strike love

“Strike Love” episode 1.

Based off a 2009, comic series titled, Alien baseball Team. The word, “Alien” refers to one who is an outsider, a riff raff, not an entity from another galaxy.

The show has 16 episodes and stars, Tae Yeong Yun as Hey-Seong-oh, Kim-min Jung as Eom-ji-choi, Park Seong-min as Dong tak ma, Song-ah-yeong as Heyon-ji choi, anad Im-Heyon-Seong as Doo-San Baek.

Inside a baseball stadium, a game is played by a new and talented pitcher, Hey-Seong-oh. His pitches are so fast; players can’t even see the ball as it goes magically into the mitt of the catcher’s glove. Hey-Seong-oh, is playing an amazing game, and the crowed shows their devotion by beating their Thunder Sticks and chanting his name.

Outside of the stadium, the same ball game is displayed on a big screen and has drawn a crowd; there is a young woman with a bag watching it with personal interest.

In a restaurant further away, a young server catches the same game at work on a laptop, her enthusiasm causes another co-worker to take interest in the sport.

Back at the game, the star pitcher, Hey-Seong-oh is throwing strike, after strike, it seems this player is made of steel. In his mind, there are flash backs to someone skipping stones in a peaceful place.

At the restaurant, it is revealed that the girl watching the game might know the player. The girl with the laptop has seen something in the pitcher’s face, “he is in pain? How can he play, with such discomfort?” Her co-worker brushes off her concern and points out that the pitcher is playing the best game of his life.

The other girl, who watched the game outside, remembers that she has a job and rushes to the clothing store and finds her friend watching the game on a portable TV. Her friend teases her for not going to the game and supporting the player who is coming up to bat, “if you were there, I bet he would do much better.” The girl says that she and the batter are good friends, but her eyes are on the pitcher’s mound, it seems this girl knows the man pitching as well.

The next scene is the pitcher in the bathroom gasping from visible pain. With agony, he barely gets the words out saying, “just a little longer.”

On the mound, Hey-Seong-oh, sees the next batter is none other than, Dong tak ma, Yoosung Dynamic’s star batter. Hey-Seong-oh, hears his fans cheer him on, he tries to focus as he winches in pain and his vision blurs. He steadies himself, and with Herculean effort, the ball leaves his fingers, the bat swings as it miss and lands in the catcher’s glove, strike one!

As the pitcher prepares to throw, the girl in the restaurant whispers to the man on the screen, “stop it!” As tears roll down her face.

At the game, the pitcher is covered with sweat. Hey-Seong-oh’s pain is now obvious to others, his effort and determination is costing him physically, yet he won’t stop. The pain has not clouded his mind; it calls out one name, “Eom-ji”. With that name the ball leaves his fingers again, we watch the ball sail through the air and fly over a body of water, it lands in the hand of a child playing baseball in a lot. The ball is thrown and lands at another boy’s feet. The other kids ask for their ball back, instead he runs away and takes the ball with him. Turns out it’s the pitcher as a young boy, we are going back to his youth, and how he was involved with a gang of kids who stole from people for a small profit.