Can You Hear It? It’s Hope At Bat.

“It was significant that we just participated in a competition this year. We will compete against other teams next year.”

There is no winter vacation for 21 students from the Chungju Seongsim school baseball team in Chungbook. That’s why they can’t be lazy in spite of the cold weather. On December 26 they got together in their school training camp and started winter training. They run and do weight-training in the morning, practice basic skills such as catching the ball and fielding in the afternoon and practice hitting using a pitching machine in the evening. They are also scheduled to train together with Cheongju Segwang High School for a week next month.

The Chungju Seongsim baseball team was created in September of last year, and is the first hearing-disabled student team. An assistant principal, Cho Il-yeon, who is a big supporter of creating the team, said, “I wanted to give new vision and self-confidence through a baseball to students who mostly acquire nothing but simple manufacturing jobs.”

The baseball team appeared at the Phoenix Cup high school baseball championship this August, being seen for the first time on the national stage. But in the first game they were defeated by Seongnam West High School in a game that was called in the seventh inning with a score of 1-10.

It is no surprise that disabled students with less than one year’s experience couldn’t compete with normal students with ten years of baseball training. It was fortunate that they could avoid a scoreless defeat. The students are sure that they scored, which provides confidence and hope more valuable than a victory.

More difficult thing to them than their hearing impairment is a defeatist attitude and a tendency to give up easily. Coach Kim In-tae, 47, was satisfied, saying, “I told them to do their best unyieldingly. Students who easily give up got stronger mentally.”

However they still face difficulties. Several students, including principal hitters, have given up baseball since the Phoenix Cup. It is not easy to get new members either. But recently they had good news. Seongnam High School player Lee Hyun-chul, 16, was transferred to the school. He will be a big asset to his new team since he has played baseball from his elementary school days.

jaeyuna@donga.com