The Gloomy Future of Korean High School Baseball

2008 has begun, but the future of Korean pro baseball is not all that rosy.

As KT has abandoned its plan to take over Hyundai Unicorns, Korean pro baseball is facing a crisis with only seven teams this season.

High school baseball teams are not much better off, either.

On the second day of the New Year, Chuncheon High School dissolved its baseball team after 51-year-long history. In just three months since the end of last year, three high school baseball teams, including Ilsan’s Juyeop High School and Seongnamseo High School have been dissolved, shaking the foundations Korean baseball league, as a whole.

○ Empty playgrounds

On Jan. 10 Chuncheon High School playground was dead calm. It used to be full of vitality with the energetic voices of baseball players. Now, only the presence of the scoreboard and scattered baseball gear in the corner of the playground are reminders that the school once ran a baseball team.

The graduation of last year’s seniors left the Chuncheon High School baseball team with just 10 players, making it difficult to run a team. Naturally, the team was dismantled and the remaining players switched schools.

Now Chuncheon is no longer part of a traditional path (Soyang Elementary - Chuncheon Middle School – Chuncheon High School) through which local aspiring students prepared to become pro-baseball players.

In Gangwon Province, only three schools, Gangneung High School, Sokcho Commercial High School and Wonju High School, have a baseball team. However, there are questions as to whether they will lose their teams like Chuncheon High School.

Sokcho Commercial High School baseball team manager Min Sang-gi said, “Of 13 players on my team 11 are in their senior year. If we cannot fill the team next year after they graduate, we will become like Chuncheon High School.”

○ Financial difficulty and shortage of players

The main problems threatening high school baseball teams are the shortage of players and lack of financial resources.

Juyeop High School had to disband its baseball team October last year after their four seniors graduated and two others dropped out leaving the team with only nine players. The team had to have benchwarmers from other schools transfer to Juyeop to fill the team.

Other high school baseball teams with fewer than 20 players include Sokcho Commercial High (13), Kimhae High (13), Chungju Sungsim Academy (10). It is difficult to be positive about next year when each year a third of the team, on average, leave school.

Seongnamseo High School baseball team was disbanded at the same time as Juyeop High’s because of financial difficulty.

Seongnamseo High is a public school and its baseball team received an annual budget of less than 10 million won with some more help from players’ parents. Last year, the school came to the conclusion that it was no longer financially possible to run a baseball team.

On average it costs 2 million won per annum to supply one player like gloves, spikes and bats.

Gangwon Baseball Association Executive Director Han Jeon-ok said, “As the reality is dire, the future of Korean high school baseball is gloomy. I doubt anyone would want to take up baseball under these circumstances.”

With one to two high school baseball teams disappearing each year, I wonder what senior pro-baseball players think about the situation.

creating@donga.com