Humiliated and helpless, the South Korean baseball team is starting over. Now it’s the long game.
The Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) named Ryu Joong-il as the full-time head coach of the national team on Nov. 23. Ryu had been the head coach of the national team at the Hangzhou Asian Games in the second half of last year. Ryu, who had been on the sidelines since stepping down as manager of the LG Twins, was appointed in time for the Hangzhou Asian Games, which were originally scheduled to be held in 2022. At the time, it was more of a one-time appointment, as the full-time head coach system had not been reinstated.
But something changed last year. After a disastrous performance at the World Baseball Classic (WBC) in March, the KBO decided to reinstate the full-time managerial system at a strategy meeting on July 20. The Asian Games were pushed back by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the games kicked off in September last year, naturally extending Ryu’s tenure at the helm of the national team. After achieving his goal of winning gold at the Asian Games, 카지노사이트 Ryu took the reins at the Asian Professional Baseball Championship (APBC) in November at the Tokyo Dome in Japan, which featured promising players in their early to mid-20s from South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and Australia. The team finished runner-up in the APBC.
The full-time managerial system was reinstated, but it was an ambiguous two tournaments with no official full-time manager.
It was finally speculated earlier this year that a new full-time coach would be appointed. The only international tournament scheduled for this year is the Premier 12 in November, but the national team will be called up in March when Major League Soccer clubs visit South Korea for the first-ever official opening game. The most likely candidate for the job would be Ryu Joong-il. There is a lot of pressure to hand over the reins of the national team to someone new right away, and last year’s Asian Games and APBC laid the groundwork for a generational change. A veteran and experienced baseball coach was a good fit for the position, which is often referred to as the “poisoned chalice,” as it is a position that is either revered or criticized.
The newly-formed Power Enhancement Committee said that Ryu “was highly praised for his knowledge of the players who will be the mainstays of the upcoming 2024 Premier 12 and 2026 WBC tournaments based on the successful generation change, and also for his continuity.” Ryu is the third full-time head coach of the national baseball team after Sun Dong-yeol and Kim Kyung-moon.
In addition to the full-time head coach, Choi Il-un and Ryu Ji-hyun were appointed as the national team’s two-hitting coaches. Until now, even with the full-time head coach system, the coaching staff was organized ahead of the tournament. There was a lot of change due to the personal lives of these coaches. However, at least the main pitching and hitting coaches have been nailed down, which is a sign of empowerment for the head coach. The rest of the coaching staff will be finalized in early March.
Ryu’s guaranteed tenure is not long.
He has until this year’s Premier12 tournament. There are no big international competitions scheduled for next year. Of course, his tenure could be extended depending on this year’s results and what matchups the KBO pushes for next year.
However, the national team’s destination doesn’t end this November. The national baseball team has been humiliated and helpless in international competitions over the years. A shock first-round exit at the WBC in 2017 and a gold medal at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta-Palembang shook the entire squad, as player selection standards were called into question. Despite finishing runner-up in the Premier12 in 2019, the ‘no-medal’ shock at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics was a major setback, and it was the first failure of the full-time managerial system, which led to the adoption of a joint managerial system.
However, at last year’s WBC, the national team had to accept an unbelievable first-round exit, as the United States, Japan, and Latin American nations fielded their best teams. Despite recruiting major leaguers such as Kim Ha-seong and Tommy Edmon, the first Korean national team player, and having some of the best players in the league, including Lee Jung-hoo, Kim Kwang-hyun, Yang Hyun-jong, Yang Ji Hyun-soo, and Park Byung-ho, the team realized the gap between them and the world stage. European teams, which they called ‘fringe’ teams, have seen a rapid rise, and the gap with Japan has only widened. The disappointing results led to the bitter criticism that Korean baseball was a frog in a well.
After last year’s WBC failure,
The national team’s lack of international interaction, lack of clear guidelines, and lack of long-term planning were highlighted. After the humiliation, they vowed to change and reform, but the jury is still out on how much they will actually change. Japan, Chinese Taipei, Australia, 메이저사이트 and others continue to organize national team events. Japan’s national team will play a practice match against the European Union in early March. The practice game between the European Union team, which includes players from the Czech Republic, Italy, and the Netherlands, and the Japanese national team, which includes members of Japan’s professional baseball elite, is not just an event, but an effort to continue to promote interaction with various players.
Next month, the Korean baseball team will play two games against Major League Baseball stars from the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres at the Gocheok Sky Dome before gearing up for the Premier 12 in November. There’s no time to bask in the glory of last year’s Asian Games gold medal. International competitiveness is the foundation of Korean baseball. It”s not just Ryu Joong-il and the national team, but all baseball players.