SEOUL, South Korea: For most followers around the globe, Shohei Ohtani’s debut in Dodger blue is the story to observe as Major League Baseball opens its season this week with video games between Los Angeles and the San Diego Pades in Seoul.
In South Korea, the opener means one thing else: the world’s prime league has lastly come to the baseball-loving Asian nation.
South Korea’s 42-year-old home league is most identified for its rock concert-like cheering tradition, with followers collectively singing personalised struggle songs for every batter as cheerleaders dance. Sports cable TVs nonetheless ceaselessly re-air the nationwide staff’s gold medal successful efficiency on the 2008 Beijing Olympics and a landmark run to the finals of the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
Here is what it’s worthwhile to find out about baseball in South Korea forward of the 2 Dodgers-Padres video games in Gocheok Sky Dome on March 20-21.
Baseball was reportedly launched to the Korean Peninsula in 1905 by American missionary Phillip Gillet. But some observers say the game was performed right here far sooner than that.
During the 1910-45 Japanese occupation interval, the colonial rulers tried to advertise baseball in a bid to higher assimilate Koreans into their tradition. Those efforts hindered as a result of many Koreans considered baseball as a noble sport and harbored anti-Japan sentiments, consultants say.
After the peninsula was divided right into a U.S.-backed, capitalistic South Korea and a Soviet-supported, communist North Korea on the finish of the Japanese rule, baseball steadily gained recognition within the South however was largely ignored in North Korea because it was thought of a capitalistic-style sport.
In the Seventies, highschool baseball tournaments expanded in recognition in South Korea, with the outcomes of finals making frontpage information and successful groups given automotive parades of their hometowns.
In 1982, the nation’s skilled Korean Baseball Organization league was launched by strongman Chun Doo-hwan, who critics say tried to divert public consideration from politics following his bloody crackdowns on a pro-democracy rebellion in 1980.
The league started with six groups however now has 10. Last yr, the KBO drew about 8.1 million spectators, the third highest attendance since its 1982 launch.
Prof. Lee Jong-Sung, a sports activities knowledgeable at Seoul’s Hanyang University, stated he worries about the way forward for baseball in South Korea as a result of it has a weak fanbase with youthful folks and its nationwide groups have confirmed a sequence of disappointing efficiency at current worldwide competitions.
“I teach a class for about 80 students, mostly freshmen. But less than 5% of them said they like baseball. Most of them like soccer or e-sports,” Lee stated. “We would never know what the landscape of our country’s sports would look like 10-20 years later.”
A complete of 25 South Koreans have performed within the majors since right-handed energy pitcher Chan Ho Park with the Dodgers grew to become the primary Korean-born MLB participant in 1994.
When his prime started within the late Nineties, South Korea was struggling an enormous monetary disaster that left lots of of hundreds of individuals jobless. That historic circumstance made Park a nationwide hero at house, with every of his wins offering uncommon excellent news. Park, dubbed as “Korean Express,” holds the MLB report for many wins by an Asian pitcher, going 124-98 with a 4.36 ERA throughout his 17 years within the league.
In 2001, Byung-Hyun Kim, then an Arizona Diamondbacks reliever, grew to become the primary South Korean within the World Series. He gave up a two-run homer with two outs within the ninth inning in each Games 4 and 5, permitting the New York Yankees to win each video games in further innings. He nonetheless received a World Series ring, although, when Arizona received the sequence in seven video games.
Other former Korean MLB stars embody Shin-Soo Choo, a former Texas Rangers All-Star, and Hyun Jin Ryu, the National League starter within the 2019 All-Star Game.
During this week’s video games, many native followers will doubtless root for the Padres’ two Korean gamers — Ha-Seong Kim, who in November grew to become the primary Asian-born infielder to seize a Gold Glove Award, and Woo-Suk Go, a better of final yr’s KBO champion LG Twins who just lately joined the Padres.
Go’s brother-in-law, outfielder Jung Hoo Lee, signed a $113 million, six-year contract with the San Francisco Giants in December. It’s the most important deal for a KBO Korean participant coming to the U.S. Lee has a .340 profession common throughout his seven KBO seasons, the best report amongst any KBO participant with greater than 3,000 plate appearances.
There is a sports activities rivalry between South Korea and Japan, which is basically related to their historic grievance stemming from Japan’s colonial rule.
In South Korea, main baseball and soccer matches in opposition to Japan are at all times the main target of eager public consideration — a lot larger offers than in opposition to another nation together with even North Korea. South Korean baseball gamers who led their groups to essential wins in opposition to Japan have been dubbed by native media as “uisa” or “yeolsa,” honorific titles given to late outstanding anti-Japan independence fighters.
Japanese baseball legend Ichiro Suzuki angered many South Koreans after he informed reporters forward of the inaugural 2006 WBC that he needed to beat South Korea and different Asian groups so overwhelmingly that they might by no means problem Japan within the subsequent 30 years. A Korean pitcher later deliberately hit Ichiro throughout a WBC recreation after a senior teammate jokingly stated he would put up a ten,000-yen ($68) reward for it, the 2 Korean gamers have revealed.
Prof. Son Hwan, a sports activities historical past knowledgeable at Seoul’s Chung-Ang University, stated South Korea’s intense consideration to sports activities matches in opposition to Japan will doubtless be eased rather a lot sooner or later, as many youthful Koreans now like Japanese tradition and don’t share the identical unwell feeling towards Japan harbored by older folks.
“When there is a Korea-Japan baseball match, I’d strongly hope Korea would win. But I think there are lots of things that we should learn from Japanese baseball,” stated Park Woo-seong, a 28-year-old South Korean.
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Associated Press author Jiwon Song contributed to this report.
(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)
