"Stove League" drama: Episode's 27 and 28 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: 14.1 and 16.6%

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, transferred to the scouting team in episode 23

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.

 No need to rehash many details as you've probably read the above recap. Of course the huge news coming into this episode then was that Baek was trying to work out a deal to reacquire the slugging outfielder Lim who had been traded to the Vikings team for the ace pitcher Kang. But in the last recap Lim had confessed to gambling in the off season which is apparently a no-no for the players in the KBL. For his misdeed Lim received a suspension of 72 games which is half a season, however it's a well known fact that Lim is a much better hitter in the second half of the year. So if the Dreams team can remain competitive over the first 72 games then Lim's return could lead to a playoff berth.
 However the problem could be getting Lim back, Baek told him of his plans and Lim wants to return to Dreams desperately. The GM for the Vikings team is Kim who Baek has gotten to know well but he thinks that Baek pulled a fast one on him in the trade. Kim though will be in dire need of players as three of his key men were suspended in the last recap due to the drug scandal that hit the league plus the total grows to four with Lim's half season suspension. Baek has offered a pair of younger players whose names are in that above screenshot.
 Both are up and coming stars who may not hit their potential for another season or two, if you're planning on the future then it'd be a wise trade for the Vikings team. Kim wanted to see if any other teams would be willing to trade for Lim, there was one who were the Pelicans and their GM is Oh who we've met on a few occasions. He offered Kim two established players but the problem was their ages were 33 and 34, that means their careers won't be lasting much longer but they'll help out the Vikings immediately. Kim is an astute general manager, he stated this could be his final season coming up so he wisely took up the offer that Baek proposed to him.The unthinkable has happened as Lim is now a member once again of the Dreams team.

 While Baek was having the pow-wow with the two general managers he had Se-Young lead a meeting with the Dreams staff and coaches. All were surprised that Baek was trying to get Lim back as there was so much bad blood between the two, Se-Young wanted to know what the team thought of trading two budding stars for the older Lim. After her presentation it was an easy decision for the staff as they wanted Lim back so badly, there's finally some optimism on the Dreams team that after being in last place for so long they may finally be battling for a playoff berth.
 However there's going to be a snag in the deal and of course it's the CEO Kwon who is going to stand in Baek's way. The pair got along so well right after Baek was hired but now have become bitter rivals. Kwon was furious that Baek didn't go through him before completing the trade, Kwon says the deal is off as they can't afford Lim's $1.2 million salary. Baek didn't bring the fact up but because of the suspension wouldn't Lim's salary only be half of that? An unexpected savior arrived on the scene for Baek who was the female co-director of the promotions department, Lim though no relationship to the player.
 At one time she had been an ace in the office but Lim's work had gone downhill over the years though she was still very talented at raising money. That's what Lim did as she was able to work out a few deals with some local sponsors and raised over a million dollars in a few days which would be enough to cover Lim's salary. As usual Kwon was irate that Baek and his staff had overcome all odds to thwart his evil intentions, with no alternatives Kwon relented to the deal. All may not be well though as Se-Young had been contacted by the police, the Dreams manager Yoon is at the station under investigation for possibly fixing some action in games from years past.

 Not really sure what purpose this scene was for unless it gets brought up again in the last four shows. To make the story very short back in June 2017 Yoon had called upon a relief pitcher Lee to pitch in a game, he was the worst of all of the Dreams staff. Rumor had hit the police department that there was a $5,000 offer made to Lee to walk the first batter which happened. There was $5,000 deposited into Lee's account by Yoon but thanks to Se-Young the matter was cleared up rather quickly. She had a video of the game and the batter Lee walked could have easily been called out on strikes, even the detective said so. But Yoon did deposit that large sum of money into Lee's account but it was actually because Yoon felt sorry for his hurler who was the lowest paid player on Dreams. After the season Lee did retire and a potential bullet was dodged thanks to Se-Young.
 Yoon is a very smart baseball man even though his teams haven't done so well over the years. More the fault of the staff as they've given him some bad ballplayers to manage, Baek has finally assembled a talented roster and Yoon is looking forward to the season. Yoon had been in Baek's corner all along but will that be lasting much longer? The manager is under some heavy pressure from the CEO Kwon and we didn't know why until the final few seconds of the second episode.
 The Dreams team is really improved over the off season, the staff, players, coaches and fans are really looking forward to the 2020 campaign as what could possibly go wrong now? When Kwon is the CEO with such a hatred for his GM Baek something will arise and a major event happened right at this show's conclusion. While Baek and Se-Young were in the training facilities her old assistant Jae-Hee came dashing up to the pair and told them the heartbreaking news. Kwon, with the the backing of Yoon, has traded their new ace pitcher Kang to the Titans team!!!! What a surprise event that is and can't wait to see how Baek recovers from that in the next episode.

 My new method of viewing an episode and then writing up the recap is working out better than expected. These recaps are so much easier to do, they take much less time plus I think they're a tad more interesting to read. Down to four episodes or two recaps, with any luck can have the pair by Sunday and I'm truly going to miss this series when it's finished.