LG Twins’ Roberto Petagine of Venezuela smashes
one out of Jamsil Stadium, southern Seoul,
at the bottom of the ninth inning against
the Doosan Bears on Friday.

Sports fans, like all customers, want their money’s worth when they go to games. While baseball purists or die-hard fans may be able to digest low-scoring, defensive ball games, casual fans want offensive production. Just as basketball fans need their slam dunks, what makes baseball games exciting is home runs, and a towering homer that clears the outfield fence is sure to get fans excited.

Fans have been packing the seats this season, and they are being treated to some exciting baseball. Batters have so far smashed a total of 66 home runs out of the park, an average of 2.36 homers per game. That’s a whopping jump from the 36 homers in the same number of games at the start of last season.

The overall batting average has also increased from .250 to .271 this year.

“Pitchers are slowly adjusting to the start of the season this year. It’s usually the batters who need time to adjust before they start producing. It has been impressive to see batters pulling the ball when they hit home runs,” explained Hanhwa Eagles manager Kim In-sik.

“It’s tough for managers to deal with a lot of home runs. One swing of the bat can change the momentum or outcome of a game. But it’s good for the fans,” added Kim.

With the Korea Baseball Organization increasing the total number of games to 133 this season, while factoring in the current pace of the schedule, it wouldn’t be a stretch to expect numbers similar to those recorded in 1999. That record-breaking season, which also had 133 games, saw a total of 1,273 home runs. Lee Seung-yeop, who was playing for the Lions at the time, ended up with 54 homers. Four others hit over 40 home runs.

The increase in the number of games this season could produce not only an increase in the number of home runs but could also give pitchers a chance at 15 wins, as good as gold in the KBO.

While experts will point to several reasons for the impressive offensive start, the most obvious reason is the shortened outfield fence at Jamsil Stadium for the LG Twins games. Jamsil Stadium in Seoul is widely known as a difficult ball park for hitting home runs. The LG Twins, in an effort to give themselves more chances to get more home runs, shortened the length of the outfield fence by four meters. Since then, the team has gotten a total of 15 homers, in comparison to nine last season.

Another problem could be with fielding, which has been on the wane in comparison to what it was at the start of last season. There have been 48 errors thus far this season, when compared with 24 in the first seven games of the season. Although errors can contribute to a higher number of home runs, there is no direct correlation between the two. A pitcher cannot help but feel insecure with a shaky defense behind him.

In addition to home runs, the play of 18-year-old rookies like Kim Sang-soo of the Samsung Lions and Ahn Chi-hong of the KIA Tigers has been impressive, to say the least. Kim, the leadoff hitter, has produced an impressive number of multi-hit games. Ahn has had several key hits as the second hitter in the Tigers depleted lineup, which is missing center fielder Lee Yong-kyu.

It’s never easy for young players out of high school to perform when they get to the big stage, but both Kim and Ahn have shown patience and maturity beyond their years when working the count in the batter’s box. Kim is hitting .367 with 11 hits and three RBIs, while Ahn is hitting .318 with seven hits and three RBIs.


article date: April 13, 2009
source: joongang.co.kr
credits: aeinsshi