In the 2013 season, LG Lee Byeong-gyu became the oldest batting champion in the league (38 years, 11 months, 11 days) with a batting average of 0.348. In fact, in terms of his individual performance alone, he had many better baseball seasons than that year. In 1999, when Lee Byeong-gyu was full of youthful energy, he had a batting average of 0.349 and 192 hits and joined the 30 (30 home runs)-30 (31 stolen bases) club.메이저놀이터
In the 2013 season, Lee Byeong-gyu shone more as a senior and senior officer both on and off the pitch than his record. Starting in 2003, this is the season in which the five senses were used to ‘lead by example’ to change the history of the team, which had not played fall baseball for 10 years.
One of the images symbolizing Lee Byung-gyu’s efforts that year was ‘Ceremony’. It was a so-called ‘suppress ceremony’ in which he clenched his fists tightly, raised them to chest level, and straightened his shoulders.
Prior to that, LG had weak power over the past 10 years, but what was more difficult to break was the ‘consciousness of defeat’ resulting from the accumulation of failures. This is why Lee Byeong-gyu, the oldest beast, tried to change the dugout atmosphere with a ceremony. LG, which bowed its head due to physical and psychological weakness in the summer, rose up in the summer like a lie that year. From the end of May, he recorded 9 consecutive winning series and finally climbed to second place in the regular season, writing the history of advancing to the postseason in 11 years.
‘Lee Byung-gyu’s ceremony’ was revived at Samsung. Recently, Samsung players are doing a ‘sigh ceremony’ whenever they hit a timely hit. Even in the weekend LG and Daegu series, in the game on the 4th, Kang Min-ho hit a double with 2 RBIs in the 8th inning, and then drew attention as a ‘Excuse me’ ceremony. Every time I worked with my dugout colleagues with the same ceremony.
Lee Byeong-kyu, Samsung head coach, is holding a ceremony for the 2013 when he was playing for LG. Kyunghyang Shinmun DB
This year’s Lee Byeong-gyu is Samsung’s head coach, keeping Dalgubeol dugout and assisting head coach Park Jin-man. Kang Min-ho said in an official interview after the game that the players themselves were following the ceremony of head coach Lee Byung-gyu during his active career. He also said that it was not suggested by this coach, but the response was that he was delighted.
No matter who’s ceremony, the ceremony is a ‘communication’. It is a gesture of ‘coincidence’.
As the season goes on, it is impossible for Samsung, which has fallen to the bottom, showing a lack of relative depth and gaps in power, to change power at once during the season. The best fight you can do right now is to use the maximum amount of power you have. This is a part that is also in line with the ‘consciousness’ of the players who want to do even one more on the ground.
Kang Min-ho of Samsung celebrates after hitting a come-from-behind double in the 8th inning against Daegu LG on the 4th. Courtesy of Samsung Lions
It seems that the driving force behind Samsung’s rebound with 8 wins, 1 draw and 5 losses in the second half comes from this team atmosphere. In the game against LG on the 5th, Samsung turned the game around even after the worst start. In the first inning, second baseman Kim Dong-jin kicked LG top hitter Hong Chang-ki’s ground ball between his legs, and left fielder Kim Tae-hoon made a mistake in throwing judgment, giving up two runs and losing heart from the start. However, whenever Samsung caught up with a hit, it aroused their hearts with a ‘stunning ceremony’ and overturned the game 6-3.