Ryu Ji-hyun's Problem? Korean Baseball Has Another Urgent Task
Ryu Ji-hyun's Problem? Korean Baseball Has Another Urgent Task
Blog Article
Will there be a solution to the repeated controversy over the coach of the national baseball team? Will there be a solution to the repeated controversy over the coach of the national baseball team? Although Ryu Ji-hyun has been appointed as the new head coach to lead the Korean national baseball team, baseball fans' reactions are sharply divided.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced on the 24th, "Coach Ryu Ji-hyun has been appointed as the head of the national team to lead the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC). He will begin his career as a coach of the national team in February." KBO explained the reason for the appointment, saying that Ryu Ji-hyun was highly evaluated by the Power Reinforcement Committee for his recognition of his leadership by gaining various experiences from professional clubs to coaches and coaches, and his experience by participating in a number of international competitions as a coaching staff of the national team for many years.
Ryu Ji-hyun served as a one-club man for the LG Twins from 1994 to 2004. After his retirement, he trained as a coach for the Seattle Mariners in the U.S. Major League Baseball for one year from 2007 and served as a head coach and coach for his former team LG. He also has extensive experience in the national team's coaching staff. He served as a defense and base running coach at the 2006 and 2013 WBC, and served as a coach for the 2014 Incheon and 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games and as a coach for the 2023 Asian Baseball Championship (APBC) and 2024 Premier 12.
However, some baseball fans are concerned about the news of Ryu's appointment. Ryu served as LG's manager for two years from 2021 and achieved consecutive postseason advances, but failed to advance to the Korean Series in the postseason as he was eliminated after being upset by the lower team for two consecutive years. It was a performance that did not meet the expectations of winning the championship, and in fact, the LG club decided to give up accompanying Ryu despite the symbolism of being a franchise star-turned-manager.
The most important task given to Ryu is his performance at the 2026 WBC. Along with the Olympics, the WBC is the most important international competition in baseball. Korea has been humiliatingly eliminated from the first round for three consecutive times since the semifinals of the first championship and the runner-up at the second championship, and desperately needs to recover its reputation.
International competitions are a one-off match that requires each game to be played like a final. For the Korean national team, which has to deal with strong teams that are ahead of us such as Japan and the U.S., some fans are puzzled whether Ryu Ji-hyun, who was often caught up by underdogs by showing weakness in short-term matches, will be the right person.
In addition, Ryu Ji-hyun is the head coach who assisted Ryu Joong-il, the former head coach of the national team, and is also one of the current KBO power reinforcement committee members. With Ryu Joong-il deciding to replace the coach due to poor performance, some question whether it is appropriate to promote coach Ryu Ji-hyun, who is also co-responsible for the performance, internally as a head coach. In fact, Ryu Joong-il and Ryu Ji-hyun have a lot in common in that they are former shortstop-one clubman-former LG Twins manager, and they are evaluated to have quite similar team management and tactical strengths and weaknesses as coaches.
Furthermore, as it is known that Ryu Ji-hyun, who was a candidate for the KBO's power reinforcement committee to determine the appointment of the national team's coach, is also included, some point out that the appearance of "self-recommendation" is procedurally against equity.
Long-term Challenges for Korean Baseball
It is not a matter of a day or two that the controversy over the appointment of the national baseball team coach continues. And this is related to the fundamental problem in the Korean baseball community, which lacks the "talent pool" to serve as the national team coach. 먹튀검증
Coach Kim Kyung-moon, who led the 2008 Beijing Olympics gold medal, or Kim In-shik, who led the team to the semifinals of the 2006 WBC and the runner-up at the 9 WBC, were both adjunct coaches who served as coaches of professional teams. However, the phenomenon of incumbent professional coaches turning a blind eye to serving as team members in the off-season has been repeated, and due to the influence of other foreign countries, voices have been raised that Korea should adopt a full-time coaching system.
Since then, Kim In-sik, Sun Dong-yeol, and Kim Kyung-moon have served as full-time coaches of the national team, but the ending has not been good due to poor performance and various controversies. 2023 WBC returned to the dual-term system for the first time in a long time, but it returned to the full-time coach system due to its shortcomings. Former coach Ryu Joong-il could not avoid the curse of the national team coach, suffering from elimination from the preliminary round at the 2024 Premier 12.
Each side has its own strengths and weaknesses. A coach with a winning professional team takes the helm and can appoint the best leader at that time. It is also easier to draw support and consultation from professional teams in terms of recruiting and operating players. On the other hand, there is a big drawback of not being able to be fully faithful to the national team because of the team they belong to. Full-time coaches can focus on the national team on the opposite side, but they have a much lower sense of field than current professional coaches and it is difficult to find proven talent who can meet the expectations of fans.
Kim In-sik, Kim Kyung-moon, Sun Dong-yeol, and Ryu Joong-il, who recently served as full-time coaches of the national team, have already shown a clear decline in professional competition. All of them were considered to have the most experience in international warfare among Korean coaches in history, and Kim In-sik, Kim Kyung-moon, and Ryu Joong-il, except for Sun Dong-yeol, were the few people who had experienced both the double and full-time systems in the national team.
They were able to take over the full-time coach of the national team once again because they were "wild men" who stepped down from the professional team. KBO highly praised their past glory and took over the position of national team manager once again, but since the 2010s, they have not been able to catch up with the trend of modern baseball, which has changed significantly, and have tasted their own bitter taste. Among them, the only coach who is still active is Kim Kyung-moon, the oldest active head coach in professional baseball, who took the helm of the Hanwha Eagles last year.
And manager Ryu Ji-hyun has also been on the national team since stepping down from the professional club LG Twins due to poor performance.