“Nightmare,” Korean Baseball Team Defeated by Taiwan

“Nightmare,” Korean Baseball Team Defeated by Taiwan. November. 05, 2003 23:01. by Sang-Soo Kim ssoo@donga.com.

The ball which Taiwanese Kao Chi Kang hit bounced high in front of third base. The artificial grass field made it jump higher than normal. Jung Sung-hoon (Hyundai), who was leaning a little bit more forward from his normal defensive position, tried eagerly to catch it, but the ball slipped away from his glove.

This happened in the 10th inning and resulted in a 5-4 victory for Taiwan. The Taiwanese players all ran and dove to the pitching mound as if they made the Olympics. The Korean players dropped their heads to the ground in disappointment.

The “impossible” has finally happened.

Luck was on the Taiwanese side. At Sapporo Dome, Japan, the Korean national baseball team was defeated by Taiwan, 5-4 in 10 innings of play. The banged-up Korean players gave up a two-out RBI double to end the game.

Because of this defeat, Korea has to beat Japan and China in order to advance to the Athens Olympic. This defeat was costly because Japan boasts the most powerful team in its history.

“Cheap tricks outsmart one.”

Before the game, Joo Sung-no (head coach of Inha Univ. baseball team), Chun Bo-sung (member of Korean Baseball Organization Game Management Committee), and all other baseball experts pointed out that “the mobility of fast runners such as Lee Jong-bum and Kim Jong-kuk will be the most important factor in winning this game.” All the experts focused on the weak Taiwanese infielders.

Korea dug into Taiwan’s Achilles heel as the game started. Like a thunder storm, Lee Jong-bum stole a base in the 1st inning and succeeded in stirring up Taiwanese team. Lee Seong-yeop and Jang Sung-ho hit an RBI double and a grounder respectively to seize an early 2-0 lead. It was a fresh start for the Korean team.

However, too many base stealing had cut into the phase of the game. Absurd rundowns also screwed it up. Park Han-e (Samsung) in the 3rd inning, Park Jae-hong (Kia) in the 6th inning, and Lee Jong-bum in the 7th inning all cost chances to score more runs because these three base runners all failed to steal a base. Lee Jong-bum connected for a two-out RBI double in the 9th inning, but he failed to steal third base.

Reliever Lim Chang-yong (Samsung) pitched four scoreless innings, giving up only one hit. However, head coach Kim Jae-bak replaced Lim with another reliever, Cho Woong-chun (SK), who had arrived in Japan just three days ago, giving a golden opportunity to the Taiwanese team. Cho Woong-chun lost the game, giving up four hits in 1 and 2/3 innings pitched.