"Stove League" drama: Episode's 29 and 30 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: 12.1 and 16.8%

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.... ex-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. 8
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.

 There has not been one dull moment in this series, just an incredible amount of happenings have taken place to date and as hard as it is to believe somehow the events even increased in these two episodes. Hope I can squeeze everything into three medium sized segments which has worked out so well for this and other dramas. Should be able to but the worst part now about this drama is that there's only one more recap to go and I'm really going to miss viewing this show.

 A huge and I mean huge cliffhanger ended off the previous recap which was just written up two days ago. After working so hard in the off season to make the Dreams team competitive it appears the new GM Baek has achieved his goal. He was able to acquire one of the best pitchers in baseball Kang from the Vikings team for the Dreams best hitter Lim. However a league wide drug scandal affected many teams with the Vikings being hit the worst as three everyday players will be suspended by the league. Lim is also suspended for a half a season but that was due to gambling in the off season. So Baek was able to reacquire Lim from the Vikings for two players who are young but could be stars in a few seasons. After finishing in last place four straight years the Dreams now have a very talented team as there were other moves made and it seems they'll be competing for a playoff berth.
 That's what everyone thought until the Dreams main CEO Kwon blew the bubble on those dreams. Behind Baek's back he traded Kang to the Titans team for for two so-so players, everyone from the fans to the players to the staff is in an uproar. Kwon's mission at this point is to disband the Dreams team quickly and hasn't even looked at the possibility of selling it. The disbandment directive has been going on for many episodes now and was the order from the president of the Jaesong group who own the team. Making the Dreams much less competitive and with having the fans staying away from games should make the task easier for Kwon.
 But Kwon wouldn't make the trade without the support of the team's manager Yoon. There was no way he wanted Kang traded as for the first time managing the Dreams team he has such a talented group of players. So why did he do it and the actual answer was never fully revealed in these two shows. Yoon's son who appears to be about 25 is at the hospital with cancer. What I'm taking a stab at is that Kwon told Yoon all of the hospital expenses will be taken care of if he agreed to the trade. That seemed a likely reason and Yoon wouldn't even admit it to Baek who he really respects.

  One thing I can't understand is how the Korean Baseball League(KBL) could allow a team to possibly be disbanded. Opening day isn't that far away and losing a team would create such a mess such as scheduling and what about the players? Perhaps that'll be something that arises in the final two shows. The Dreams staff has grown much closer over the course of the series and truly work as a team, talking about the front office staff. They too are furious and won't take the trade of Kang lying down. All will pitch in some way to make the team better with the biggest action to be taken by the promotions manager Byun. That's him right above and he's going to send a press release to all the major media sites informing them of all of the underhand tactics the Jaesong Group has been doing to make the Dreams weaker.
 Se-Young, the operations manager, has come up with her own theory. It didn't go too far for her then but that's because Baek didn't reveal to Se-Young he'll be working on a plan with her thoughts. Which were that there had to be some other financial considerations in the deal as the CEO Kwon is a very crafty businessman. Baek hadn't delved into that theory until it was mentioned to him but what he's discovered was a major coup. There was a man named Jang who worked in the scouting department until Kwon had taken him away to be his special assistant. It was more along the lines of Jang digging up dirt on the players and staff which didn't work out well for Kwon.
 Jang was becoming a bit irate at the underhand dealings Kwon was doing but wouldn't admit it to him for fear of losing his job. But Baek was able to convince Jang to work with him as Jang was a true lover of baseball and deep down really cared about Dreams. Baek was able to persuade Jang to steal the 'employment contract' that Kwon signed for the deal. Not to his surprsise Baek discovered there was more than just the players listed on the trade agreement, the Titans team was also going to give Dreams $2 million dollars which didn't go to the team but the Jaesong group. In a shocking development right about this time Kang announced he would be retiring(!) because of the trade, however that retirement may not be lasting too long.

 With the evidence of Kwon keeping silent about the two million dollars for Kang Baek held a press conference to announce the details. He knew it may hurt the team but more so himself but the truth needed to be revealed. With his announcement and the story Byun sent to the media about the underhand tactics of the Jaesong Group there's been quite a bit of backlash against Kwon and the owners. The league is mulling an investigation into the trade and even the Titans team is worried about penalties as it was them who paid the large sum of money. Eventually the pressure from the media and the possible investigation by the league became a little too hot for the Titans, if it's okay with Baek can they just cancel the trade?
 He didn't need to be asked twice and the entire Dreams organization is celebrating Kang's return who unretired once he was back on the Dreams team. Of course not everyone was jumping for joy as Kwon certainly wasn't, he made the trade in the first place but the Titan's GM bypassed him when cancelling the trade. Naturally Kwon was a bit irate but not as much as we expected, he didn't even fire his assistant Jang when he learned he had given Baek the secret contract. There's a few reasons Kwon anger wasn't sky high and those reasons will continue on into the next recap.
 First off the Jaesong Group had been wanting to change the makeup of their company. They had mainly owned stores and such but made a business trade with the Kangsung Group who gave them their heavy industries(factories, etc.) for their stores and other retail holdings. The new group wants no part of the Dreams team so the plan to disband them is right around the corner. As the episode ended Kwon had called a press conference where he announced that with switching their lines of operation the Jaesong Group no longer wants the Dreams team who will now be disbanded! In the final five seconds though we heard Baek announce they he may have a plan to sell the team to keep them intact. How that turns out is a mystery as I haven't viewed the final two episodes and really looking forward to them.

 For Korean dramas that have 32-40 half hour episodes it usually takes me about five weeks to watch the entire series, that is if I do finish it. But this show I'll have watched in about 2 1/2 weeks so you can tell how much I've enjoyed it, final recap is the post below this. Thanks if you've been reading these posts and Korean drama recaps get the least amount of views by far. That's a shame as there's some truly top notch shows I've posted about which many many not have heard of. Plus I think these posts have gotten much better quality wise, know I'll never be a superb author but think there's been a big improvement the past year.