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A brief survey on Korean baseball league of 2015 season

Posted December. 31, 2015 11:18,   

한국어

# `Things that already passed also have certain meanings of their own`

Sixty-two days have passed since the final game of this season’s Korean professional baseball was held. Fortunately, "the saddest day of the year" was delayed this year because the WorldBaseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) Premier 12 took place this year. Tommy Lasorda, former manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the U.S. Major League Baseball, called “The final day of a baseball season” the saddest day of the year. Since Korea won the WBSC Premier 12 championship, all baseball fans were able to finish the season as winners.

# `Let’s sing along`

In today’s world, it is hard to even imagine a baseball game that is not broadcast on TV. As a result, baseball fans have become semi-experts. With newly launched baseball statistics portals this year, fans have acquired the weapons of "numbers and figures" as well. Nonetheless, it is quite difficult to find an opportunity to ask baseball fans "who the best was in this season." For this reason, The Dong-A Ilbo asked the question of who they think the best players were in the 10 categories that cannot be checked in their official performance data. A total of 500 people, including users of SNS services such as Facebook and Tweeter, and members of the online baseball community "Power Ball" participated in the survey to reply.

# `I am telling you I had a dream not to regret’

The biggest surprise was the emergence of Kia Tigers coach Kim Ki-tae (50.8 percent) as the "best comedian character" by beating over Park Seok-min (47.0 percent) of the NC Dinosaurs. Last year, Park easily ranked atop in this category, as he was picked by 724 people (72.4 percent) among the 1,000 voters. Manager Kim once lay down by the second base at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in a gesture to protest a referee’s judgment that the opponent team’s outfielder did not violate the three-foot defense limit, and displayed an unorthodox (violation of rules) defense formation by moving the third baseman to behind the catcher to prepare for possible wild pitches at another time. In contrast, Seo Geon-chang of the Nexen Heroes ranked first in "hit and run," and Bong Jung-geun of the LG Twins ranked atop as "pitcher that best ties up the runner on the base" for the second consecutive year.

# `Pitching balls very close to the batter’

The most competitive category was the "pitcher that throws balls very close to the batter.” Yoo Hee-kwan (25.8 percent) of the Doosan Bears beat over Eric Hacker (24.4 percent) of the NC Dinosaurs. In an analysis of actual data, the two were also in tight race. According to "Trackman Baseball," athlete media that tracks pitching information based on military laser technology, Hacker pitched 20.1 percent of his pitches close to the batter’s body, beating Yoo who recorded 19.4 percent. It is difficult for fans to access such data, but it illustrates that they can almost accurately make judgment if they pool wisdom.

# `Tell me that you will be dreaming new big dreams`

Only 93 days are left until the opening day of the 2016 baseball season. “It ain’t over till it’s over,” said Yogi Vera, who passed away on September 22, the 69th anniversary of his Major League debut. It is needless to say that things are not over for a season that has yet to open. Even fans of the KT Wiz, the bottom team in the 2015 season, are fully entitled to dream big until the opening of next season, which is a privilege of baseball fans every winter.



kini@donga.com