On the morning of the 21st, I received a wonderful video from my junior Sungjun in Daegu. On the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday, I watched a video sent by junior Sung-Jun and started off in a good mood in the morning. The video sent by junior Seong-jun is the 1991 game against LG.
Regarding Sung-joon, they say ‘the tempo is too slow’. He says, ‘You have to watch the game with the determination that the batters, the umpires and even the spectators will have a hard time.’ However, if you watch the video now, you will see that Sung-jun is not slow in tempo.
When Sung-jun joined Samsung, his redemption was quite fast. Thinking about it now, the left-handed pitcher had a speed of 145-146km and even the movement was good. You can tell how good he was as a rookie pitcher and how good his pitches were.
In addition, Sungjun’s main weapon, a fastball, a sharp slider, a curveball with a big drop, and a changeup made a really good harmony. Even thinking about it now, it couldn’t be anything but a cool pitch that is rare to see in Korean professional baseball. Seongjun, who has a variety of pitches, pitched really well regardless of left and right batters.
Many players, referees, and fans think that Sung-jun’s tempo was slow since he was a rookie. I know better than anyone when the tempo has slowed since I played on battery with Sung-jun for a long time. It is a way he found himself to survive in the professional world as his restraint gradually decreased due to an elbow injury.
In his youth, Seongjun was really very dynamic and threw well. He fought the batter confidently without ever pitching run away. In the early days of professional baseball, it was not common to throw a live ball at 145 to 146 km/h. As his velocity dropped, he became interested in interval pitching and developed a pitching strategy that steals timing. This is a survival strategy.
For 53 years, he walked only one way, and he saw and met many baseball players. His relationship began when Seongjun joined Samsung in 1986 after graduating from Gyeongbuk High School and Hanyang University. He was a roommate for a long time. In doing so, he naturally came to know Sung-jun’s personality.
He was always quiet and studied alone. In addition, his personality is also docile and gentle, so his seniors and juniors liked him a lot, and many players followed him.
He steadily taught Japanese and English on his own, and actually saw the benefits of getting closer to Japanese professional baseball through frequent Japanese spring camps during his active career. He was a scholar who knew a lot of Chinese characters. In particular, Seongjun was passionate about baseball to the extent of surpassing any other player. He was the type to find out what he was curious about by going to him regardless of whether he was a junior or a senior if there was something he didn’t know well. 토토사이트
Sung-Jun’s research and hard work attitude continues even after becoming his leader. He is the type of person who communicates with players and develops. On October 1st, 2019, Sungjun received a notice of non-contract from Samsung. He cared for his juniors, and I was also quite shocked. Of course, the personnel rights of leaders and players are unique to the club, so it is not a situation where you can say this or that.
As one of the baseball players, it is regrettable that a baseball player with many qualities and many abilities is leaving the field. It’s a pity when you look at the whole Korean professional baseball. He is not old, and he is a leader who can develop and help great players on the field for many years to come, but as a baseball player, it is regrettable that he leaves the field without being able to pass on that know-how to the KBO league. .
Seongjun, who faithfully walked the right path all his life, believes that he will live by his philosophy no matter what he does, whether he is in active service or as a leader.
Lee Man-soo, former SK coach · Chairman of the Hulk Foundation