"Stove League" drama: Episode's seventeen and eighteen 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: 11.8 and 15.5% 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.

 Will change things up slightly for the final eight recaps. One is that I'm starting this before viewing the next show which should make it easier for me as I had been watching four episodes and then writing the recaps up. Second is that there will just be two of these posts in a row versus four. Realized it can take a while to read through four somewhat longish posts in a row. Saw that the first two recaps would get an okay amount of views while there was a big drop off for the others so this should also make it easier for those who have been following this series.

 Intense ending to the previous episode though that intensity didn't carry over to begin this show but it was another interesting watch. The newish GM of the Dreams baseball team Baek had been fired by the deputy president Kwon who felt Baek had crossed the line once too often. First he made the Jaesong group who own the team look like the villains when he told the press salaries had been cut by 30%. Baek was going to donate his entire salary to lessen the blow to the players until the team saved face by upping the payroll and having Baek continue to get paid.
 Also there was some backlash from the public about him signing the pitcher Kill who had moved from Korea to America many years ago. The public was upset about his return and the fact he wouldn't have to do his mandatory military service. The final blow for Kwon was that Baek's younger brother had been hired to work in the analysis department which also caused some outrage in the media. However his brother was hired against his wishes and the main reason for Young-Soo to have gotten the job was because of Se-Young and also the fact that he was easily the best candidate.
 Baek didn't argue his firing all that much, his brother was retained plus if he said he quit voluntarily he would get paid his remaining salary. His trusted ally Se-Young did try valiantly to get the staff to stick up for Baek which was a failure and even she couldn't get him to remain as GM of Dreams. After his departure Baek left Incheon which is where the team plays and headed for an unknown destination. There for the first time we met his parents who are staying in a nursing home. His mother is well though his father is suffering a bit from dementia but all in all seemed Baek was pleased to see his parents, especially his mother. For the first time in the series we even saw him crack a smile and for a few days spent the nights sleeping on a sofa at the home.

 With Baek out as the general manager that naturally meant the position had to filled immediately. Of all people it was the female operations director Se-Young who was given the position on a temp basis, wasn't mentioned but hope she got a nice bump in salary. Just before Baek had left the office for the final time he had given Se-Young a USB drive with plans he was working on. Baek really had some dreams to make the Dreams team a contender and those files will really help out Se-Young in her new position. Slightly before Baek headed out to see his parents Se-Young tried one last time to get her ex-boss to stay to no avail. Se-Young told Baek she couldn't understand why he would give up so easily after the fabulous plans he made for the team, to that Baek had no good answer.
 It's not easy being the GM of a sports team as Se-Young soon found out as everything that happens on a team has to go through the GM no matter how minor. She's working so many more hours but it did seem Se-Young was enjoying it, she had zero social life to give up as Dreams is her entire life. It's getting close to the date for the second round of the league draft. A team consists of fifty players, of course many play in the minors. They can retain forty of them and teams can draft any of the ten unprotected players with a limit of three.
 After finishing in last place four seasons in a row Dreams obviously have some holes to fill and a meeting is called to discuss who should be protected from their team and who to draft. The coaches are a hard headed bunch of old timers who never want to see change, hasn't worked as the team is never competitive. Baek's brother Young-Soo is really an expert on baseball analytics and he suggested drafting certain players and the coaches were furious at his suggestion. The Dreams do have some solid outfielders so drafting any wouldn't make much sense but the players available to be drafted besides outfielders weren't all that solid. Young-Soo suggested drafting the good outfielders available, with a surplus of talented outfielders they could trade some of them to fill the holes on their roster. In a surprise the coaches were impressed with Young-Soo's theory and agreed with him, as you can see in the below screenshot the strategy at the draft paid off well for the team.

 There was a minor celebration after the draft where Young-Soo related some of Baek's history which was unknown to the staff. After Young-Soo's baseball injury which left him in a wheelchair Baek had blamed himself for what happened and his life went downhill quickly. He was demoted at his job to be the general manager of two teams his company had owned, both won championships but were disbanded after the successes. Wasn't mentioned at the get together but we learn through a Baek flashback that he had once been married. His wife had been expecting a child but had a miscarriage which left him in tatters, he's never been a happy man since.
 The new pitcher Kill had given an interview with the above reporter Kim who can be a devious person. She had edited the video to make it seem as though Kill and the Dreams team were ungrateful for his return which put the team in a bad light and had a major impact on Baek's firing. Se-Young is a battler and confronted Kim about the interview, she's demanding an on air apology and for Kill to be interviewed again live when she does apologize. That's because Kill had a bombshell to drop on the public which was that he'll be enlisting in the military after playing the season for Dreams, his baseball career will be put on hold for a while but he's a decent chap who knows what's right in life. That all went according to plan and while on TV Kill did say that he owed everything to Baek who had been watching.
 Baek was very surprised at what Kill had to say as enlisting in the military was a matter that wasn't supposed to happen. As a matter of fact Baek was a bit miffed at hearing that as he worked hard to get Kill on the Dreams team, he's going to play one season and quit? But that was part of the process that got the ball rolling for Baek returning to the Dreams team as their GM. Kim's interview with Kill was a success so now the public was once again on the side of Baek plus Se-Young had told Kwon she was the reason for his brother Young-Soo getting hired. To make a short story shorter Kwon has agreed to take Baek back as the GM, why not as he was already paying his salary.
 But unknown to everyone except us viewers was that Baek signed a different contract, this one stated he would be resigning on March 28 which was opening day for the Dreams team. So everyone is  happy family for the time being, there was a welcome back party that night for Baek but he couldn't make it as he confessed he had a prior engagement. That was to visit the pitcher Kill and to find out what was going on. Kill admitted enlisting in the military was the only proper thing to do, when he was discahrged he would still be young enough to be on the team. As the episode ended his wife came out with their newborn baby who asked Baek if he wanted to hold it. He didn't want to but eventually relented as the show ended with Baek having tears roll down his cheeks holding the baby as it reminded him of the child his wife lost.

 Should have done this long ago as writing a recap up before viewing the next episode worked out well. Think just having two recaps in a row will also work out well for you viewers and thanks to the few who do mange to make it this far in the posts. Of course there's plenty of screenshots to end off with and the next post is today's other recap.