"Stove League" drama: Episode's 25 and 26 recap

 Air Dates: December 13th until February 14, 2020 on SBS, two half hour episodes aired on Friday and Saturdays at 10:00 pm

 Ratings: 11.0 and 16.0% but the numbers increased so much it hit 20% for the final show.

Main Cast: It's a very huge one and you can see some of the main characters in the above pic, won't list all now but will edit this as time goes on adding or subtracting to it.

Namgung Min as Baek Seung-Soo.... new GM for the Dreams baseball team even though he didn't know much about the sport, had been a GM for a handball and hockey team.

Park Eun-Bin as Lee Se-Young.... gung-ho young female working in the operations department for the Dreams team, first female in Korea to have that honor plus lives and dies for her team.

Oh Jung-Se as Kwon Kyung-Min.... nephew of the owner of the Dreams team and really has control of the club, was Baek's biggest supporter at first.

Joe Byeong-Gyu as Han Jae-Hee.... Se-Young's assistant in the operations department

Son Jong-Hak as Ko Kang-Seon.... main CEO of Dreams.

Kim Do-Hyun as Yoo Kyung-Teak.... general exec in the front office

Kim Soo-Jin as Im Mi-Sun.... head of marketing

Park Jin-Woo as Byeon Chi-Hun.... another main exec in the front office
Lee Jun-Hyeok as Ko Se-Hyeok.... leader of the scouting team, fired in ep. 4
Kim Ki-Moo as Yang Woo-Seok.... top scout
Yoon Sun-Woo as Baek Young-Soo.... Seung-Soo's younger brother who needs a wheelcahir, joined Dreams analytic team in episode eleven

Lee Eol as Yoon Seong-Bok.... manager of the Dreams baseball team

Ha Do-Kwon as Kang Doo-Ki.... ace pitcher just obtained in a trade

Jo Han-Soo as Lim Dong-Gyu.... popular Dreams outfielder traded for Jang

Cha-Yub as Seo Yeong-Ju.... catcher for the Dreams team

Kim Min-Sang as Lee Cheol-Min.... bench coach for Dreams

Son Kwang-Eop as Choi Yong-Gu.... pitching coach for Dreams

Lee Dae-Yeon as Kim Jong-Mu.... GM for the rival Vikings team

 Whew, as mentioned above will be tweaking that huge cast list as we go on. If you're a baseball fan and I am then this would be a drama you'd definitely get into. The action began during the final game of the 2019 Dreams team season and as the title says it's what goes on during the off season in baseball. Like many current Korean dramas it's an hour show that was cut in half to make two so it aired on sixteen nights with 32 episodes. There aren't many baseball scenes as it was the team's final game but the ones we do see on occasion were filmed at the Munhak Stadium in Incheon where the real team SK Wyverns play.

 Just took a mini break from watching this series and actually any dramas as it's easy to get burnt out viewing so many. But am now back in full force and there's eight more half hour shows to view or four recaps. Do have to say this drama has covered all of the bases on events that take place in baseball's off season from trades, signing free agents, hiring/firing staff, spring training and much more. The majority of these two shows is about a topic which has been very controversial over the past two decades which is using illegal performance drugs.

 But first off there was a slight cliffhanger to end off episode 24 where the director of promotions Byun was dragged away by the workers of the Jaesong corporation, they own the Dreams team. Byun's charge was that he had been stealing money and accepting bribes from customers, he denied the charges sternly. Baek believed his him fully and has managed to get the charges dropped as long as he does an official audit. That agreement was with the Dreams vice president and CEO Kwon who you can see in a few above screenshots.'
 He's really not a bad person but has been turning into one as Kwon has been under severe pressure from the president to get the disbandment of the team into high gear plus to smear Baek before his 'unofficial departure' date of March 28th. Kwon is really on the warpath to shake things up, one of his first moves was to transfer the operations department worker Jae-Hee to the scouting unit as Kwon took their main man Jang to become his assistant. But it was more of Jang working for him to dig up dirt on the staff and players which luckily didn't work out as well as Kwon wanted.
 Now on the main topic which is the drug scandal that's about to hit the Korean Pro league of KPL. Their current penalty for being found using steroids or other illegal drugs is a 72 game suspension or half of the 144 game season. Kwon called a meeting with the other league executives and said the penalties should be increased. If you come forward and confess to taking drugs it's a one year suspension, if you don't confess and are caught using drugs it'll be a two year ban! What Kwon is hoping for is that a few of the Dreams players are caught which will make Baek look quite bad plus it'll be easier to disband the team.

 The player on Dreams most suspected of taking drugs was their new ace pitcher Kang who they just got in a trade from the Vikings team. The other star player in the trade was Lim who had been the Dreams most popular player for many seasons, he too is high on the list of being suspected of using drugs. But as it turned out neither player had ever used any kind of performance drugs, Lim had come close when he was a rookie but Kang had talked him out of it. Both players over the years had become so much better which is a reason they were suspected of taking drugs. That wasn't the case as both the players had worked their tails off to improve, Kwon was figuring that wasn't the case.
 All of the players in the ten team KPL had been tested and the results were announced on live TV. Most teams had only one or two players that confessed but in a shocking announcement the team with the most players caught using drugs was the Vikings team. They had five players suspended for using illegal substances while to the absolute fury of Kwon and the surprise of the Dreams staff they had..... ZERO players who tested positive for drugs.
 That strategy of Kwon's had backfired badly for him as now so many of the other teams in the league have become weaker due to key players being suspended. Meanwhile the Dreams team with zero players being suspended has become much stronger, it appears them finishing in last will be a thing of the past. Baek had his brother Young-Soo make a list of who he thought on the Vikings team may be taking drugs, his brother works in the analysis department. Baek tried to give the list to the Viking GM Kim who he had gotten to know well in the off season but Kim refused to look at the list which cost him and his team dearly.

 As mentioned Kwon is furious about how his strategy to get some Dreams players suspended backfired. For now he's a bit quiet on his next move(s) to discredit Baek and disband the team but sure the lull will only last until the next two shows which I haven't viewed yet. Since the beginning of the 25th episode Lim had been getting some threatening calls from a man who says if he's not paid off again Lim's secret will be revealed. That's the main reason we all thought Lim was tied up with the doping scandal and was being blackmailed from his dealer. But the truth was something we never suspected which came out in the final few minutes.
 It appears gambling is also a no-no for KBL players, that person had been blackmailing Lim because he knew of his gambling. During the off season Lim had visited Macau a few times where he gambled and surprised players aren't even allowed to do that in the off season. Lim has changed slightly over the course of the series as he's not as angry as he once was though still detests Baek. Before the news of his gambling broke Lim walked into the league offices and confessed to his sins. It was a major story and there is a huge penalty for gambling, it was as severe as the old penalty for using drugs. That's a suspension of 72 games which is what was handed down to Lim who took it like a man but of course the GK Kim from the Vikings was furious at his new player.
 Baek had suspicions of Lim gambling but hadn't revealed those thoughts to Kim. In an odd ending Baek met Lim after the news of his gambling came out, seems Lim doesn't hate Baek as much. To his and our surprise Baek asked his old star player if he would be willing to join the Dreams team again, that question floored Lim who naturally said yes. He can't play for the first half of the season but Baek will be working on a trade immediately to reacquire the slugger, that scene ended the 26th episode and this recap.

 Going to be a bit sad when this series ends, don't know if it would end up in my top five for all time Korean dramas but it may be the most enjoyable show I've viewed. Still not sure what will be up next as none of the current dramas excite me that much, they all look decent but not a series I could view 32 episodes of. So was thinking of watching the older show "Healer", had started it and really was getting into it. But after seven shows my laptop died unexpectedly and lost my files, do have them back now so am thinking it's finally time to watch the entire thing. These Korean recaps get the lowest amount of views of any posts but if you're one of the faithful fans who do read them then will say thanks and also would like to hear any recommendations you may have for dramas.