Arms bend inward, time is a medicine.바카라사이트 These are the words that represent the KBO league, where there are endless aberrations, big and small.
NC Park Gun-woo (33), who was relegated to the second team for his so-called ‘work ethic’, is expected to return to the first team from the start of the second half of the season. At the 2023 KBO All-Star Game held at Sajik Stadium in Busan on the 15th of this month, NC manager Kang Myung-ho and Park Gun-woo, who appeared as a baserunning coach, revealed a thawing mood with a warm smile and a polite attitude. Their skills as players have been proven by many years of national team experience.
NC Park Gun-woo (left) of the Nanum team bends down to deliver protective equipment to Kang Myung-ho after hitting a hit in the fourth inning of the 2023 KBO League All-Star Game at Sajik Stadium on Friday. Sajik | Park Jin-up upandup@sportsseoul.com
NC, which was aiming for the top spot in the first half of the season, is now worried about falling into the mid-to-lower division. It has been pointed out that Park Gun-woo is needed to strengthen the team. Since he was expunged from the roster on the last two days, there is also a reaction that 20 days of probation is enough. With Park Gun-woo in the batting order, the weight will be different. The opposition will have more batters to avoid, so ball placement and game flow will change. The main reason why the club paid 10 billion won for six years to bring in Park is to strengthen its power. There are plenty of reasons to be excited.
Hanwha called up Ha Joo-seok (29) for the final three games of the first half. Ha was suspended for 70 games by the Korean Baseball Organization’s (KBO) punishment committee after he was caught by police getting behind the wheel after consuming alcohol during a final training session. He had been disciplined once before for rough behaviour, including throwing his helmet during a game last year, which greatly damaged his personal and club image.
Hanwha’s Ha Ju-suk apologises for his drunk driving last winter after returning to the first team at Jamsil Stadium on the 11th. Jamsil | By Yoon Se-ho bng7@sportsseoul.com
The minority opinion was that it would be difficult for him to break into the first team. Hanwha’s signing of Oh Sun-jin in the free agency (FA) market was also seen as a sort of Plan B, depending on whether Ha Joo-seok would return and rebound. However, given Hanwha’s situation, the prevailing view was that he would be called up after his suspension was over. After all, he is the mainstay of the team’s offence and is one of the veterans in the squad.
What’s more, Hanwha has been a competitive team under Choi Won-ho. They are out of the doldrums and in eighth place (34 wins, 4 draws, 40 losses, 0.459 winning percentage), just two games behind fifth-placed Lotte. Expectations are high that they will participate in the Autumn Festival for the first time in five years after 2018. The addition of Ha Joo-seok to the current line-up will solidify the defence and strengthen the batting line-up. The argument that he has served his punishment makes sense.
Hanwha shortstop Ha Joo-seok runs to first base against Doosan in Jamsil on 8 June 2022. Jamsil | Choi Seung-seop thunder@sportsseoul.com
Both personal deviations from the team’s principles and those that cause social upset are forgotten over time. Arms tend to bend inwards, so clubs defend themselves by saying, “Our player has done a lot of soul-searching, and his behaviour has changed”. Fans are similar. Baseball fans have a tendency to synchronise themselves with their team. The players they support are ‘ours or mine’. They think, “I’m the only one who can swear at my kid. When they do something wrong, they say, “I’ve been scolded, I’ve been punished, so it’s okay.
When a star player is out, the team’s performance drops. This is because they don’t have many players who can dominate the league. This is evidenced by the fact that no team has won two consecutive Korean Series titles in seven years since 2016. On the flip side, one or two players can take a team from first to last place. This is because the player base is shallow.
Fans cheering at Sajik Stadium. Photo | Lotte Giants
There is no systematic development system, and the amateur side in particular is stuck in a “talented player pulls himself up by his bootstraps” system. Players who survive this system are unable to threaten the first team when they enter the pros. Their progression is slow, and they become second-string veterans. Because they know they’ll always have a place in the team, they’re more likely to overlook the obvious rules of professionalism. We’ve seen time and time again that with moderation, restraint, and a good head on your shoulders, you can make it back to the top.
Clubs have no choice but to bet their lives on their performance, and their CEOs and general managers are practically flies. They are reluctant to bring down the mace on the deviations of their main players in a structural mess where team performance, not profits or crowd mobilisation, is the first principle. Because the players are forced to be dragged around, the fans, the biggest value of professional sports, always take a backseat. The unfortunate public face of the KBO is evident every time a player who has committed a deviant act returns to the team.