Opening Day

March 30, 2010 was opening day for the Tigers. They came into the game with an 0-2 record including one game that they really should have won. But the only way that will come back to haunt them is if at the end of the season in September sometime they find themselves one point out of a playoff spot. I really shouldn't have just said that...

The weather was unseasonably cold. I had promised my friend and long time baseball buddy, Min Ha that I would save seats for him and his Samsung co-workers and since classes were cancelled here for freshman initiation day, I had the whole day so I figured I might as well get to the park early. Funnily enough they all work for Samsung and it was the Samsung Lions providing the opposition on opening day. They were all voting for the Tigers but they took a few photos to show the company that they were supporting the team. Ha ha ha.

So I got a yearbook and read that while I waited for the guys to arrive and the game to start. I figured I'd have a couple of hours so it's good that the Kia Tiger yearbook is written in Korean. I had plenty of time to try to piece together what was written.

Well, mostly in Korean. Some Konglish too. Their slogan for this year? "Again 2009." I thought it was a misprint when I saw it. They won the 2009 season so I guess what they want to say is "2009 again." But "Again 2009" made me think to myself just for a second, "What year are we in?" Then in the beginning of the yearbook they summed up the Tigers' '09 season in these words, "Kia Tigers is True Winner." There's a bit of a history of their 11 league titles called, "History of Tigers." Or at least that's what it appears to be. I don't THINK it's a scientific study of the genetic origin of felinus gigantus. There's a very corny fashion magazine section with four of the Tigers in formal dress called "4 Color of 4 Players." The coaches are touted as "Best of Best." And my favourite is the title of the cheerleading section: "Cheer up Tigers!" They WON last year! They don't need cheering up!

Well, on the other hand, maybe someone knew something... So far this pre-season and regular season I've seen them play 7 times. They lost them all. In my previous post I was selfishly saying how I wouldn't mind if they lost a few just to keep the bandwagon jumpers at home so it would be more comfortable in the stadium for us true fans but this isn't what I had in mind.

Anyway, I left my place at around 3:30. I got to the seats at about 4:20 more than two hours early and STILL I couldn't find any seats in the spot Min Ha wanted. But I found some pretty good seats and saved 6 of them. You can do that here. I don't really like that but when in Korea do as the Koreans do eh? By the time the other guys showed up and the game started I was pretty cold. But once the game got going I was just a little chilly.

There was a bit of a ceremony with a brass band, some really good break dancers or B-boys and another guy who is a pretty famous singer. Then the Tigers all entered the stadium in Kia vehicles and walked under a balloon arch and down the red carpet to line up along the first base line for the national anthem.

Yang Hyun Jong was pitching. He did really well last year so it looked good for us. He started strong too. And the Tigers got out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first thanks to some speed on the basepaths by Lee Yong Gyu. But then Yang had one bad inning and suddenly it was 6-1 for the Lions.

That turned out to be the final score. Now, that may seem like a bad result but I was pretty happy with it. The relief pitching was phenomenal! Three relievers, (none of which was Son Young Min), combined for 1 hit, 3 walks, 8 strikeouts and NO runs for the final 5 innings. That's some really good pitching! And for the Tigers, who had a terrible bullpen last year, that's spectacular! The pitchers were Lee Dong Hyun, Jung Yong Oon, and Kim Hee Geol, none of whom I've heard of. And Yoo Dong Hoon came on for the final out. He was the closer last year and he was great. I guess they figured he needed some work since there have as yet been no closing opportunities.

Today, actually right now, the Tigers are tied 1-1 in the 6th inning. Seo Jae Eung pitched 5 fairly solid innings. Not great but not bad. And now, Son Young Min is in relieving him. (we hope). So far he's doing well. Hopefully the strong relief performances yesterday will light a fire under him and make him a little better. I didn't think the game would happen today. It rained all day long and it might be even colder today than yesterday. I can see the players' breath on TV. I'm a little bummed that I missed the game but I am not sad I'm sitting in my warm room instead of in the cold stands right now.

Well, I'd better quit writing and watch the game. Son Young Min got out of the 6th inning. He struck out the third batter with a guy on second. I sure hope they win today. It'd be nice to see Seo get the win. I really like him and he's a great team player. Oh geez, what am I saying? Son Young Min will get the win as things stand. And as I type this, Na Ji Weon has hit a two-run homer to put the Tigers up 3-1 and Son is in line for the win! This is how he got such good numbers last year. But I have to say he looks like he's pitching better than last year. I don't care who gets the win as long as he's pitching for the Tigers.

KIA FIGHTING!

The 2010 season has bugun!

Here's an inspirational picture of Kim Sang Hyun to start my first post of this year.

Well I've been to some games and I've seen some games on TV. All tolled 5 preseason and the first two games of the regular season. They all have something in common: they were losses for the Tigers!

I'm not in panic mode yet. In fact if they hit the skids right away this season it'll be easier for me to go to games. When they're winning there are lineups 3 or 4 hours before the games! That's nonsense. I'm not standing there in line for that long. Especially once the weather gets hot.

But this doesn't mean I'll be cheering for the Tigers to lose. Just not to be winning all the time cuz I want the excitement in Gwangju to wear down a bit.

Today, Sunday March 28th, the Tigers played in Seoul. They got out to a 6-0 lead on the Doosan Bears in the first two innings! It was great to watch. Na Ji Weon is hitting the cover off the ball. Choi Hee Seop and Kim Sang Hyun went back to back with him on to get the first three runs. Everybody got up to bat in the first inning. Unfortunately for Lee Jong Beom he was the first and the last out of the inning.

Then, UNBELIEVABLY, KBS decided to put an extended newscast on. I couldn't believe it. I could see the live updates but had no video. I stopped watching for a while and did something else. Then just for fun I switched back. It was on again. But the Bears had tied it up. The game was neck and neck and KBS even MORE unbelievably did ANOTHER newscast. It was the same news as less than an hour before! What is the thought process? But then the game came back on. For a while. Then after the 8th inning KBS decided to stop televising it altogether. I've never seen more brutal sports coverage.

Anyway, the final was 10-9 Doosan. Quite amazingly, one of the games I went to in preseason started out with Kia leading the Bears 8-0 and I believe the final in THAT one was 10-9 Bears too! So they've already blown a 6-0 lead in the season and an 8-0 lead a few games before that. Looks like the bullpen will be keeping things as interesting as they did last year. Worst in the league then and maybe even worse this year. So far so bad.

But the hitting is looking great! I think we might get used to seeing Choi Hee Seop and Kim Sang Hyun going back to back this year. And there are other guys hitting better too. Na Ji Weon is gonna be more consistant I think. So is An Chi Hong. I was wondering if Lee Jong Beom was going to retire this year but he's been hitting HOMERS! I think I saw three in the preseason. That might be more than he got all of last year! He's been eating his kimchi! Hope he keeps it up! Lee Hyun Gon looks like he's in midseason form too and the always steady Kim Sang Hoon and Kim Weon Seop are going well.

Starting pitching is something I don't think Kia will have to worry about if the coach doesn't mess around with it too much. I still don't think Lopez is the best pitcher. I think he's like the Jack Morris to Toronto's Dave Stieb. Remember those days? Morris would always win more than Stieb but there was no question who was the better pitcher.

Kia has two pitchers I think are better than Lopez. Yoon Seok Min and Yang Hyun Jong. I dunno who Jeon Tae Hyun is or where he suddenly came from but I sure hope Jo Beom Hyun doesn't have another favourite. He was the guy who got shelled today by the Bears for like over a 23 ERA and if I'm not mistaken he was the guy who got shelled by the Bears in the preseason come-back from 8-0. So I'm not even a little bit impressed by what I've seen from him. Like last year when Son Young Min kept getting thrown into games even though he lost more games than anyone, I hope that doesn't happen with Jeon. And WHY did he pitch before Yoon or Yang? Even Seo Jae Eung will probably be steadier. Hard to say cuz I haven't seen him doing anything but cheerleading yet. He's gotta be great for morale! He's always jumping out of the dugout to fistpound the pitcher on his way back or hugging him or whatever. I like guys like that on my team.

I think we might see Lopez or Yang Hyun Jong win more games than Yoon Seok Min this year if the order is like last season, but I saw him pitch in preseason and he struck out 8 or 9. He's still the best they've got. He'll likely get matched against the other teams' best pitchers and get the putrid run support he got last year. But I have faith in him. Allowing Lopez and Yang to pitch against the easier pitchers was his biggest contribution to the Tigers. However, from early indications it looks like the pitching order will be changed around this year and Lopez will be matched against the big name pitchers. If that's the case Yang and Yoon are gonna get all the wins this year. Lopez will still get his share but not nearly as many as last season. And Yoon will get the 20 wins I predicted for him last year. If Joe doesn't mess around with him like he did last year putting him in a closer and sitting him out and crap like that. I think Yang could win 15 too!

Everything will depend on Jo! Coach Jo Beom Hyun has gotta start leaving starters in longer cuz the bullpen is crap. I haven't seen enough to tell whether strategy will be changing but during preseason games I saw Kia hitting in situations where they would have bunted last season. It wasn't working any better but it's very encouraging to see the coach at least playing the game the right way! Maybe he'll start making a hit-and-run call from time to time.

And finally I have to talk about the guy I talk about more than anyone but the coach: Son Young Min. Last year he pitched terrible but ended up with way better numbers than he deserved because the runners who he allowed to score were never his. This year I've seen him pitch 3 or 4 times and I have to say he is looking better. But THIS year he is getting the bad results he deserved LAST year! He was the guy who gave up the loss in the Yoon Seok Min game I saw in preseason. Yoon left tied 3-3 and Son pitched fairly well but gave up a couple runs that turned out to be the difference. Old habits die hard. I think he must have cost Yoon at LEAST 5 wins like that last year!

Today he gave up 2 hits, 2 walks and hit a guy. He does that a LOT! I don't know how he didn't give up any runs. Last game he faced 3 guys and gave up one hit. I expect him to be a little steadier this year after all the appearances he made last year. Hopefully he'll stop letting other guy's runs score all the time. So far he's not doing too badly. Other than him Kwag Jeong Cheol is the only guy who could do okay. I think I'd put Seo Jae Eung in a long relief position and only put him in the rotation if he hasn't been needed in that role for a while.

Anyway, we're off! Like a thundering herd of turtles. :( Sat - Doosan 8 Kia 3, Sun - Doosan 10 Kia 9.

Next game is Tuesday at Moodeung Stadium vs. the Samsung Lions. It's the home opener. I'll be there! Can't wait!