‘Ohtani’s Ilgal’ sounded the alarm bell in Korean baseball
The 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC), called the Baseball World Cup, has come to an end. Through this tournament, baseball in Korea crashed, and baseball in the neighboring country, Japan, rose to the top of the world and soared.
The Tokyo Dome disaster was a one-of-a-kind incident that 안전놀이터revealed the gloomy current state of Korean baseball without adding or subtracting. This is because everything from the inexperienced preparation process for the tournament to the lax attitude of the players and the lack of skills to compete on the world stage have all surfaced.
Lee Kang-chul-ho dared to lead the players and fly to the United States to complete his field training despite the fact that the competition was held in Japan, which did not require jet lag. This was to check the training situation of KT Wiz, which he was in charge of, and it was a part of the regret of the abolition of the full-time supervisor system.
The decline in the quality of the pitching staff, which was pointed out as the biggest cause of the early dropout in the first round, cannot help but be discussed.
First of all, it is true that the basic skills itself were lacking, even if the conditions of the players were not raised. Already, the trend in the major leagues was ‘faster balls’ and analysis and training were under way to increase speed. Then, Japan also put in a lot of effort for years to catch up and showed the result at this competition.
Since this is a technical part, it is an area where the KBO (Korea Baseball Organization) and leaders who plan to prepare follow-up measures should put their efforts into it.
However, what fans are most disappointed with is the national team Taegeuk mark and furthermore, the attitude towards baseball.
We need to listen to Shohei Ohtani, who led Japanese baseball to victory. In the locker room right before the final game against the United States, Ohtani said, “In the United States, there are players that anyone who plays baseball should know about, such as Paul Goldschmidt, Mike Trout, and Mookie Betts. But today we are here to be number one in the world. Let’s throw away the longing heart for today. You can’t win if you only yearn for it. Let’s only think about winning.”
The morale of the Japanese national team rose to the highest level at these words, which felt even tragic, and baseball fans around the world applauded generously for the cartoon-like victory.
But what about the Korean national team this time? Of course, there are quite a few players who felt the weight of the Taegeuk mark and poured their all into it.
However, the words that remain in the minds of fans now are “(Those who have little experience with the national team) seem to take it easy” “If there is no place to throw at Ohtani, I will hit it where it does not hurt” “The official ball does not fit in my hand” “I am not in good shape.” There were only pathetic words such as “I didn’t.” It is Korean baseball that needs to mature mentally as well as technically.