Korean responses to Japan’s WBC Championship
Get your popcorn, “DAE HAN MIN GUK!” hats and your “Dokdo is OURS!” shirts because its time for poor sportsmanship!
First up is this lovely and most creative piece by KoreanBaseball2009 ConspiracyofWBC! (He got his video taken down and re-uploaded it)
Now lets switch to tinfoil hat mode!
Taken from The Korea Times
KoreanTiger2 said:
IMHO, the latest news reports that Lim was instructed to walk Ichiro by Coach Kim, but he apparently ignored it. Lim also plays for the Jap league, so if true, his motive is suspect.
I’m starting to see a trend here…
anonymousreject said:
wow, well played drama perfectly executed by Japan. Ichiro made fools of Korea’s Baseball Managers with second insult that inject anger and pride to rob Korean Baseball Manager of intellect! Foolishly puts CY Lim in clutch who still payed BIG MONEY from Japan leagues. Korea’s last hero, Seung Yeop Lee rejects aiding Korea to play for Japanese MONEY! Korea loses to Japanese money, but make a nice drama for Japan and WBC
NOW IT ALL MAKES SENSE! He pitched to Ichiro because some shadowy Japanese Illuminati member paid him to pitch to him! Why didn’t I see that coming? Maybe its because I have yet to cut eyes into this tinfoil mask I’m wearing… Well, at least I’m invisible to the moon and the communists that are stationed there pointing death waves at the planet! Back to the point, clearly Lim is a Japanese stooge and should be stoned to death with rocks from Dokdo.
But seriously, the voice of reason must be heard here. Enter Shinsano from East Windup Chronicles who chalks up Korea’s lost to its own “boneheaded nationalistic bravado.” He continues:
This was Kim In-shik attempting to engage Ichiro one-on-one. I would fully take it the other way and say this disrespected Ichiro. After Iwamura took his free base Lim threw a fastball on the outter half of the plate, which Ichiro fouled off. Next pitch, another fastball, again fouled away.
Lim is a very good pitcher, and as opposed to 90% of the right-handed submarine pitchers in the world, he can get left-handed hitters out. Last year, in the NPB Lim surrendered a .264 on base average versus lefties. That mark was 20 points higher versus righties. But Ichiro is no ordinary left-handed batter. He too defies common logic and has a career .387 mark versus LHPs — ten points higher than that against right-handed pitchers.
In the mind of Kim In-shik to walk the reviled Ichiro was to lose face. Even with Hiroyuki Nakajima (hitting .222 for the WBC) on deck, even with first base open and two outs, even with his closer having already thrown over 30 pitches, Kim (since he’s likely calling the pitches from the dugout) came at Ichiro with several more pitches before the eighth was lined into centerfield.
The move ignored basic baseball strategy, and it ignored the kind of hitter that Ichiro has been his entire career. The only thing it didn’t ignore was the history of the Japanese and Korean nations. It cost Korea its chances at the WBC crown.
Couldn’t have said it better than myself. My guess is that Kim was indeed trying to get Lim to play a bit of a tough guy “let’s do this mano-a-mano” act and ended up getting his entire nation (in a way) burned by one of the greatest hitters ever. Of course we might never know for sure what he was thinking, but either way his choice to not walk Ichiro in favor of pitching to a weaker batter with 2 outs and 2 men on base had a lot to do with the outcome of this game.
But it didn’t matter anyways because Lim is clearly on the payroll of Japan, right?
I was checking out some of the board posts on a Korean World Baseball Classic Facebook group and found words that made it all OK. Words that made all the bad Japanese boogie men with faces terrifyingly similar to Ichiro’s go away.. A rally cry of sorts or perhaps it is rather a reminder to Korean nationalist crazies everwhere: “DOKDO IS STILL OURS!”
That it is and thank God for the rest of us that no one really else cares.
It’s even written on the bus man (via The Party Pooper)…
If you didn’t catch the game here are the highlights:
March 24th, 2009 at 9:56 am
Korean responses to Japan’s WBC Championship…
A smattering of responses to Japan’s WBC championship. I’m sure you’ll enjoy them. I did….
March 24th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Things were pretty bad during the last WBC as well. Mainstream Korean news broadcasts were full of myopic fools going on and on about how unfairness caused the Koreans to lose before making it to the finals. However, Japan had the biggest cause to cry foul about unfairness with the Umpire Davidson incident. But, the Japan team went on to win. To be fair, though, there is still quite a bit of whining in the Japanese media about Davidson to this day. Doesn’t touch the level of pathetic whimpering that the Koreans have engaged in.
March 24th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
The thing about Davidson was that he was all over the place during the last WBC. In the game between Mexico and the US he called a homerun a double which was absolutely insane. I had to agree with the Japanese on the case of WBC simply because the umpire made too many bad calls all in games the United States played in. Complaining about it today is silly, but make no bones about it that guy was wrong way too often for my tastes. But yeah, the excuses for Korea’s hard fought loss are rather ridiculous.
March 24th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
‘The Japanese won the WBC in 2006, but South Korea reached the semifinals of that tournament and last year, won the gold medal in baseball at Beijing — beating Japan in the process. If there was any moment when the rivalry became a phenomenon, it was March 17 when the South Korean team celebrated its 4-1 victory over Japan in the WBC’s early rounds by planting a flag on the pitcher’s mound.
For now, the Japanese own the bragging rights. Japanese media has nicknamed the team “Samurai Japan” to acknowledge its courage. But thoughts of the Koreans are never far. “I don’t hate Korea that much, said Ryota Morioka, 36, a Tokyo real estate worker who watched the game at a bar. “I just don’t want to lose to them.”‘ WALL STREET JOURNAl
Are you sure it’s just Koreans who are nationalistic?
March 24th, 2009 at 9:45 pm
I’m sure its just the Korean team whose fans show up to baseball games with “Dokdo is ours” banners. Yeah, actually I am sure of that. You are trying to prove that the Japanese are nationalistic about the WBC because a guy said he didn’t hate Korea, but he didn’t want to lose to them either? Let’s compare that with planting a large Korean flag with a smaller Korean flag on the side (representing Dokdo) on the pitcher’s mound after, as the article you quoted states, “its 4-1 victory over Japan in the WBC’s early rounds.” Now tell me Samsung, if that is your real name, (lol) who comes off as the over-the-top nationalists on this one? I see absolutely nothing nationalistic in what Morioka said. On the other hand…
Rivalry is one thing. I love rivalries. Mixing politics with sports like this is taking it to a new level and I think most people know enough to keep them separated.
March 24th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Are you saying the Japanese didn’t care? I think the qoute above illustrates Japanese feelings towards Koreans in general. Fact is, your people are just as a nationalistic as Koreans are. It’s just Koreans ain’t claiming your country as theirs. Oh, and the Japanese have planted flags on mounds too.
How do you explain that?
Must be hard to see the rise of Korea at the expense of Japan.
March 25th, 2009 at 6:28 am
Of course the Japanese were excited about the win, but not in the terms that many Korean fans would be reveling in if they had won the game. The Japanese in general have no care for Dokdo and don’t see South Korea as some sort of regional enemy save for the uyoku nuts whose numbers dwindle every year. The quote sums up how most Japanese feel about it’s nations sport rivalry with Korea. “I don’t hate Korea that much.” Which is to say they don’t hate Korea as much as Korea hates Japan. If you want to go ostrich on us that’s fine, but clearly these games much more to Korea than they do to Japan. Sure Japan wants to win, but its the same with Americans and everyone else. We all want our own countries to win that’s a given really. It’s the Dokdo crap and the senseless racism that makes Korea come off as just a bit more crazed about these things.
I don’t think Japanese people are claiming Korea (or do you mean Dokdo) for their own save the aforementioned minority that people don’t really listen to. Of course many of your countrymen want to believe that there is a huge push from the Japanese people to grab Dokdo for their own, but it simply doesn’t exist outside of the heads of a few idiot politicians and right-wingers. That really is the fact of the situation my friend. By the way I’m not Japanese.
As far as the Japanese planting the flag on the mound they did so at the END of the last WBC’s final, not every single game they played and won against Korea. It’s a small difference but one that nevertheless must be pointed out. I found no offense at the winner of the entire tournament on the mound, but the little Dokdo flag was tasteless and out of place.
The rise of Korea at the expense of Japan? In terms of baseball or on the global scene? If you are speaking about baseball you are clearly mistaken my friend, not that it really matters in the long wrong. It is after all just a game.. to most of us. I don’t think anyone in East Asia is really afraid of Korea nor should they be. Just to point out what I’ve being saying all along: most Japanese people don’t think in the same nationalist terms as you. In short, it’s all in your head.
March 25th, 2009 at 9:52 am
You’re not Japanese? Here’s the view from another non Japanese:
‘For Koreans and Japanese, the game carried far more significance than Red Sox-Yankee-type rivalries. There was a huge issue of pride, with two historic foes carrying the flag for their countries. As they came into the WBC final, each team had defeated the other two times in this series alone.’
Donald Kirk
It’s not all in my head. This game was more important to the Japanese than it was to Koreans. Afterall, we’re the biggest winners here anyway. Who would have thought that some po’ Koreans would ever be giving the Japanese such a run for their money? I’m proud of team Korea. They’ve done a fine job.
March 25th, 2009 at 9:58 am
Oh and if you don’t believe me here’s the video of the Korean team planting the flag after beating Japan. Just a reminder for those that don’t know, they’ve only planted the flag after beating Japan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpHxjjrcllA
It’s pretty childish.
March 29th, 2009 at 2:18 am
Areyou Japanese, samsung?
There are always exceptions, and people with extreme feelings. You can’t use a quote from one person to make a general view of a group. Most Japanese people did not care if Koreans won. THE END.
Of course JPN people wanted their team to win, just like they want JPN to win in Olympics, and other sports competition. But they did not care if they won for a “political” reason, as you wished they had.
You can believe that quote, ‘For Koreans and Japanese, the game carried far more significance than Red Sox-Yankee-type rivalries. There was a huge issue of pride, with two historic foes carrying the flag for their countries. As they came into the WBC final, each team had defeated the other two times in this series alone,” but that is a simple drivel. Unless you are in Japan and saw Japanese people’s sentiments first hand, you should stop quoting anti-Japanese propaganda that try to make average Japanese people eager to hate Korea, for most average Japanese people do not have ill sentiment toward their neighbor.
March 29th, 2009 at 2:20 am
By the way, where did you get the “who cares about the Dokdo” picture? Was it shot in Korea?
Thanks
April 16th, 2009 at 8:10 am
I love that sign on the bus. It is the same with the whiners from China about WWII. The war ended 65 years ago. Get over it already.