see how the Oceans' decision plays out. Now! Next up is the Daejeon Meteors. Daejeon Meteors, please make your pick.
As the camera focused on the Meteors table, everyone’s expression was visibly flustered.
Then the general manager of the Meteors team urgently shouted.
"Time! We request a timeout!"
The general manager of the Oceans team was struggling to maintain his composure, while the other team general managers were all looking at him with various expressions.
- Oh, a timeout request has come in right at the start. Yes, we’ll give the Meteors two minutes.
"They should pick Yoo Byung-seong."
"Yoo Byung-seong? They don’t even have a pitcher."
"Your team doesn’t have a pitcher either."
"Can’t Geon-woo be both pitcher and batter?"
"Our son said he’s not pitching."
"My son-in-law throws 160."
"Who’s your son-in-law?"
"Father-in-law. Let me pour you a drink."
As I said this at just the right moment, Yuri's father smiled warmly and raised his glass. My father, however, looked at me in disbelief, while my mother burst into laughter, clearly amused by the whole scene.
Yuri shook her head in disbelief.
"Ha... counting your chickens before they hatch..."
As she turned away, I could see the corners of her mouth slightly curl up.
* * *
"Geon-woo hyung, look at this."
Hyun-soo, my future brother-in-law, is a die-hard Oceans fan and practically lives on the Oceans' fan forum.
[Is the brain-dead general manager out of his mind? How could he waste the overall first draft pick like this?]
"All the fans think there's no way Kang Geon-woo is going to the Oceans."
"Why?"
"Well..."
Hyun-Soo showed another comment on a different post.
[They say the Major League offered him 2 million dollars. If I were him, I wouldn’t go either.]
ã„´ Even if Kang Geon-woo goes to the Oceans, can they even develop him?
ã„´ Would you want to join a team like this?
ã„´ LOL, of course, the Oceans are making such a typical pick.
ã„´ Oceans specialty: They're the only ones who don't know they can't do it.
ã„´ Even if they bring in Geon-woo, they’d probably only use him as a pinch runner. LOL Oceans, what a joke.
“No one believes it?”
“The vibe is, ‘Of course, the Oceans did their thing again.’ But there are comments like this too.”
ã„´ Hey, if Kang Geon-woo goes to the Oceans, isn’t this some kind of scam?
ã„´ What if these guys planned it all in advance to screw everyone over?
ã„´ Our GM is such a bald idiot, he wouldn’t be able to pull something like that off.
ã„´ For real, he’s only good at making bad trades that benefit other teams. Yeah, right, like he could do this.
ã„´ I don’t care if they get criticized; I’d be happy if they actually bring him in...
ã„´ Hey, you dumb rival fans, you’ve all been duped. LOL. Kang Geon-woo’s been getting an allowance from the Oceans since he was a kid; he won’t betray them.
ã„´ That’s nonsense. Kang Geon-woo’s dad is a Pirates fan, though?
ã„´ Yeah, Pirates are out of the picture. Your team’s first-rounder just had elbow surgery.
“It’s complete chaos right now.”
“Did you write a post too?”
“Yeah, I wrote one.”
"What did you write?"
"This."
[Hello, I'm Kang Geon-woo, a rookie of the Oceans.]
The kid likes the Oceans, though there's a slight flaw, he doesn't cause any major problems. After reading it, it was nothing much.
Oh, he did cause one incident, but that was before I returned.
Yuri's parents were giving my father a hard time.
"Hey. Traitor. Time to rejoin the Oceans."
"That's right. Your son is going to join the Oceans too, so you should come back."
"..."
But my father remained silent.
Meanwhile, my mother was chatting with Yuri.
During the draft meeting, there was a bizarre scene where all the teams except the Oceans requested timeouts in the first round.
- The Vikings select Yoo Dong-seok, catcher from Ulsan High.
The Vikings' pick marked the end of the first round.
Yoo Dong-seok, huh.
I kind of remember him.
Oh, now I remember. He was a player my father liked a lot. I think he was originally the first-round pick of the Changwon Pirates.
"Can we start spreading rumors that Geon-woo is going to the Oceans now?"
The Oceans will probably start making official press releases soon. But they asked to keep it a secret until today.
"Yeah, well, as long as it’s not in a media interview or something, I think it’s fine."
As soon as I said this, Hyun-soo started tapping away on his smartphone, posting on the Oceans forum. And Yuri, meanwhile, had already picked up a call from a friend who was a fellow Oceans fan.
"Our Geon-woo? He said he could go to the Major Leagues, but he said he'd miss me too much, so he's staying in Korea. What’s he saying? Is he for real?"
A big grin spread across my face.
Who knew she’d be this happy?
At first, I thought she was being cool about it when she cheered me on for going to the Major Leagues. I really thought she meant it.
* * *
The Oceans’ general manager booked an extended stay at a hotel near my house.
And he's dragging reporters around with him.
[Oceans GM: 'We selected Kang Geon-woo in the first round to show him how serious we are. Nothing's confirmed, but we’ll do our best.']
[Oceans’ bold all-in? Or a wasted draft pick?]
[Oceans fans’ hopes and anxieties. Who is Kang Geon-woo? A high school player with a 160 km/h fastball and a .680 batting average.]
[Gimhae High School coach: ‘I don’t know anything about it.’]
[Oceans GM bets everything to persuade Kang Geon-woo.]
[Despite rookie draft buzz, rumors swirl about the Oceans’ head coach being replaced.]
It’s already September, but it seems like the Oceans won’t be making it to the postseason again this year.
"Next year will be different."
Yuri’s father would always say that.
But my father would often respond with this:
"Shouldn’t it be drastically different, not just a little?"
My mother, who speaks softly but always gets her point across, isn’t that interested in baseball. That’s why she never really understands why the two of them argue about it so much.
Apparently, she said something like this to a reporter who chased her all the way to our house.
[Kang Geon-woo’s mother: ‘I don’t know much about baseball, but I think my son is the best.’]
I gave Yuri’s mother dozens of signed baseballs as gifts. I noticed two Oceans flags placed in one corner of the living room. It seemed like those were the infamous twin flags that I’d heard rumors about.
The baseball coach and the players often asked me if I was going to join the Oceans. I would only answer that it was possible.
The routine remained the same. Especially the players selected in the first round by each team were frequently in the media spotlight or gained attention through social media, but none of that had anything to do with me.
Training, posture correction, exercise.
Ah. Something new had been added recently.
"Hmm. Pass."
Yuri nodded solemnly. It wasn’t a big deal. I had learned the cheer song for the Busan Oceans.
It seems like the Oceans have quite a few hardcore fans, and Yuri seemed to be worried about me because of that.
I had gained attention and high expectations, and there was concern that I might be criticized without reason or face backlash if I didn’t perform well.
"Don’t do anything that’ll get you in trouble."
"I won’t."
"If someone asks for an autograph, make sure to do it properly."
"Of course."
"Once you sign the contract, no gloomy faces."
"Smile?"
"Smile brightly."
"Got it."
"If you run out of things to say, just sing the Oceans cheer song. They’ll love it and think you have real roots."
Yuri is quite the perfectionist. I didn’t always understand these kinds of things, but now I know that she says them out of concern for me.
According to Hyun-soo, no matter how much you prove yourself as a die-hard fan, if you don’t perform well, you’ll get bashed to death.
But that was the same in America. Are baseball fans alike, regardless of time or place?
By mid-September, I had more or less gotten used to a batting form that was balanced. My plan is to continue upgrading my form, adjusting it to match my build as I increase muscle mass.
I still lack a bit of muscle. But thanks to the help of my mother, a former nutritionist, I'm also managing my diet to some extent, so I'm in decent shape.
Then, the next day, the Oceans were officially eliminated from the fall baseball playoffs.
“Aren't you watching the game?”
Yuri, who always had the Oceans game on and helped correct my posture using SMC, didn't turn on the TV. And when I asked her, she replied like this:
“Baseball? Which team?”
“The Oceans.”
“Was there such a team? Ah, you mean the team that's starting up next year?”
Is this what reality denial looks like for Oceans fans?
Two days later, an article reported that the Oceans' head coach had voluntarily resigned. It said that the assistant coach would serve as interim head coach for the remainder of the season.
“Geon-woo.”
“Yeah?”
“If you meet the GM, could you ask who they'll bring in as the next head coach?”
This is the first time I've seen her look so defeated since I came back.
The head coach is actually quite an important factor. Regardless of my own skills, I'm still just a high school student who hasn't even entered the pros yet.
The GM shows up at the office every day. Although we've agreed on a contract, I haven't signed the papers yet, and he's been keeping that from the reporters.
“The head coach hasn’t been decided yet. We’re considering multiple options, so there's nothing definite to say at this time... We're in contact with both domestic and foreign candidates.”
That's when it dawned on me.
After returning to my high school days, I had forgotten something while only focusing on Yuri.
In the past, the Oceans also fired their head coach and brought in a rather unconventional one.
"By the way, the time has finally come."
The general manager had a relieved look on his face.
Now, it's time to put an end to the media play.
"Signing bonus: 1.5 billion won."
The general manager said, handing over the contract.
"I didn't cut a single penny. I pushed for it strongly..."
It seems like he's trying to take credit again.
