Can a woman play baseball as well as a man? Do you know any great female baseball player in South Korea? Why does the story of a girl who pitches a ball or swings a bat sound unfamiliar to us?
Here’s a man to help women baseball players who are pushing the envelope. The outlook on women’s baseball in South Korea will be given below based on the interview with Kil-sung Choi.
There are currently 47 teams registered in Women’s Baseball Association Korea and 800 players nationwide, manager Choi explained. Twenty-four people were selected as women ‘s baseball national team from 50 first selected players. The selection process is entirely up to the manager. Players are not nominated by the club like professional baseball, but are selected through the tryout system. Choi thinks it’s a suitable system for his team.
The national team is organized once a year and maintained until the end of the biggest international competition, Women’s Baseball World Cup. Unfortunately, there are no more
international competitions available this year after being knocked out of the Asian competition. Nevertheless, the team is being trained to prepare for the next year’s competition. “So this year, we picked four more players than last year.”, said Choi. They have been trained since their elementary school in Little League. They can’t be on the roster yet, but trained together. “We are a very cheerful team with great teamwork.”
There’s only one immense problem with women’s baseball: opportunity. Female’s entry into professional sports is not a surprising story in other sports. Various ball sports such as golf, basketball, soccer, volleyball and handball are operated as professional for women─even women’s volleyball has the highest average viewer rating among professional sports in Korea─, while baseball consists of only “amateur” league. This is not a story just in Korea. The four-team Japanese Women’s Baseball League (JWBL) is the only women’s professional baseball league in the world.
Once they reach teenage years girls are pushed into softball, which has its own merits, but remains a different sport altogether. There have been scarce chances for women to play the game beyond Little League which is for boys under 14 and girls under 16. Without a women’s professional league, tournaments such as the World Cup or Asian Cup are largely the only opportunities for women to compete at the highest level. While their male counterparts sign several contracts, the best female players have to find other lines of work, only practicing and playing (if they’re lucky) on weekends for no money. Despite the slime chance, the number of women who enjoy playing baseball is increasing. Starting with the first women’s baseball team “Bimil-li-ae (which means ‘secretly’)” in 2004, women’s baseball teams hopefully began to emerge little by little.
The entry of professional sports has formidable barriers to anyone, regardless of gender. The adversity, however, is more severe for people in suppression than for people in power. The lacking puzzle piece is awareness, which lies in this situation. Choi said that when he first heard of women playing baseball he was also surprised. Lack of media coverage is the reason why you’ve probably never heard about most women’s baseball competitions. As a result of the media largely shunning women’s baseball, the game has struggled to gain respect and attention from the public. Girls cannot find any role model for a female baseball player, and their parents advise them to be content only with watching the game. This lack of awareness in public makes the national team remain in obscurity, which results in a tiny pool of promising players. “In Japan, all men and women play baseball. The infrastructure for enjoying baseball from childhood up is well-equipped. However, Japanese women’s baseball league also has a weak condition, compared to that of males. The WBAK is trying to make women’s baseball more active and to foster more not only young players but also female managers,” Choi explained.
It is required for professional players to have training at least six hours everyday, according to the explanation of Choi. Since training is done only on weekends, it is difficult for players to build up and maintain their physical strengths effectively. Furthermore, managers and coaches cannot increase the quantity of training too much in order to prevent injuries. However, he expressed hope, saying that players are full of passion and young promising players continue to emerge. Kim Ra-kyung , Park Min-seo and Park Joo-ah are all expected to be ace players who have been systematically trained since their days in Little League. The more these players are trained together, the more competitive the national team will be, he predicted.
Choi always tries to make it just a good baseball team, not a good “women’s” team. He aims to make the team be advanced to next World Cup. Baseball, he says, is a team sport. It is better for players who play their roles to help each other. He is creating an atmosphere of mutual consideration so that other players do not feel uncomfortable. He encourages players, saying that “All players are liable to error.” to get rid of fears about making mistakes on the field so that they can become strong teams.
Professional baseball means a stage where both men and women can play, and it should be enjoyed by everyone. Players in the national team deeply understand how difficult it is to be the first starter. Most of them were all the first to play baseball around them. However, for them, the sky’s the limit. They just spurred each other on to take a further step. More little girls would be inspired by them to dream of being professional baseball players, which generates ‘power’. Collective and individual experiences of these women would help break down barriers, so will the number of opportunities for females across all levels of baseball increase, ultimately helping to evolve and redefine the notion of ‘women’s sports.
Kayla Hong
Asia Journal
(Los Angele Times Asia Journal)
