Thursday, June 16, 2011

SK Wyverns players that I like.












SK Wyverns is a top-ranked team among the Korean baseball league teams.

There is no doubt that Wyverns has many good players and coaching staff members.

Bus, coach Kim's playing style is unusual. He tends to emphasize the whole ( organizational power )

rather than the importance of star players. He also concerntrates more on defence rather than offence.

For this reason, there is no fixed clean-up hitter in Wyverns, and most people think that the playing style of

Wyverns is not exciting.

Nevertheless, there are some players to whom you have to give an eye.

I want to introduce two players here. Jeong Choi and Sang ho Jeong.








 SK Coach Seong geun Kim



He is well known for his strong and hard training style upon his players.
Left of the picture is Kim. he often throws balls himself to hitters for their training.
He is almost seventy years old, but still vigorous.









 Jeong Choi is the third baseman and his defence ability is the best in the league. 

 Because he was a pitcher when he was in high school, he can throw a ball very fast. 

 Ball speed and accuracy are very important to the position of the third baseman. 

 His nick name is  소년장사, Titan Boy or  Strong Boy in English.

 The nick name came from the fact that he made over 10 homeruns in Korean league when he was 

 19 years old. Just four players of teenager in Korean league have this record. 

 It tells us that he has potential of slugger.  

 He has a good, sincere attitude and whenever I see his amazing defence, I think he should go to MLB.





SK Wyverns Third baseman Jeong Choi















 Sang ho Jeong is a catcher of Wyverns.

 Many people say that he is an unlucky guy because of the presence of Keong wan Park.

 He is a senior catcher and  the greatest catcher of all times.

 Because of Park's presence, Jeong had little chance to play as a regular before.

 But, thesedays, Park is suffering from injury and of course Jeong gets more chance now. 

 However, before and now, Jeong always himself thinks that he is a luckcy guy because he can learn 

 many things from his senior Park. 

 he is also a big slugger, officially, he is a hitter who can hit and blow a ball farthest away among the players
 in Korean league.






SK Wyverns Catcher Sang ho Jeong













 
I hope that those two sluggers will have a good results in 2011 season.

SK will be forever !!

^^




 

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Culture of cheering baseball




Korean baseball league has become the most popular sport among other sports since 1982.

I was born in 1983 ^^... That means I grew up with Korean baseball history.

As the quality of players or teams has got better, the level of cheering cluture is also got better.

Whenever I go to the baseball stadium, there are many people with a variety of cheering items.

I don't want, but I must admit that Lotte Giant's (Pusan) fans have the most unique cheering culture.

Actually, their culture is already known to Korean and foreigners indeed.

News programs also dealed with that....

Even though I am a SK Wyverns (Incheon) fan, I envy and like their enthusiatic cheer.


      

Their plastic bag hat is one of their own trademarks.

Because of this unique cheering culture, some people want to experience it and willing to go to Pusan.

It seems thant their cheering culture and the stadium, Sajik became sort of a tourist attracion.

Their stadium and fans were even shown in the movie named Haeundae.







 They also use lots of items for cheering. ^^

 on the big finger item, a Korean word is printed. That is Ma(마), means hey! in English. 

 Actually, the word is a Pusan dialect. They use it and scream the word when the pitcher of rival team

 check a runner on the base. It's kind of hiss.  kkk

 It reminds me of the card action of NBA fans who wish that the away player would miss the free ball.



  
 Yes..kk all fans want that rival team make a mistake...^^








                                                       Lotte(Pusan) vs SK(Incheon) cheering



They also make some items by using of news papers.

By contrast, SK team support many items to fans like towl and cheering bar.

I think that because Lotte team has more history than SK, their fans have lots of their own culture.

( Lotte team was founded in 1982, the first year, SK team 2000.)


However, SK fans also have great enthusiasm!! 

SK Wyverns is well known for their Sportainment. ( sport + entertainment )

The cheering culture of SK will be better grudually with SK's support.^^









As you can see, SK fans are making their own culture now. ^^

Although I posted mainly Lotte and SK culture, all league teams has their unique style of cheering.







Some people comment that Korean cheering culture is too violent or extream.

However, I think that is also a style of cheering culture, and to tell you the truth, it's not violent.

If you visit to there, any baseball stadium in Korea, I'm sure that you are going to fall in love with it^^

It will be an exciting experience!!
























Sunday, June 12, 2011

Baseball games


























This is a mobile baseball game that I downloaded two years ago.

The version was 2009 season when I was playing the game with my feature phone.

Well...I'm still a feature phone user though. ㅠ.ㅠ

This game is now available with a smart phone. Look at the above video clip.

It looks interesting!

This game has a variety of events such as a happening with girl friend, hard training and season break.

Some pithers in this game can throw a special ball named Ma-gu.

Some hitters also can hit the ball with a special skill. They can make a hit better than usual hitters.

So, you can choose the special players at the critical moment in the match.

You also have to manage your team with training, drafting, etc.

Watching the growth of your team is one of the great pleasures in this game. ^^


 The following pictures are the images of what I played with my feature phone.

 At the time, I really hooked on the game. It's addictive..^^;;







   

  





    Recently, Naver offers a new styled baseball game to online users.

    The title of the game is "Professioal Baseball Manager"

    You manage a baseball team virtually on the internet in this game.

    I didn't have a chance to play it, but really want to experience it.

    Looks like a little bit difficult to play it.

    When I get a chance, I'll post how to play it ^^





   


















Saturday, June 11, 2011

Baseball movies / YMCA baseball team, Someone special









Baseball appears in many movies.

Some baseball movies just deal with the sport and baseball plays.

It's kind of typical baseball movie such as The Sandlot, 1993 or Glove, 2011 (Korean movie).

I prefer the movies that use the baseball just for a source to typical baseball movies.

The story line of typical movies are simple and boring whereas other movies have special story itself
without baseball.






YMCA Baseball Team


 This movie is about first baseball team in Korea.

  A foreign missonary taught baseball to Jo-seon people under colonial period from Japanese military. 

 There are lots of humorous scenes from people who has never experienced about baseball.

 Especially, I like the main acter, Kang ho Song's comic performance.   

 In the movie, Jo-seon Yangbans (aristocrat) are really funny in their baseball games.

 They don't want to follow the moving ball becase they think it's their servant's job.




YMCA Baseball Team Trailer















Someone Special





"Someone special" is also a baseball movie starring Na young Lee and Jae yeong Jeong.

The two actor and actress are my favorite movie stars. ^^

This movie remaked "Never Say Die" (1939)

Actually, this movie is kind of romantic movie rather than sport movie but, baseball has a important role
in the movie. I also like the original sound track^^




Someone Special Trailer
















SK Ball Dog , Mi Ru





Do you like dogs? I love them, especially well-trained dogs.

SK ball dog, Mi Ru is a very smart dog.
He works very hard and does lots of business.

It must be a unique blog post across the nation and throughout all other blogs that a baseball dog in Korea
is posted in main title of blog.








His basic roles are delivering balls, cheering players up and high-fiving with homerun hitters.

SK Wyverns first tried indroducing the ball dog to baseball game in Korea.

At first, many officers in KBO have nagative view about animals in the stadium.

However, as soon as the dog begins his work, all fans fall in love with him. ^^






Mi Ru became a special mascot of SK Wyverns now ^^

Children really like him.

At first, delivering player's bat was one of Mi Ru's business, but because of his mouth water and his tooth,
Mi Ru doesn't work it anymore. kkk

I guess that he intendly spilt much mouth water to the bat for avoiding the work.
He is so smart dog ^^


















Shin-Soo Choo





Shin-Soo Choo  Stats
                          Videos
                          More info(Wiki)



Yes, Shin-Soo Choo made a mistake recently.
He himself drove a car after drank.
But, he was not punished severely by his city and citizens.
Although he did a bad thing upon society, it seems that his fans still like him.

During the last three seasons, Shin-Soo choo did a very good job in Indians team.
His performance was awsome and he was an important player as a clean-up hitter
You know that ... ...


This video shows his strong arms and his good defence skill.




This video shows his Homerun parade.





However, he suffered from low performance this season.

I'm not sure that whether it is exactly because of his DUI accident or not.





 According to following news, it seems that Indians still needs him.

So, please do your best Choo! and that kind of mistake should not going to be happened OK?




Cleveland Indians' recent problems begin with Shin-Soo Choo and Carlos Santana: Terry Pluto

Published: Thursday, June 09, 2011, 6:37 PM


CLEVELAND, Ohio — Most Tribe fans know that Shin-Soo Choo and Carlos Santana are having lousy seasons, and doing it in the middle of the lineup.


Choo is batting .240 with five homers and 22 RBI; Santana is at .228 with six homers and 24 RBI.
Those have been your No. 3 and No. 4 hitters for much of the season.

For much of the season, the Indians were hitting about .320 with runners in scoring position. That rate was not about to continue. But no one expected the colossal collapse of 3-for-42, which the Indians were while losing five of six on this recent homestand.

Choo has no RBI in his past 14 games; Santana hasn't driven in a run in eight games.
But here are the numbers that hurt the most: Choo is 10-for-59 (.169) with runners in scoring position; Santana is 8-for-49 (.163).

Add it together, and they are 18-for-108 (.165).
Their inability to deliver when it means the most has been happening all season.




The Indians were living off Travis Hafner (.483 with RISP), Asdrubal Cabrera (.442), Jack Hannahan (.345) and Michael Brantley (.343) hitting in the clutch. But Hafner is hurt, Hannahan has cooled off and the entire lineup is feeling the pressure. Grady Sizemore is at .214 (6-for-28), but he has been in and out of the lineup because of injuries.

It's clear the Indians overestimated the odds of Santana coming straight up from the minors last summer and being able to hit in the middle of the lineup. He played only 46 games last season before suffering a knee injury.

Santana is only 339 at-bats into his big-league career, hitting .242 (.801 OPS) with 12 homers and 46 RBI. The 25-year-old switch hitter may eventually meet the projections of being the elite hitter that he was in the minors. A key indication is that he has more walks (42) than strikeouts (39).
The Indians say Santana has been trying to pull too many pitches -- pulling his head off the ball. They are working with him to hit more balls up the middle.

Choo is at 58 strikeouts compared to 21 walks. If Choo were even mediocre, the Indians could easily drop Santana to a less-pressurized spot lower in the lineup.
But Choo hasn't hit a homerun in nearly a month -- since May 13, to be exact. Before his double Wednesday, his most recent extra-base hit was May 22.

Yes, Choo is upset by his DUI arrest May 2. The criticism in his native South Korea has been far more severe than what he received here. In general, Choo has been treated respectfully by Tribe fans and local media because he has been a .302 hitter (.898 OPS) over the past three years. He has been the team's most consistent player since 2008.

Choo was hitting only .250 at the time of his arrest, so it's not as if he was performing up to his usual level before it. He started 2011 rather cool, then went frigid.
Nothing about Choo is lining up to his track record when you compare the past three seasons to 2011.
The previous three years, he batted .316 with runners in scoring position . . . it's .169 this season.
With two outs and runners in scoring position, it was .317 . . . he's 2-of-23 (.087) this season.
With the bases loaded, it's .419 . . . he's 0-for-6 this season.

At 28, Choo should be in the prime of his career. The Indians and Choo say there are no health problems. Other than looking lost at the plate -- taking good pitches to hit and desperately swinging at those he should ignore -- he seems to have no major mechanical flaws.
When he does hit the ball, it's not with the same authority. There's a stat called BABIP (Batting Average Balls In Play). It's what you hit when you hit a fair ball. For Choo, his number from 2008 to '10 was .357. This season, it's .298 -- an indication he's simply not hitting the ball with the same authority.

The Indians say they have to be patient with Choo, because they have no other real alternatives. And they are right. But after 221 at-bats this season, it's time for Choo to pull himself together -- because this is when the team needs him the most.