High school baseball this year starts in the middle of this month, one week earlier than last year. The Korea Baseball Softball Association (hereafter referred to as the association) recently released the elementary, middle, and high school baseball schedules through its website. High school baseball, which has attracted the most attention, will hold its first weekend league on the 18th. Compared to last year’s E-Mart Cup tournament held on March 25th, the high school baseball weekend league was held rather quickly.
During the first half of the weekend league, the 2nd Shinsegae E-Mart Cup National High School Baseball Championship will be held together. For a total of 19 days from March 23 to April 10, all high schools registered with the association can participate in the competition.
When the first half weekend league and E-Mart Bae are over, the Golden Lion Tournament (and first half weekend league King of Kings) will be held from May 13th to 29th.
If the second half weekend league ends on July 2nd, the Blue Dragon Flag Championship (and the second half weekend league, Wangjungwangjeon) will be held from July 8th to the 24th. One week after the Blue Dragon Flag Competition, the Presidential Cup National High School Competition will be held from July 30th to August 12th. Six days after the Presidential Cup, the Phoenix Waiting Contest, in which all schools participate, will be held from August 18th to September 4th.
Since last year, the E-Mart competition, in which all registered teams can participate, has been held in March, and high school players have been able to digest such a tight schedule. Then, why is the tournament not held from mid-September to the end of October, when the weather is good for baseball? If the E-Mart event is held a month later and the end of the event is delayed to the end of October (including the National Sports Festival), the players will be able to display their condition in much better conditions, which is very disappointing.
The reason the tournament ends in early September is that each university has its own special talent selection in mid-September, and the KBO (Korea Baseball Organization) rookie draft is also held around the same time. The reason I’m arguing that the first national championship should be held in mid-April and all baseball-related schedules (including college admissions and the rookie draft) should be postponed by a month is to prevent injury. 스포츠토토
When the weekend league starts on March 18, each team must start tactical training and practice games from the beginning of February. In early February, the highest daytime temperature in any part of the country is less than 10 degrees Celsius, and between 10 am and 3 pm, the training time, it is below 7 degrees Celsius. When the wind blows, the perceived temperature drops by 4-5 degrees.
Orthopedic doctors say that elbow, shoulder, and wrist injuries are of great concern if the ball is thrown or batted at a temperature below 7 degrees. Therefore, holding weekend leagues and national competitions in March can have a fatal impact on player injuries (professional and amateur leaders must remember ‘7 degrees of video’ when planning training).
This creates a big aftereffect when joining professional baseball. Professional baseball coaches unanimously say that half of 10 rookies have already had elbow surgery or are in serious condition to undergo soon.
Grades tell you how serious it is. Lee Eui-ri (KIA) and Jeong Cheol-won (Doosan), who received the best rookie award in 2021 and 22, only won 4 wins each. The criterion for the best rookie pitcher was ’10 wins’, but since he couldn’t perform well, he was forced to select ‘4-win pitchers’ in a row (however, the batter was not even a good candidate). To put it simply, even the ‘feeling of a great pitcher’ who was praised for his talent after training and playing games in cold weather during his middle school years did not grow properly when he became a pro.
The 8th Sunchang-gun Wanted National Youth Baseball Championship was held in Sunchang, Jeonbuk, with 127 teams participating from February 24th to March 1st. High school teams across the country ran their own regional leagues in the southern provinces in February. Everyone played with the risk of injury.