In this case, KBO's popularity has fallen... To prevent the college baseball crisis
In this case, KBO's popularity has fallen... To prevent the college baseball crisis
Blog Article
At this rate, baseball's popularity cannot continue.
The "college baseball crisis" is a regular topic that was dealt with almost every year in "Park Yeon-jun's view" along with high school baseball. Just like when I wrote my first column on the college baseball crisis, there is something that remains unchanged today. It is to maintain my view toward the "right change in college baseball."
It is not a problem for pro teams that do not recruit college players in the rookie draft or for those who do not play as hard as they did in high school. There are other players who have truly turned college baseball into a crisis. They are the adults who used to be the president.
The behavior of adults who are eager to avoid responsibility even though they know the problems has shaken the current college baseball crisis, and furthermore, the roots of Korean baseball. This crisis is not simply a problem of poor performance or individual players, but a structural problem involving institutional loopholes and poor environments. If you don't understand this properly and approach it superficially, the fall of college baseball will inevitably intensify.
Crisis in Numbers: The disastrous reality of college baseball
In the 2024 KBO Rookie Draft, college baseball players were selected just 16 out of 110 players. The nomination rate is 4.7 percent, down from 26.3 percent last year. Only six students graduated from four-year colleges. This number clearly shows how competitive college baseball has declined.
However, it is not correct to conclude that this number is solely due to players' poor performance. College baseball has long lost its competitiveness due to environmental and structural problems. The rule to combine study and exercise has been strengthened, but basic support to support it is still lacking. The fact that college campuses and ballparks are far away, or that there are many stadiums without lighting, presents extreme difficulties for players. Travel time and poor facilities reduce the quality of training, which in turn leads to poor performance.
In this environment, the introduction of a ban on players with less than C credits put more pressure on players. Receiving academic performance without being guaranteed exercise time reveals a structural contradiction. Eventually, the heavy burden that players experience between stadiums and classrooms is accelerating the collapse of college baseball.
the vicious cycle created by the entrance examination system
Some indicators, such as batting average and ERA, are used as the main criteria for selecting players in college entrance examinations. On the surface, this appears to be a device for fairness, but it is actually a cause of limiting players' personal characteristics and potential. Batters rely on "tick-tick-tick" methods to record short hits rather than long-term growth, and pitchers are forced to manage games carefully to maintain entrance examination performance rather than long-term growth.
These systems are sacrificing the diversity and creativity of Korean baseball. Players with aggressive styles or big hitters are in a situation where they have to give up their strengths to go to college. This can lead to a decrease in competitiveness not only in college baseball, but also in Korean baseball as a whole.
What is needed is environmental improvement
What is needed to prevent the fall of college baseball is not a new regulation. The first priority is to create an environment in which student players can combine their studies and sports in a balanced way. It is necessary to solve the distance problem between schools and baseball stadiums, establish a training environment equipped with lighting facilities, and establish a system to support efficient time management.
The college entrance examination system should also be improved. Rather than simply evaluating a player's ability based on his or her batting average and ERA, the government should come up with measures to utilize individual players' strengths by introducing various indicators such as slugging percentage, on-base percentage, and batting average in scoring areas. Through this, college baseball will be able to regain more creative and diverse performance.
스포츠토토 Korean baseball cannot solve the crisis of college baseball with simple criticism and criticism. We must face the fundamental problems and make practical efforts to solve them. College baseball can once again become an important axis of Korean baseball if environmental improvements and institutional supplementations are made.