[Column]Did you lose the Korea-Japan game in baseball?Otani’s “literacy” that tells us the real reason (2) | Joongang Ilbo | JoongAng Ilbo

[Column]Did you lose the Korea-Japan game in baseball? Ohtani’s “literacy” that teaches the real reason (2)

ⓒ JoongAng Ilbo / JoongAng Ilbo Japanese version

2023.04.19 09:43

◆Korea lost, but field reports of the 8th round, 4th round, and final match are needed

“Jihiroku” and “Journey to the West” are books about learning from mistakes and learning from advanced culture. After losing in the first round of the WBC, I wondered whether Korean baseball officials would go to Miami, where the top eight teams gather. But I didn’t hear about who went there and what kind of report there was. He didn’t seem very interested. ‘Jihiroku’ is a national treasure that records the pain of the Imjin War (Bunroku-Keicho War) with the purpose of guarding against past mistakes and preventing repercussions. “Journey to the West” is similar. Korea is not a developed country in baseball. In terms of scale as well, the United States and Japan are ahead industrially and culturally. I want to know that. Then learn and imitate.

Did Otani learn only at school? When he answers interviews, he often quotes, “In the book I read recently…”. When he goes to bookstores in Japan and the United States, he is surprised to find many baseball books lined up. It is an environment where there are enough “tools” in the form of books that allow people to acquire and accumulate knowledge on their own. Korean society does not consider baseball, sports, as fields of cultural and social knowledge. See it as a professional area for those who play the game. Then the baseball world should make such an attempt, but the reality is the opposite. The people involved in the field, the leaders (I find this expression awkward) emphasize technology, emphasize the unclear identity of “baseball people”, and further strengthen the structure that is friendly to vested interests. Students who learn to play baseball have little access to environments that enhance their knowledge through books and other devices. For Korean baseball, rather than the ability to throw a ball at a speed of 160 km/h, an educational and cultural environment in which such knowledge and skills can be acquired is more urgent.

◆For our sports literacy and culture

Ability to read, write and speak. In other words, literacy builds the culture of the field and ultimately creates differences between people. Among our recently retired legends, there are many ‘talkers’ and few ‘doers’. It may be a fragmentary comparison, but the efforts that Japanese legends such as Hideo Nomo and Ichiro Nomo put into adult baseball and youth baseball are quite different from our legends appearing in entertainment programs.

In 1993, when the professional soccer J.League was launched, Japan presented a vision called the J.League 100-Year Concept. Through this organization and system, the youth and women’s baseball teams as well as youth and adult baseball teams are systematically managed. The systematization of such an ecosystem ultimately becomes the foundation for the sustainable growth and development of the culture of baseball in that society. If we have a vision and are committed to it, then systematically design and execute a plan to move it forward, and don’t give up until we’ve achieved that vision. Here, I would like to ask the people of the Korean baseball world. “Are we serious about baseball? Is it the end or the means?”

Lee Tae Il / Vice President of Sportizen

[Column]Did you lose the Korea-Japan game in baseball? Ohtani’s “literacy” that teaches the real reason (1)