Lotte’s Replacement, Ryan “Forget Jose”

“Ryan! Ryan!”

After a game on May 21 at Chamsil Stadium, 1,000 fans rushed towards a player. He was Lotte’s foreign hitter, Ryan, who became a hero by slamming a come-from-behind two-run homer in the 9th inning against Doosan on the day.

Lotte fans held onto him while he was heading toward the team bus and called out his name. This scene of so many fans acting crazy after a game hasn’t been seen recently. This was reminiscent of the day when Lotte’s foreign player, Jose, banged a three-run homer in the fifth game of the 1999 playoffs against Samsung.

Lotte fans went wild towards Ryan because he has filled up Lotte’s “lack of 2 percent.” Foreign hitter Ishion was a trouble maker at the beginning of the season, but Lotte kicked him out and replaced him with Ryan and accomplished success.

Ryan has performed well with a 0.296 batting average (21 hits in 71 at-bats), one homer, and nine RBIs and also has been raising the spirits within the dugout. Since he joined Lotte on May 11, Lotte has been on a rise with 10 wins and seven losses.

With the main hitter, Perez, who is ranked among the leaders in most batting records, for example, a batting average (0.342, 6th), eight homeruns (13th) and 41 RBIs (5th), Ryan is acting as a distinguished player for Lotte.

While Lotte is having fun with two foreign batters, Doosan is gathering a harvest with two foreign pitchers.

Left-handed pitcher Ress has seven wins (two losses) and curve ball pitcher Kipper earned six wins (four losses); 57 percent of victories in the team have been accounted for by the two. Coming back to Doosan after playing for Doosan and Yomiuri Giants, Ress has a 4.17 ERA, but is a lucky guy who is strongly supported by strong team hitting whenever he starts.

The team for which a “foreign duo” performs most actively is the leader, Hyundai. In his second year in Korea, Brumba is sweeping the three main batting titles with a batting average (0.361), homeruns (19) and RBIs (48), and a starting pitcher, Peary, is making notable results of four wins, two losses and a 3.92 ERA over nine games.

Sang-Soo Kim ssoo@donga.com