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Again, It’s Baseball Time!

기사승인 2023.06.01  14:11:59

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  “Even if there are more fun things in the world, there is nothing that can replace OO.” You may have encountered this phrase in an advertisement while you were turning on a TV channel at least once. The word in the blank is baseball. What charm does baseball, a national sport played in complex rules and tremendous shouts, make so many people go wild? This article will tell you in detail the basic rules of baseball, the history of Korean professional baseball, and the status of baseball as a global sport. Let's dig into why people were forced to fall in love with the sport baseball.

 

 

 

Baseball : What’s the point of playing with a ball?

 

 Baseball is a ball game in which two teams compete for victory or defeat using baseball, baseball bats, and baseball gloves, and the two teams play offense and defense alternately. If the attacking team scores three outs during the attack, the attacking team will be replaced by the defensive team and the defensive team will be the offensive team. Two shifts in offense and defense are called innings, and a typical game is played in nine innings. One inning consists of the top of one team batting first, and the bottom for the other team to go second. The goal of a baseball game is to win the game by scoring more points than the other team. Players on the attacking team can score by turning around four bases at the apex of the square infield diamond. The batter, who hits the ball hits next to the home plate, and when he gets on base, he must step on first, second, third, and finally the home plate counterclockwise to score. The opposing team watching the defense on the field must catch the out and prevent the attacking team from scoring. If the scores of both teams are tied even after nine innings, they usually play overtime up to 12 innings to win.

 

 When defending, nine defenders stand in their respective defensive positions. The player standing on the mound in the center of the diamond is called a pitcher, and the player sitting behind the home plate is called a catcher. The pitcher throws the ball to the catcher at home from the mound, and the catcher plays the role of catching the ball, describing the two as “batteries.” At this time, the player who tries to attack at the batter’s box next to the home plate is called a “hitter,” and the batter tries to score by hitting the pitcher’s ball with the bat. The pitcher throws the ball to prevent the batter from going to the base, which is distinguished into “strike” and “ball” depending on where the ball is thrown. The batter is struck out when there are three strikes, and if there are four balls, he can go to first base, called a walk. Except for pitchers and catchers, the rest of the defenders are called fielders, who are classified as infielders and outfielders according to their location, and the four defenders in the infield are called infielders. The three infielders standing at first, second, and third bases are called first, second, and third bases, respectively, and play a role in defending each base and its surroundings. The other is a shortstop, defending between second and third bases. And the other three outfielders are divided into left field, center field, and right field from the left according to their defensive position. The batter in the designated hitter’s position only attacks and does not defend, which is a rule designed to protect the pitcher, and the designated hitter attacks instead of the pitcher. During the game, the starting players can be replaced. The batter who hits on behalf of the existing batter is called a pinch hitter, the runner who runs on behalf of the existing runner is called a pinch runner. And the defender who plays on behalf of the existing defender is called a pinch defender. In the case of pitchers, when the starting pitcher goes down from the mound and proceeds with the replacement, the pitcher who takes the mound after that is called a bullpen pitcher.

 The main characteristics of baseball are the influence of weather and physique. First, baseball, an outdoor sport, is a sport that depends very sensitively on whether or not it can be played depending on the climate and weather. Baseball is difficult to do in the middle of winter because it requires sophisticated use of hands for hitting, pitching, and throwing, which are basic movements, and this is a momentarily powerful movement. If the weather is cold and the muscles harden, it will be difficult to play at all, and there are many movements that require instantaneous movement after stopping, so there is a very high risk of injury on a cold day. For this reason, baseball games are not held in winter in Korea, and baseball is difficult to develop in cold or cold climatic countries. And on rainy days, the game is often suspended or canceled. In case of rain, it is difficult to defend because the ball does not roll well on the ground, and when throwing the ball, the ball falls out of the hand due to rainwater, and when hitting, the rainwater blocks the view. Therefore, during the rainy season in Korea, games at the rest of the stadium except for Gocheok Sky Dome, the only dome stadium, are canceled one after another, and the rotation of starting pitchers is often reversed. Second, baseball is as important as American football, rugby, basketball, and ice hockey. In the event of an attack, batters are required to hit fast pitches flying at an average speed of 140-160 kilometers per hour, that is, strength and agility. For this, strong muscle strength, core strength, and solid lower body strength, as well as fuselage vision, reflexes, hand-eye coordination, and base running ability are essential. In the case of defense, the taller the pitcher and the longer the limbs, that is, the more advantageous the overall physique, and the stronger the shoulder strength, arm strength, core strength, and solid lower body strength to support it from below are vital elements. In the case of fielders, they must catch a fast flying ball and throw the ball away immediately, so they must basically have fast reflexes and strong shoulder strength. In modern baseball, it is understood that “power” is the most important requirement in the player’s specification, like “height” in basketball. Just as the height increases the player’s position with a shooting sense that can put the ball into the basket in basketball, contact skills are basic in baseball. It means that if you have the power to hit long balls, this is very advantageous in the game.

 

 

About Korean Baseball

 

 After Phillip L. Gillette, a Protestant missionary in the United States, stepped on the Korean peninsula as a YMCA mission in 1904, he introduced baseball equipment to use it for missionary work after seeing Koreans curiously watching the U.S. military play catch. This is believed to be the beginning of Korea’s introduction of baseball. Phillip Gillette founded Korea's first baseball team, Hwangseong YMCA Baseball Team, distributed equipment, and spread baseball by teaching baseball rules and techniques. He later created baseball clubs in many foreigner schools, creating a baseball boom throughout Joseon. At first, he learned the rules by playing practice games with missionaries who came to Korea, and in particular, he often played practice games with missionaries from Pyeongan-do, Pyongyang, and Cheon-seon, where protestantism was strong, for summer pastors’ training and vacation meetings. In Korea, the professional baseball league was launched for the third time in the world in 1982, and baseball is the oldest professional sports league in Korea. At the time of the league’s launch, six teams were formed: Samsung Lions, OB Bears, Lotte Giants, Haitai Tigers, MBC Chungyong, and Sammi Superstars. As of 2023, there are a total of 10 clubs in KBO, including Samsung Lions, Lotte Giants, SSG Landers, Hanwha Eagles, Kia Tigers, LG Twins, Kiwoom Heroes, NC Dinos, and KT Wiz, and Doosan Bears, the first-year professional baseball champions. Three teams, Doosan Bears, LG Twins, and Kiwoom Heroes are based in Seoul, the Samsung Lions are based in Daegu, the Lotte Giants in Busan, and the Kia Tigers in Gwangju. SSG Landers is based in Incheon, Hanwha Eagles in Daejeon, NC Dinos in Changwon, and KT Wiz in Suwon. Korean professional baseball consists of the KBO League of the first division and the KBO Futures League, a sub-league of the second division. The Futures League is characterized by focusing mainly on player development and recovery. Players are often used to play in and out of the first division due to issues such as their sense of hitting and recovery of condition.

 

 Korean professional baseball is the most popular sport among all sports leagues in Korea, including popularity, box office success, ratings, profits, and crowd mobilization. What is the secret of baseball’s popularity, which is much bigger than other sports? At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Korean national baseball team won the gold medal with all-game wins, and the size of the fan base grew significantly as a large number of new fans flowed in. As the fan base has grown significantly, professional baseball broadcasting platforms exist in a variety of ways, including TVs, the Internet, and mobile apps, making it easier to watch. And uniquely, baseball is the largest league among spectators with the proportion of people in their 20s and 30s and women accounting for about 43%. The cheering culture also helped the KBO League become a popular sports league. Each team has several unique team cheering songs, and pitchers who play in the league have their own songs when they are replaced, and batters also have their own appearance songs and cheering songs. Until the 1980s, Korea’s baseball cheering culture was a self-sustaining cheering culture in which surrounding crowds responded when some home team spectators led, and for this reason, it was not systematic. Then, in the 1990s, the LG Twins established a systematic cheering sequence such as the team’s official cheering song, individual cheering song, and stick balloon cheering, creating the foundation for the KBO cheering culture today. In the late 2000s, when baseball fever was heating up, fans of Lotte Giants began to use newspapers and orange plastic bags, which were distributed to dispose of trash after watching the game, as cheering tools. As the cheering culture of Lotte fans, who put air in plastic bags, tie them, wear newspapers on their heads, and use them as cheering tools, has become widely known, the current form of cheering has taken its place. Another thing that cannot be left out in the cheering culture is the cheering song. The crowd sings along with the amplifier accompaniment and the leader of the cheering squad, raising the atmosphere of the stadium. In return for the support of baseball fans, the KBO All-Star Game, an event-like game, is held every year. At this time, players show fun performances to fans, such as wearing strange helmets, wearing various makeup to show off their nicknames, or wearing unique costumes.

 

 In addition to the KBO League, which is a professional baseball league, semi-professional, women’s baseball, high school baseball, and college baseball leagues are also operated in South Korea. The semi-professional league consists of the business baseball league and the Korea Independent Baseball League, the latter being an amateur league for players who have not made it to the KBO League. Women’s Baseball is a Korean women’s baseball league hosted by the Korea Women’s Baseball Federation. It was held for the first time in 2012 to manage the women’s baseball team, which had not been managed so far, and to revitalize amateur women’s baseball. In the case of high school baseball and college baseball, many players were nominated by the club through the KBO rookie draft and made their professional debuts. The KBO Rookie Draft, a KBO rookie nomination meeting, is an annual event in which each club in the KBO League nominates players to recruit them. This is the most common way for high school and college baseball players to play in professional baseball, and all clubs hold it between late August and mid-September every year and nominate players to play in the professional league from next season.

 

 

 

 

 There is as much controversy behind it as the joy that Korean professional baseball gave fans, and it is constantly being talked about. Controversies in the domestic professional baseball league include drunk driving, illegal gambling, match fixing, and school violence. Former Nexen Heroes’ Kang Jung-ho and Samsung Lions’ Park Han-yi have retired disgracefully due to drunk driving, while former Lotte Giants’ Jung Soo-geun is currently in Uijeongbu prison due to as many as five drunk driving offenses. Former Doosan Bears pitcher Kim Myung-jae fell from a 4 to 5m high bridge after hitting a tree while drunk driving and underwent more than 10 hours of major surgery for two cervical fractures, and was diagnosed with paraplegia. The team effectively announced his release, excluding him from the list of players on hold, and he is reportedly currently active as a wheelchair tennis player. In the case of illegal gambling, the Macao expedition of Lim Chang-yong, Yun Sung-hwan, An Ji-man, and Oh Seunghwan of the Samsung Lions in 2015 had a big impact on the baseball world. Those who used to gamble abroad after the end of the 2014 season were found to have a name on an expeditionary gambling list obtained by the prosecution in the process of arresting gangsters related to “away gambling”. This sent the Samsung Lions’ image to rock bottom and also shocked the team’s 2015 Korean Series, which lost all its main pitchers. Recently, Lee Chun-woong of the LG Twins was removed from the team’s big league in 2023, acknowledging illegal Internet gambling, and is now being handed over to an investigative agency for investigation. Recently, the most problematic thing in the Korean baseball world is the past school violence history of players, and unfortunately, school violence issues in the professional sports world are occurring so frequently. In particular, violence is common in middle and high school baseball teams with a closed and vertical atmosphere. One of the representative school violence incidents in amateur baseball, where violence between players as well as violence from leaders, is the suicide of a baseball team member at Yatap High School in Ansan in 2013. In the case of Kiwoom Heroes pitcher An Woo-jin, he was suspended from qualification for three years by the Korea Baseball Softball Association (KSBA) for assaulting a baseball club junior in his third year of high school. An Woo-jin will not be able to participate in amateur competitions such as the Olympics and Asian Games permanently under the regulations of the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KS)C) due to his school violence. In addition, Lee Young-ha of the Doosan Bears and Kim Dae-hyun of the LG Twins were indicted without detention in 2022 due to allegations of school violence while in high school, and active sports players were put on trial during the season. Their case sets a precedent that the issue of school violence in the baseball world can lead to legal disposition beyond ethical disposition within the league. In the case of Kim Yoo-sung, who received the first nomination from the NC Dinos in the 2021 KBO Rookie Draft, the nomination was withdrawn as his past school violence disciplinary history was confirmed. However, controversy over school violence has recently erupted again as the Doosan Bears nominated him again in the 2023 rookie draft. Fans are gradually turning their backs on the Doosan Bears club, which expressed their intention to hire Lee Young-ha and Kim Yoo-sung, the perpetrators of school violence, with opposition that the club, coach, and KBO’s response to the school violence issue is lukewarm.

 

 There are disciplinary regulations for these controversies in KBO and in the club itself. Nevertheless, why are incidents and accidents constantly occurring in the baseball world? Someone answers the question saying it is because the level of disciplinary action by KBO is minimal. Articles 148 through 152 of Chapter 14 of the KBO Regulations largely stipulate disciplinary regulations for players for damage to dignity such as match fixing, gambling related to matches, drugs, military corruption, drinking and doping. In the past, baseball fandom has increasingly shown negative public opinion against KBO’s disciplinary action due to precedents for illegal gambling and controversial acts such as drunk driving and light disciplinary action. In an interview with the Kyunghyang Shinmun in 2022, the first year of his inauguration, KBO President Heo Gu-yeon said, “Players who do not have morality cannot be tolerated from young fans. I’ll try to impress the players with the perception that they should never deviate.” In professional baseball, which is a box office industry, it is very important to respect the opinions of consumers, and in professional sports, it is more important to impose strong sanctions on certain types of deviations such as match-fixing and doping than social norms. Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), which has recently focused on baseball fans’ public opinion demanding strong punishment when a problem occurs, promises to strengthen the level of disciplinary and preventive education by adding regulations such as permanent disqualification for three drunk driving. In line with this, fans are sharply pointing out that coaches, coaches and players of professional clubs should also be more alert to various controversial acts and show healthy sportsmanship.

 

 

Retired, Still Playing

 

 Most baseball players, who were loved in their 20s and 30s, retire around the age of 40. In other words, the maximum life span as a baseball player is about 15 to 20 years on average. There are several reasons why professional baseball players are trying to play more as active players. First, if you quit playing baseball, you will not be financially rich compared to when you were a player. Second, it can be pointed out that there is no suitable position to work immediately after retirement. In January 2023, the Mainichi Shimbun, a leading Japanese newspaper, reported that 7 out of 10 Japanese professional baseball players were found to have anxiety about their lives after retirement, citing a survey by the Nihon Professional Baseball (NPB). In October last year, NPB conducted an anonymous survey of 246 players between the ages of 18 and 33 who participated in the autumn education league, and 71.5% of the players said their lives were unstable after retirement. The figure rose 1.5 percent from last year, with 46.7 percent for opaque career paths and 44.5 percent for unstable income, the survey showed. After retirement, there are cases where they turn into the coach or coaching staff or change their career to the commentator of the game, which is the most smooth situation after the retirement of domestic professional baseball players. However, it is difficult to become a coach after retirement because it is possible only if you are a famous star or have a good relationship with the club. In addition, even if he becomes a coach, baseball players' preferences are falling in that he is a significantly lower salary, poor treatment, and non-regular workers whose contracts are renewed every year, at around 55 million won a year. In addition, retired players are known to spend time as leaders of youth, elementary, middle and high school students, or start a store for a living, and many are having difficulty adapting to society. As a result, there are growing calls for active support in the sports industry so that sports players in all sports, including baseball, can start their second act of life in a cool way through career education programs after retirement.

 

 

 

 In this situation, it can be said that the appearance of the baseball entertainment program <Strongest baseball> has a great meaning. Strongest Baseball, a baseball entertainment show that first aired in 2022, is a program in which players who have not retired more than five years ago join a team called Strongest Monsters to compete with amateur baseball teams such as high school baseball and college baseball teams. The strongest monsters’ team goal winning rate is 70%, and the PD of the program has declared the condition of abolishing the program if they lose more than 10 games, which is considered a more serious baseball documentary than an event baseball entertainment. Retired players were given the opportunity to participate in baseball games again in the field where they have been sweating so much along with appearing on entertainment shows through the program. Above all, what is considered a good influence of the strongest baseball is that it has focused viewers’ attention on amateur baseball resources, which are the basis of Korean professional baseball. In addition, not only the Monster’s players but also the main players of the amateur teams they face play a big role in imprinting promising amateur players from high school and university in fans’ minds even before joining the team by utilizing the genre of TV entertainment. In fact, among the high school baseball players who appeared as the opposing teams of the Monsters, as many as 22 players have joined the season through the rookie draft due to the promotional effect of the broadcast. Inha University’s baseball team also appeared as the status team of the Strongest Monsters, which was broadcast three times in November and December 2022. The first game was Inha University’s victory, and the second and third games were Monsters’ victory, and the Monsters took the winning series. As it was difficult to predict the victory or defeat of every game through the broadcast, it was said that it was a game that showed the potential of college baseball and Inha University baseball team. The game against the Doosan Bears, a professional baseball team that was played as the last game of the 2022 season, was very popular with baseball fans, with all seats sold out within a minute of the start of the viewing reservation.

 

 

Baseball, a sport the whole world is enthusiastic about

 

 Many countries around the world also have a baseball system based on fans’ support. Among them, the most famous professional baseball league is the MLB league of the United States and Canada. The Major League Baseball (MLB) is the dream stage of all baseball players around the world and the best existing professional baseball league, and it is a very large league. MLB is divided into Major League Baseball and Minor League, which are the National League and the American League, and Minor League refers to the rest of the U.S. professional baseball league. Baseball is the only professional sport in the United States that began in the late 19th century, earlier than American football and basketball, and the popularity of baseball and Major League Baseball rose to the national level due to the American baseball star Babe Ruth craze in the early 20th century. Baseball is recognized by Americans as a part of the history on the United States today, with most of its history, including American industrialization in the late 19th century, World War I, World War II, Cold War, and the first black MLB player Jackie Robinson to resist racism in the 20th century. Major League Baseball in the U.S. also has the characteristic of playing until the game is won without a draw. The second most famous league, is Japan’s NPB League, which was launched in 1934. The NPB League, which consists of a total of 12 clubs, including the Hanshin Tigers and the Yomiuri Giants, is the world's second-largest professional baseball league after the U.S. Major League. Japan’s professional baseball is gaining huge popularity in the country, given that each club attracts an average of nearly 2 million spectators a year. Japan ranks first in the world, beating Major League Baseball in terms of the average number of spectators, as the country where baseball is the national sport. Like the Korean league, the Japanese professional baseball league will start an extended game until the 12th inning if it does not win until the 9th inning. Shohei Ohtani is a Japanese national and currently a baseball player for the Los Angeles Angels in the U.S. Major League Baseball. He started his professional career as a pitcher and hitter in the first year of his professional career in 2013, and he performed brilliantly by leading the team to the Japanese Series title in 2016. After five years with the NPB, he joined the Los Angeles Angels in 2018 and advanced to MLB, winning the Rookie of the Year award in his first year, before unanimously winning the American League MVP award in 2021. In 2022, he is by far the best baseball player in the world, achieving 10 wins-10 home runs in 104 years, the first 15 wins-30 home runs in MLB history, and achieving both regular innings and regular at-bats. In addition, many countries, including China, Taiwan, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, Germany, and France, operate professional baseball leagues, and baseball is famous as a global sport.

 

 As baseball is loved around the world, various international baseball tournaments are also actively held. The most representative is Olympic baseball, and baseball, which had been held only in a single-round friendly match, began to be a tournament in earnest from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. In January 1980, the International Baseball Federation applied to the U.S. Olympic Committee at the suggestion of the Japan Baseball Association, and on November 6, 1981, it was officially adopted as an Olympic demonstration event. It was established as an exhibition event at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, and was promoted to an official event at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, making it an event that proudly established a place in the Olympics. It was adopted as an official event at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, but failed to adopt an official event at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. A total of 18 national teams, including the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, South Korea, Cuba and Japan, have participated in Olympic baseball games more than once, with Cuba ranking first with the most medals with five medals. South Korea ranks fourth with one gold and one bronze, behind the United States and Japan, who are tied for second in the Olympic baseball medal tally. Another international baseball tournament is the Asian Games, where baseball has been adopted as an official sport since 1994. A total of 10 Asian countries, including South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China, Mongolia, Laos, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Hong Kong, are major participants. Among them, South Korea has won the most championships ever, with a total of five championships in 1998, 2002, 2010, 2014, and 2018. The last international baseball tournament to introduce is the World Baseball Classic (WBC), an international sports festival organized by the U.S. Major League Baseball Secretariat and the Players Association, founded in 2006. The WBC holds the status of an official world championship and is considered the only tournament in which the most prestigious and top-notch players from each country participate in baseball competition. Through the World Baseball Classic, exchanges between baseball leagues in each country have been activated, increasing opportunities for players to transfer to overseas leagues, and awareness of baseball is expanding worldwide.

 

 

  For those of you who read the article to the end, baseball will no longer feel complicated and difficult. The baseball stadium is ready for you, including a large number of people gathering in one place, shouting someone’s name, a chance to cheer together at the top of their voices with a sense of belonging to the team, and various foods and attractions to enjoy at the baseball stadium. Are you ready to indulge in addictive national sports baseball that makes you feel catharsis and emotions you've never felt before? Let me just reiterate without saying much. Now that you're reading this, it's baseball time again.

 

 

김진아 82_j@inha.edu

<저작권자 © 인하프레스 무단전재 및 재배포금지>
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