The rubber ball was red or blue or maybe both and it felt slightly larger than a grapefruit when a teacher handed it to Seung Hwan Oh.

With his elementary school classmates, Oh, 11 at the time and living in South Korea’s Jeolla Province, lined up for a series of standard fitness tests. They ran races, they jumped, they played some sports, just as Oh and his friends usually did. Sports were a joy, a diversion, and he never thought of them as a pursuit until a teacher gave him a ball and a simple instruction.

Throw it. As far as you can.

This is how the Final Boss was born. He threw the ball a greater distance than any of his peers, and with that one toss, the first of thousands, Oh launched an idea for his teacher. He suggested Oh find another school, one that had a baseball team, and by the next year Oh was busing away from the nearby elementary to a school with baseball, and then moving again to a high school with better baseball. Then again for college. Then again to play professionally, to become a celebrity, to date a K-pop star, and then into Korean baseball history. Then around the world. The furthest throw of any kid he knew would take Oh farther than he ever imagined.