You might remember a post from last week  detailing the plight of Doosan Bears catcher Hong Seung-heun, who asked for a trade, and complained about, amongst other things, that it was “not easy with the Bears because the team requires me to contribute as a hitter.”

Well, the soap opera continues.

The title of this article  is a quote from Hong himself:

“I Have Crossed the Rubicon”

Granted, this article is translated (badly) into English, so Hong likely said a Korean expression that has to do with a cow and a barn. “Crossing  the  Rubicon” is the English equivalent.  Rest assured what Hong said was meant to  be very  dramatic.

Since the news that he asked for a trade to Coach Kim Kyeong-moon’s team on December 13 spread, he has lost contact with people. He only trained at his alma mater, Kyung Hee University. When your reporter got a rare phone call with him, he said, “I am careful about everything now.”

He said, “The past few days have been like a few years.”

Oh, the agony of being a .268 hitter not guaranteed a starting job. These are tough times for Hong, and apparently the writer of the article, who vacillates between reporting and joining Hong in casting a die as an act of war, much as Julius Caesar did some two-thousand years ago.

Being a catcher is the reason he plays baseball. He wanted to recover his dignity. He used to take a break after a season ended, but this year he began individual training right after the season. He weighs 89 kg, the same weight he kept during the season, thanks to eight-hour long regular exercise regimens. In the past, during the break, his body weight increased as much as 95 kg.

What will it be like his next year?

Yes. Again, much like Caesar. I’m seeing the parallels now. Oh, and by the way Dong-A Ilbo (English) you may want to hire a copy editor, unless “What will it be like his next year” is a translation of imperial Latin into some kind of olde English  I’m not aware of.

Meanwhile, Kim Tae-ryeong, the chief of the management department of Doosan, said, “I will meet him and talk him (into remaining in the team).” The team has a right to negotiate salary with Hong by the end of January. Hong’s heart, however, has already left the team.

It’s  almost too much to bear.