So you’ve never seen a championship in your life? That’s the first thing that came out of my mouth when I learned that the youngest writer on my ombudsman program is an LG Twins fan. He’s in his mid-twenties, and the last time the Twins won a championship was 29 years ago, in 1994. I’m sure his parents, who experienced that precious 1994 and passed the team on to him, didn’t realize the wait would be so long. So, when the LG Twins clinched the regular season title on the third day of the season with the losses of their rivals, the NC Dinos and KT Wiz, it was an event not only for the fans, but also for the entire baseball fandom. For every baseball fan, celebrating their team’s championship is like the Indian ritual of waiting until it rains, but after 29 years, you have to wonder if all the water in the sky has dried up. Waiting isn’t just about staying excited. Rather, it’s a time to learn to suppress expectations. Because waiting 29 years is another way of saying you’ve been betrayed for 29 years. Some kinds of faith can only be protected by wearing the armor of disbelief. You can’t trust the leaderboards until the end of the season. The Yogi Berra quote “It ain’t over till it’s over” is usually used to mean don’t give up until the ninth inning, but for baseball fans who have suffered through countless frustrations, it also means you can’t rest easy until the season is over and the standings are finalized. Then one day, a really good day comes along, and it’s an event. Not because it was a good day, but because it was the fulfillment of the gospel that one day there would be a good day. 토토사이트
There’s no need to be too dramatic. Last season, LG was a powerhouse and finished the season in second place, but narrowly missed out on advancing to the Korean Series, losing to the Kiwoom Heroes in the playoffs. Arguably the best bullpen duo since Ahn Ji-won and Seung-hwan of the Samsung Lions during their dynasty, LG’s Jung Woo-young and Woo-seok combination remained healthy this year, and there were plenty of conditions for happy fantasies. In some ways, 2013 may have been the more dramatic moment, as the team finished second in the regular season after a miserable 8587667 last year, and ended up playing fall baseball for the first time in 11 years. However, as the puzzle of the so-called “right time to win” is almost complete and the odds of winning increase, the concern of “if we can’t do it this year, we really can’t do it” grows proportionally. The franchise star, Ryu Ji-hyun, was sacked for failing to win the title that was so elusive despite the team’s good performance last year, and Yeom Kyung-yup was appointed as a kind of championship hitter, but his reckless stealing operation at the beginning of the season actually halted the team’s offensive flow. The manager’s past history of being frustrated at every championship threshold was also unsettling. After a dominant July, things took a turn for the worse in September when the six-win percentage was briefly broken. From afar, it’s been smooth sailing, but for those on the sidelines, it’s been a roller coaster. Cursing and criticizing the manager is a common trait among fans of all 10 clubs, but LG fans have been frustrated for far too long for it to be just the inertia of fans of the top team.