episode_0244

What fun would fans have watching a game if the club they support was in a dark age?

If you ask that question, most fans will say this.

“It’s fun to see promising players grow.”

In particular, in sports leagues that have adopted a draft system, such as the KBA league, as the dark period continues, teams receive higher draft numbers and quality prospects gather in their teams. It could be said that the desire of fans supporting a club in such dark times was to see players who had been famous since their amateur days come together on one team, unleash their potential, and go on to win the playoffs and even win the championship.

Of course, it was not only the privilege of weak teams to enjoy watching the growth of promising players, but unlike fans of strong teams who could find fun by winning games, fans of low-ranking teams could only find enjoyment in the growth of promising players.

Therefore, fans who endured the dark times always had in their hearts the simultaneous growth and explosion of promising players, a phenomenon called the ‘Golden Generation’ or ‘Golden Generation’.

This golden generation can be said to be the eternal dream of sports fans in that although the players are not the same age, they debuted on the team, spent their rookie careers, enjoyed the same team spirit, and had their primes overlap.

Moreover, since such cases were frequent for each sports team, the fans’ hopes for a golden generation were not entirely vain.

Looking at examples from other sports, Manchester United in the 1990s succeeded in achieving the feat of a treble based on the club’s youth, the so-called ‘Class of 92’ and ‘Fergie’s Children’, led by superstars Ryan Giggs and David Beckham. did.

Barcelona, which led the trend in the soccer world in the 2010s, also entered the history of soccer by actively recruiting talented youth players such as Messi, Pique, Busquets, and Fabregas, centering on veterans such as Puyol, Xavi, and Iniesta. left it

It was no different from basketball. The Chicago Bulls, who were called the best team of all time, dominated the NBA in the 1990s with Jordan and Grant, who were from the team, and Pippen, a rookie who was just as good as a member of the team. Curry, a draftee of the Golden State Warriors who left an unconventional record starting in the mid-2010s, Thanks to the performance of the trio of Thompson, Green, and the so-called ‘Kuttamg’, they dominated the league.

In addition, although the case is different from the golden generation described above, a promising player who had no choice but to leave the team in tears for a team with difficult financial circumstances was unable to fill the emptiness in his heart even after becoming the best player and winning the championship and returned to his former team to lead the team. LeBron’s victory was enough to touch the hearts of many fans.

It was a joy for fans to imagine a promising prospect like this leading the team to a championship, and it was every fan’s dream to see such a promising prospect reach his peak around the same time and dominate the league.

Fans have always hoped that a promising player from a club that shares the same history, the same pain, the same joy, and perfectly understands the spirit of the team will become a player who dominates the league, and the prospects burst simultaneously into the team. It was natural that if the team led the team to victory, the catharsis felt by the fans cheering for the team would be difficult to imagine.

So what about baseball? The same goes for baseball, where promising players from a club dominated the league and warmed the hearts of fans.

One of them was the Cincinnati Reds’ powerful batting lineup in the 1970s, which was called the ‘Big Red Machine’ in the major leagues. Great hitters such as Bench, Rose, Perez, Concepcion, Foster, and Griffey Sr., who debuted in Cincinnati, led Cincinnati’s golden age by winning six district championships, four league championships, and two World Series championships.

In addition, the New York Yankees, who are called the evil empire and have won the most championships in the Major League, also laid the foundation for the team’s growth through the growth of youth. Team legends Gehrig and DiMaggio. Vera and Mantle were the key players who debuted with the Yankees, and the key players called the ‘Core 4′ including Jeter, Pettitte, Posada, and Rivera, including Williams, who ended the Yankees’ long dark period, were also romantic prospects made up of prospects who debuted with the club. It was a collective.

However, this romance that everyone who watches sports dreams of is gradually disappearing due to the logic of the market. The general trend in the sports world these days is that teams that have acquired good prospects are busy running the club by selling the prospects, and promising players who have become good players chase after teams with an eye on money.

In particular, in the case of leagues with a salary (a system that prevents sports clubs from exceeding a certain amount of the total annual salary received by players in a year), the best players receive an intentional pay cut (the act of receiving less than the salary they could originally receive). There were often vicious acts that ran counter to the romance of creating super teams in the sports world.

Of course, even if a player abandons his home team for money or to win a championship, he says things like, ‘A little child whispered in my heart,’ or ‘I’m taking my talent to South Beach,’ or ‘If you can’t win, join. The trend in the modern professional sports world was that fans had no choice but to understand the player, unless he gave a vicious interview that upset the cheering fans.

In the sports world, the unit of capital was increasing day by day, and one such contract had anywhere from hundreds of millions to hundreds of billions of billions at stake, and the impact of a single winning career on the players was so great that the players could not be criticized.

However, unlike the trend in the sports world, there were still romantic leagues.

It was the KBA League, a professional baseball league in Korea. In the KBA League, most clubs were run for the enjoyment of the owners or to give back to society, so unlike other leagues that followed the flow of capital, a sense of romance remained.

This is a league where if a prospect with little service time remaining is traded to another club to make money, the club’s bus will be burned down and the front office that initiated the trade will likely be stoned by fans. Until relatively recently, in the KBA League, a romantic league where franchise stars give up more than 1 billion won to stay with their home teams, there was a phenomenon where simultaneous explosions of promising players dreamed of by fans took over the league.

In the case of the Hancheol Grizzlies, who succeeded in advancing to the Korean Series 5 times in a row from 2015 to 2019, the explosion of promising players such as Ahn Si-hwon, Lee Yong-ki, Kim In-ho, Park Joong-ki, Kim Hyun-sik, and Jeong Tae-hwan, led by former club franchise star Gi Ki-joo. UG Overlords, who had consistently ranked first and second in the league for several years, also became fueled by the explosion of promising pitchers from the club.

And there was another club dreaming of such romance in the current KBA league.

It was the Volcano Falcons, who had been hovering around the bottom ranks in recent years, except for a miraculous 5th place finish in 2018. There is a joke that the top player in the nation goes to Seoul National University and the top player in baseball goes to the Hwasan Falcons. The Hwasan Falcons have been supplying many prospects in the battle for last place that has lasted for several years, and as a result, the prospects they have collected so far this season are showing off their potential. It was exploding.

Closer Shin Su-ho, who made most of the saves in the few games in which the team won, exceeding 20 saves, and one-two punch Chae Jae-hyun and Kim Min-jun, who combined for 20 wins in difficult team situations. And first baseman Choi Si-woo, who announced the birth of a slugger by already surpassing 25 home runs.

In particular, starting pitcher Chae Jae-hyeon won all five games he appeared in in August, beating out Ji Maeng-ho, who was short of games due to disciplinary action, and was selected as MVP in August, raising the expectations of Hwasan fans to the limit.

Not only Hwasan fans but also league officials had high expectations for these four players. Even though there is a rule that a maximum of 3 players per team will be selected for the 2023 Asian Games, all 4 players were selected for the Asian Games.

Naturally, the club’s new players who were selected for the national team became the pride of Hwasan fans.

In a bleak situation where out of the 6 games played in a week, if you win one game, you call yourself an ordinary week, and if you win two games, you are happy, the only way to stay attached to the team is to watch the growth of promising players. In the meantime, the pride and joy felt by Hwasan fans was considerable as their favorite prospects were selected for the national team.

“Hey, really, if I just select good mercenaries next year, it will work, right?”

“Honestly, we don’t have the strength to be in last place, but both pitchers and mercenaries are going to leave. “If we just support our mercenaries next year, we can make it to the playoffs.”

And many fans gathered at Daejeon Stadium, where the game against AT was held, to watch the growth of such promising players. There were smiles that couldn’t be hidden on the faces of Hwasan fans who gathered before the game to watch their lovely prospects training.

“Siwoo! “Fighting in Gyeonggi-do today!”

However, the fans’ smiles disappeared when a player came out of the opponent’s dugout with a glove.

“Oh, it’s Ji Maeng-ho.”

“Ah, that bastard. “I don’t want to see this.”

Records that bombed the league, manly bench clearing, and a ceremony never before seen in the baseball world. And even an interview that drives Dad and Ka crazy. There were many baseball fans who liked Ji Maeng-ho, the hottest superstar in the league right now, but there were very few Hwasan fans who liked Ji Maeng-ho. The incident in which Ji Maeng-ho broke the leg of starting second baseman Lee Won-hyung and did not properly apologize was still lingering in the memories of Hwasan fans, especially since the team that had shown hope sank after Lee Won-hyung’s injury.

“Ha, the AT bastards happened to be lucky enough to pick Ji Maengho and are doing well.”

“Honestly, if it’s not Ji Maeng-ho, there’s nothing special about AT, damn it.”

“admit. “Isn’t that guy hurt?”

“Anyway, Jaehyun is the starter today, so I don’t think he’ll be able to use much strength. Ji Maeng-ho Originally, it was only for Yanghak. It won’t work for Jaehyun. Jaehyun! Let’s destroy Ji Maeng-ho!”

“AT is shit anyway! “Go!”

In this way, Hwasan fans began to send wild cheers to the romantics who make them laugh these days, wishing them victory in today’s game.

*

‘Is the weather nice today?’

Perhaps because it was September, the heat had subsided considerably and there was a cool breeze. While I was playing catch and feeling the autumn breeze, for some reason Rossby quickly finished looking at the woman and came to my side.

‘Mr. Rossby, why did you come back early? Were there any pretty girls?’

‘No, today is a bad day.’

‘But why are you smiling?’

‘I can’t help but feel good because the stadium is filled with people cursing you. Hehe.’

Ha, this little guy. Are you saying that you had sex with Soyoung over the weekend? No matter how many days I haven’t felt like having sex, I still laugh when I hear my disciple being criticized. Rossby definitely had a bit of a nerdy side.

‘Well, what can I do? I have to understand. But, those bastards were swearing at me?’

I raised my head and looked at where the volcano fans were sitting. Of course, it is the right of fans to curse at opposing players. I could understand it well.

‘How dare these bastards curse at me?’

… But I couldn’t bear to curse at myself.

‘Okay, I’m going to make you look good today. ‘You bastards.’

I strengthened my fighting spirit while looking at first base, where Hwasan fans were sitting.