Professional baseball, ‘Play Ball’ riding the spring breeze




5 stadiums sold out for the 2nd consecutive year in the opening game Ryu Hyun-jin, the starting pitcher in the first game, lost to Hanwha in the 2nd game, and
SSG cruised with 1 win and 1 loss, missing Lotte for the second straight time

On the 24th, the second day of the opening of the 2024 professional baseball season, the match between Hanwha and LG held at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul was filled with 23,750 spectators, continuing the previous day. As the Hanwha fans who filled the third base shouted, “The strongest Hanwha,” the LG fans on the first base also responded by shouting, “Invincible LG.” Munhak and Suwon Stadium also recorded crowds of 10,000 won for two consecutive days, with a total of 183,946 people visiting the stadium for the opening two-game series.

Professional baseball announced the new season ‘Play Ball’ with enthusiastic cheers from fans. A total of 80,050 professional baseball fans flocked to four stadiums across the country (Jamsil, Munhak, Changwon, and Suwon), excluding Gwangju, where the game was not played due to rain on the 24th. Only Changwon NC Park, where the game was played in the rain, failed to attract a full crowd, and the other three stadiums were full for two consecutive days.

By far, the people who were waiting the most for the opening of the professional baseball season were the fans of ‘defending champion’ LG, who were watching the opening game at home for the first time in 8 years. LG and Doosan, which share Seoul's Jamsil Stadium as their home, share the rights to host the opening game based on their performance from the previous year. While Doosan has always held the opening game at home since 2017, LG had to hold the opening game at a visiting stadium, but this year, it held the opening game in Jamsil as the winning team of the Korean Series.

This year's opening game was even more meaningful to LG fans because they achieved an 8-2 victory by defeating Ryu Hyun-jin (37), who returned to Hanwha after 12 years while playing in the American Major League Baseball (ML. LG fan Lee Ji-yeon (45) said, “I was very worried that I would lose to Ryu Hyun-jin on the day the championship ring was revealed, but I am happy that I won. “I think LG will win again this year,” he said. LG fans drew a full crowd even on the 24th, when the highest temperature exceeded 23 degrees, but LG lost 4-8 to Hanwha, ending the opening two-game series with 1 win and 1 loss.

Lotte, considered one of the three most popular professional baseball teams along with LG and KIA, started the season with two consecutive losses. Lotte lost 3-5 in the game on the 23rd, giving coach Lee Soong-yong (53), who took charge of SSG for the first time this year, his first win since his debut. Following Doosan coach Lee Seung-yeop (48) last year, this is the second consecutive year that the new coach has received his first win since his debut. In the game on the 24th, Lotte was down 0-6 until the bottom of the 8th inning and tied the score at 6-6 in the top of the 9th, but ended up losing 6-7 after giving up a walk-off home run to Heredia (22) in the bottom of the 9th.

Teabing's 'broadcasting accident' also made Lotte fans angry. Online video service (OTT) 'Tving', which won the rights to broadcast professional baseball 'online' starting this year, broadcast the game on the 24th with the subtitle 'This is the finished game' at around 4:58 pm when Lotte tied the score at 6-6. stopped. As various accidents continued during the exhibition period, TVing CEO Choi Joo-hee pledged, “We will stabilize the live broadcast until the opening and provide a proper service,” but failed to keep the promise just two days after the opening.

Along with SSG, Samsung also defeated KT for two days in a row and recorded two consecutive wins in the opening game. Oh Seung-hwan (42), who went on the mound in the bottom of the 9th inning when the score was tied 2-2 in the opening game on the 23rd and eventually became the winning pitcher, also went on the mound in the game on the 24th when the team gave up 7 runs in the bottom of the 9th inning and was down 11-8, and Hwang Jae-gyun ( 37) on a fly ball to right field, earning his first save of the season.

In Changwon, NC and Doosan shared 1 win and 1 loss. In the opening game, NC achieved a walk-off victory after Lee Yong-chan (35), who came on the mound with two outs in the top of the 9th inning, caught Doosan Lee Yu-chan (26) in check. Lee Yong-chan left the record as the first '0 pitch' winning pitcher in professional baseball history. In the second game held on the 24th, Doosan won 6-3, hitting three home runs, starting with Soo-bin Jeong's (34) leadoff home run.


토토사이트; https://edwardsrailcar.com