"Stove League" drama: Episode's nineteen and twenty 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: 12.9 and 17.0% 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.

 An okay pair of episodes but think these two may be the worst of all 32 shows. Certainly not a bad watch as some parts were interesting and the ending was quite solid but too much time was devoted to off season training. In the Korean pro baseball league players get paid for ten months which means they receive zero salary for the other two which are December and January. That can create a problem for those that want to train, superstars with hefty salaries can travel to warm locations to keep in shape but what of the rookies and lower paid players?
 The Dreams team lets those players train at their practice facilities and that's been going on for years with no problems. But there are this Winter as a pair of coaches are trying to help the younger players out which is against the rules of the player's association. Those two coaches are Choi and Min who we've seen here and there. They seem to have their own rules and don't get along with most of the other staff though they are dedicated to the team. They were trying to help out the young pitcher Yoo who is new to the team when the Dreams main catcher Seo told the coaches to leave as they're not allowed to help the players out, Seo is the team's player representative.
 Lot of bickering took place the rest of the show, some players do want some help as this may be one of the few chances they'll get to work one on one. There's some friction developing between the players who leave it up to their new GM Baek to straighten the situation out. For now he told his team to keep training as they have been and he'll try to work something out with the association. That will prove tough to do as above is the Dreams new ace pitcher Kang who was just elected head of the union and has told Baek flat out the coaches weren't allowed to help the players out.

 Going against the rules could prove costly as the fines for having coaches help players out in the off season could total well over a million dollars. Baek was aware of the risk and for some reason thinks he can wiggle his way out if a another dilemma which happened, his actions once again infuriated the the executive board. Have been discovering that not every detail or event needs to be explained 100% or else that many take away your incentive to watch a series.
 To make a semi long story much shorter Baek has decided to let the Dreams manger Yoon make the decision on whether the coaches can help the players out. He's a bit torn as he knows his team will be much better this year and wants his younger players to get all of the help they can. But being an former player Yoon realized you shouldn't go against the union and their rules so Yoon's decision was that the players could no longer get help from the coaches. After that we realized it was all a scheme of Baek's to have the manager decide on what to do. Baek wanted the players and coaches to respect Yoon more which led to this strategy of having the manager may such a key decision. None of the other staff caught on to what Baek's scheme was but us viewers did.
 Something good did come out of that as there were a few openings in the Australian Winter league and Baek was able to get a few of his young players on teams. In the end run playing real ball will help the players out so much more. There's another coach named Lee who doesn't get along with the pair who were trying to help the players out but like them is so dedicated to the Dreams team. He developed an off season manual to help the players out which Se-Young helped him out with, we didn't see enough of her this show.

 Besides being probably the worst two shows of the series though certainly not bad at all it means this recap will be the shortest of them all. Have saved the final segment to talk about Kwon who can be a real jerk at time but I've enjoyed the character and even more so with the ending. Kwon is the nephew of the Dreams president who of course also has the same last name. The president's son also works for Jaesong which is the company that owns the Dreams team but he's kind of a useless bastard as the president trusts the work of Kwon so much more.
 The son's name is Kyung-Joon, he's grown up with Kwon but the pair really aren't friends but more along the lines of rivals. We've only seen Kyung-Joon on a few occasions but he's always made Kwon feel very uncomfortable and we know he'd like to see him fail badly at his VP position. We also saw a bit of Kwon's family life towards the end which isn't a happy one for him. Seems his father is a useless man who could have had a key position at the Jaesong but instead is more content to drink his life away and have his son keep bailing him out. Kwon is under so much pressure from the son, the company's president, his father and of course Baek. He's under so much pressure it seemed like he was about to explode which did happen in the final scene.
 Kwon had been out drinking by himself and was quite sloshed, he received a call from Kyung-Joon to join him at another bar which Kwon accepted. Not a good scene at the other place as the two were at each other's throats, Kwon ended up getting so tired of Kyung-Joon's digs he challenged him to an arm wrestling match. Kwon doesn't look like the strongest of men but after a struggle beat the larger Kyung-Joon in the match. But there was no stopping Kwon as he let all his frustrations out and proceeded to pummel the president's son to a pulp and I really do mean to a pulp. In the final few seconds we watched Kwon walk alone down the street as we wonder what kind of future he may have with the company, definitely a very strong ending.

 That intense ending made up a bit for the sluggish off season training story and it did leave us with quite a few questions about Kwon's future but have a feeling he'll survive this ordeal. Hope just having two recaps made things a bit easier to read and sure it did and hopefully will be back within the week with the next pair as there's just six shows to go.