I want to mention a few observations I had as the 42nd President’s Cup, which I was scouting through this last Monday, heads toward the final today (1 p.m. KBS for those living in Korea). For the most part Koreans don’t care about high school baseball anymore, but this wasn’t always the case. Many of the baseball schools were founded during the Japanese colonial period and have over 100-year histories. Kyeongi High School, which is based in Seoul and advanced to the final yesterday, was founded in 1905.

According to the tournament Web site approximately 1,500 students in South Korea attend what are essentially “baseball high schools.” There are similarly styled schools in Japan, but the number of players exceeds 5,000. During the past five years a number of these baseball schools in Korea have closed.

Every game each team sends two junior players to chart pitches behind home plate. I asked one about his school’s curriculum. He told me, after some hesitation, that the students have what amounts to light study in the morning. This is followed by lunch and by 1 p.m. the students are on the baseball field. The team’s don’t play regular schedules with standings or regional divisions, rather, the teams focus on several tournaments, like the President’s Cup, and the regional qualifying rounds that proceed. During tournaments the students do not attend class.

Until the Korean professional league was founded in the early 1980s, high school baseball was the most popular form of baseball in Korea. I get the impression, this from people I talk to on the street — cab drivers, a few coaches and fans — that it was vastly more popular than it is today. For whatever reason college baseball is not popular amongst Koreans and while there were semipro, or, industrial leagues, prior to the launch of the KBO, but high school baseball was where it was at.  

The games I saw were sparsely attended. Koreans turn up for baseball games less during the work week, and most often on Sundays, the only day pretty much everyone has off. Still, I was surprised how few people were at the games I saw. Each team has a group of parents who occupy a section of seats behind the dugout of their kid’s team. Depending on the size and location of the school, I’d say these sections range anywhere from 10-100 people. Naturally the Seoul schools (Mokdong Stadium is the home of the KBO’s Woori Heroes) have more parents in attendance, whereas the school from Changwon (located in the south, about an hour from Busan) had just a handful of parents watching.

Outside of parents the second largest group in attendance are scouts. The scouts for the Korean pro teams have a gated section behind home plate with tables and cushion chairs, while us MLB types sit in the regular seats that fan out around the Korean scout section. During various intervals over the weekend I’d guess there were as many as 30 scouts watching a single game.

The third largest group would be the older Korean men, who probably no longer work during the day, and were around when Korean high school baseball was at its peak in popularity. A number of these guys sit in the shade and some follow pitch by pitch with a scoresheet. Others stumble around with soju bottles in their jacket pocket. I think all of them smoke.

Thursday’s quarterfinal pitted Gwangju Il, the baseball factory that produced Seo Jae-woong, Choi Hee-seop and Kim Byung-hyun, against Baemyeon High School. The game went 15 innings and was still tied 1-1 when it was suspended at 11 p.m. The game was resumed at 2 p.m. Friday and was won by Baemyeon in 19 innings. Another quarterfinal followed, but then Baemyeon was back on the field at 6 p.m. to play Kyunggi High School. Baemyeon lost 4-1.

Kyunggi HS will now play Duksoo High School in the final. Duksoo are another powerhouse from Seoul and have won the President’s Cup several times. The team has a pitcher named Sung Yeong-hoon, who can hit 95 mph on the radar gun, and probably disappointed a handful of MLB scouts when he opted to stay in Korea and sign with Doosan for signing bonus worth a reported $550,000. The starting salary for rookies in the KBO is around $20,000 US per year. From everything I’ve witnessed first-hand signing bonuses reported in Korean newspapers are exaggerated. The point I’m making here is that this kid likely passed up a lot of money to remain in Korea. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

In propelling Duksoo into the final Sung pitched 8 1/3 innings of no run, no hit baseball. His team beat Seoul High School, another powerhouse school from the capital.

Seoul HS has a large contingent of parents who bring a full sound system to games. They blast music at sometimes deafening levels, and pass a mic around to (I assume) fathers who scream and lead cheers. It’s fucking obnoxious, not to mention extremely rude. It should be banned immediately. I’m not talking a little boom box here, I’m talking giant speakers — the kind you can find on concert stages. It’s a clear and unfair advantage. The Seoul HS team is good anyway, but the speakers drown out the cheers from the parents of the opposing team, many of whom (as was the case on Sunday) have come from places several hours away. I’m glad they lost to Duksoo.

What really stood out to me at the President’s Cup was the lack of students in attendance. I’ve seen pictures of high school baseball games in Japan — students in tears as their school is eliminated at Koshien , or conversely, doing large, coordinated group cheers when their team is batting. I bet I saw less than 25 high school students total during the four days (about 15 games) I attended the President’s Cup.

By my own little baseball in Korea barometer, the popularity of the game has sunk steadily since I arrived nearly five years ago. My theory is that it has to do with a combination of following three things (in no particular order):

1. A sometimes subtle (often unsubtle) dislike of many things American (I’m avoiding calling it anti-Americanism) spawning from the U.S.’s invasion of Iraq.

2. The lack of a successful (by Korean standards) Korean player in MLB.

3. The popularity of soccer, which peaked in the years following Korea co-hosting the World Cup in 2002.

I actually think all three of these reasons are becoming less of a factor and that baseball will slowly regain its popularity amongst Koreans. Soccer has peaked. The national team is no longer as good as it was in 2002 and the cup won’t be coming here again anytime soon. Politically the country is moving back toward the right with the election of Lee Myung-bak. Once you resume importing American meat can baseball be far behind?

I suppose I’m becoming directly responsible for number two. I believe the lack of an impact Korean player in the majors is more of an aberration than a trend. The sudden demise of Choi, Kim BK and Seo is still surprising, as in all three cases their downturns came when they entered their mid-to-late 20s. Judging from the girth he’s assumed since his return, my guess is that Choi simply missed Korean food. In the cases of Kim and Seo, injuries may have played a role.

And bet your bottom won, injuries will continue to play a role. Arguably the current Top 3 Korean  prospects currently playing in America have all had recent arm problems. Last week, Rhee Dae-eun, a Cubs pitching prospect detailed on this site, was recently put on the seven day DLwith arm soreness. Jung Young-il, a Korean pitcher signed by the Angels, was held out of last year’s Arizona Fall League due to arm troubles, and last summer Choo Shin-soo, who in spring 2007 was on the fringe of starting in the outfield for the Indians, was shut down and eventually had Tommy John surgery. Choo is an outfielder, but was a top high school pitcher in Busan. He’s slated to return soon.

Unforeseen injuries aside, I think we’ll see another major impact Korean player arrive on the MLB scene within the next five years. Once that happens, along with the continued halting of the other two reasons mentioned above, the country’s love of baseball, which peaked in the late 90s with the success of Park Chan-ho, will likely resume.