Samsung Lions Ready to Take On Japan

“We are ready.”

On November 8, a day before the first preliminary match against Japan’s Nippon Ham Fighters in the Konami Cup Asian series 2006, the Samsung Lions made preparations for the match at a Tokyo Dome, showing strong hitting.

In a 2-hour training session, Samsung devoted 1.5 hours to batting practice. Samsung, which made its way to Konami Cup for two straight years, initially worried about its exhausted players since the Korean series finished late, but its main hitters, including Yang Jun-hyuk, Shim Jeong-su and Jin Gab-yong hit balls over the fence.

Yang Jun-hyuk hit the ball over the fence 7 times, including one that hit the upper part of the right-field stands, “Heracles” Shim Jeong-su and catcher Jin Gab-yong also hit the balls over the fence a number of times as if they were vying with each other.

Head coach Han Dae-hwa said, “Players are showing incredibly good hitting power, maybe because they feel less pressure than they did during the Korea series. Our batters could make more hits than expected in the match against Japan.”

Nippon’s starter in the first match is rookie lefty Tomoya Yagi (12 wins and 8 losses). Coach Han said, “We played against him once during a camp in Okinawa earlier this year, but our players made many hits. He also wasn’t that threatening during the Japan series this year, either.”

Samsung’s pitcher against Yagi is Lim Dong-gyu, whose main weapon is a forkball. A lefty, Chun Byung-ho was originally scheduled to be a starter in the first match, but Chun will play a starting pitcher in a second match against Taiwan’s La New Bears.

Manager Sun Dong-ryul said, “If a starter can pitch until fifth inning, we can use bull pen,” and added that, “we hope our pitchers will do well.”

The preliminary match between Samsung and Nippon will be held at 6:00 p.m. tomorrow and KBS 2TV will broadcast the match live.

Meanwhile, scores of reporters of foreign media outlets including AFP broadcast and Japan’s Asahi broadcast, covered Samsung’s training. In particular, shortstop Park Jin-man, called a “genius” by the Japanese media recorded a Korean language learning program for Japan’s NHK while training.

kimsk@donga.com