Just got back from the game. Kia won 8-1! It was one of the better games I've been to. I wish I could watch the re-broadcast right now but my TV is now an expensive and not very comfortable ottoman. It was different for many reasons. VERY different! Let me splain.
First of all because of the death of Roh Moo Hyun there were no cheerleaders. I didn't know that was the case until I got to the game. That was strange.
Secondly I am so sick of baseball game chicken I stopped by Im Shil Pizza and got a pie to bring to the game. That difference was very nice!
Thirdly, because of the pizza and because I was late I had to take a taxi to the game. First time this year I didn't walk there.
Fourthly, I sat on the 3rd base side of the stadium because I was late for the game and that side fills up slower. NOT because there were no cheerleaders. (Cheerleaders are on the 1st base side). Also it gave me a good chance to get close to the 3rd base coach, who calls the signs for the batters and I could see into the dugout to see what the players and coach were doing. Maybe I'm dreaming but I just might have had an effect on the outcome tonight.
Let me set the scene. It was the 4th inning. Kia was ahead 3-0. The lead-off hitter got on. I just KNEW Jo was gonna call the bunt. So I was yelling and screaming and making X signs with my arms but they bunted anyway. It was a perfect sac bunt. But then the next hitter walked nullifying it. That usually happens. They managed to score a run in the inning but they left two guys on. Without bunting they would have had another at bat with two runners aboard. THAT is what you sacrifice when you sac. bunt. I was not happy with the one run.
Later in the 7th inning Kim Weon Seop is the lead-off hitter. He gets on. Next is Lee Jong Beom, a great contact hitter and one of the best players in the HISTORY of Korean baseball. Kim Weon Seop is the fastest guy on our team. Kia is up 4-1. ABSOLUTELY PERFECT hit and run opportunity. Lee Jong Beom squares around to bunt. I got NUTS! A couple people called me and told me I was on TV tonight. I'm hoping THIS is when. Luckily the bunt attempt was foul. Then it happened. Somehow, I don't know how, maybe they saw me on TV, maybe they heard me yelling or saw me doing bunt gestures and shaking my head or making a big X with my arms, or maybe someone else knocked some sense into the coaches, I don't know but on the next pitch Lee Jong Beom did NOT square around to bunt. A pitch or two later might be the most beautiful pitch I've ever seen here! Kim Weon Seop took off for second. The pitch was high. But Lee Jong Beom took a very ugly swing at it anyway. I get the feeling he hasn't done the hit and run a lot because it was an AWFUL swing! But it was a swing nonetheless. Hallelujiah, the HIT AND RUN!!! The ball was a perfect double play ball straight to the second baseman and instead of jumping over it Kim Weon Seop slowed down and let it pass in front of him but he was STILL safe at second. The throw to first was NOT IN TIME!!! YEEHAW!!! Nobody out and two guys on!
Next hitter gets a base hit. Run scored! Next hitter flies out but the runner on third scores! One out and two runs in. Next hitter got out but because there was no damn sacrifice we still had one more chance with two runners on. BAM! Two MORE runs scored! We got four runs in the inning and put the game out of reach at 8-1. So technically it turned out we didn't NEED those runs but I was high fiving total strangers while they were coming around.
I bash Jo Beom Hyun for NOT calling the hit and run and bunting too much so I better give him credit for NOT bunting and calling the hit and run. That was SWEET to watch. I hope I see it again! And I hope I had just a little to do with it although I really don't think I did.
However, one other time the starter, Guttormson, had loaded the based with only one out and the pitching coaches came out for the second time in the game and I was yelling in English and Korean for them NOT to take him out. I don't remember ever seeing them visit the mound for a second time without pulling the pitcher. But this time they DID. And Guttormson got the next two guys out! You can bet one of the relief pitchers would have allowed at least one of them to score.
Whether they did any of this even partially because of me is doubtful. But they played the game RIGHT today and look what happened! 8-1!
So I guess I'll hold off on becoming a Lotte Giants fan for a little while.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Two conspiracy theories for the price of one
It's quite a news weekend here in Korea! Former president Roh, (pronounced No), Moo Hyun is said to have committed suicide. Here's the article from a local English paper. I have a feeling we haven't heard the last of this. Read it and tell me if you find anything suspicious. I sure do.
First of all does he often go hiking alone with a security guard? I know he's a public figure but was he THAT famous? And it was pretty dog gone early in the morning to be so worried about being mobbed by adoring, (or not adoring), fans. I think it's probably scumbag businessmen he's worried about more than fans. But I want to know more about this security guard who is presumably tough enough to stop people from killing Roh but not tough enough to stop him from kiling himself. AND who gave him a last cigarette as if he were the firing squad commander. Very suspicious.
I am also kind of puzzled by his selection of location. If I were to kill myself I might do it in nature like that, instead of an office building, but a 30-meter cliff? That's just high enough to break a few bones. And he WASN'T dead until the first response and medical services of Korea, (whose ineptitude I have written about before), got ahold of him. They say it nicely in the article but what they did was they took him to the wrong hospital then had to transfer him again. Par for the course. And brain massage? That might be a genuine medical procedure but it conjures up images of Koreans pounding themselves or each other in injured areas. I wonder what "brain massage" entailed.
They found suicide notes but please, anyone can type a suicide note on someone's computer. I'm thinking of the situation he was in. Here is a president who two of my friends have told me, (spookily enough within the last month!), was one of Korea's best. From what I've heard he actually DID do some things to fight corruption in Korea. That alone would be a very good reason for him to have a security guard with him at all times. And now, (huMONGOUS surprise!), it's been found out that he may have been corrupt himself. Although I don't think a measly 6.4 mil. would even be enough to QUALIFY as corruption here! He'll still be fondly remembered as a relatively squeaky clean politician. To me, a small amount of corruption like that seems more like a hastily manufactured explanation for suicide.
In a country that may be more capitalist than any other, where money is the measure of a man by traditional and modern social ideals, where you'd be more likely to sight Bigfoot than an honest businessman, (and where more people believe the former exists than the latter), politics is gonna be a cesspool of deceit. What if there really WAS a guy who was honest? An uncorruptable politician who made it to the presidency and made it harder for dishonest, not-so-hard-working guys to steal a buck. Or a won. What would you do with a guy like that. You'd try realy hard to pass the money disease on to him of course. But if that failed, you'd make him look like he was corrupt. Just so nobody else thinks there can be such a thing as an honest politician in Korea and no future Roh Moo Hyun admirers will rise up to disrupt the well oiled capitalist corruption machine that is the Korean economy. And then just so he can't defend himself against the corruption charges, (or reveal anything that might reveal real corruption on YOUR part), you'd rub him out. Really, in a place like this how hard would it be to corrupt, say, a body guard or an ambulance driver or a doctor?
Maybe I've been watching too much CSI but I have a feeling there's more to this than meets the public eye. I said earlier that we may not have heard the last of this but on second thought even if this IS all an elaborate assassination of a former president, I doubt anyone will ever know. Intriguing though. It may not be the Kennedy assassination but I bet they'll make a movie soon.
At any rate, I may be the last guy in the country to hear about it. One of the reasons is that for the second time in two years my damn TV blew up! How can that happen to one guy so often? This time it wasn't as smoky an explosion but it set off a kind of alarm and it wouldn't stop beeping until I unplugged the TV. That is not easily done since in any room here you are VERY lucky to have more than one electrical outlet so behind every stick of furniture and appliances are tangles of dusty, disgusting extension chords. I had to go through all that to find the TV plug, which eventually required me to move the TV, a big cabinet full of stuff, a table and the fridge. By the time I'd done all that a fuse had blown and everything on one side of my room was powerless including my fridge, cable TV box, Wii, computer, toaster, and microwave.
The top plug in the outlet was the only one with anything in it. And it had a series of extension chords that lead to all the things listed above. It was burnt out. I couldn't get any power from it. So just for kicks I tried plugging into the BOTTOM plug. It worked. I tell you, OINK!
So now I have a big TV on the floor in my room. I have no idea how to throw it away and I have a feeling I might have to pay for it if I do. I doubt I'll be able to fenagle a new one out of the college. At least not till re-contracting time. AND I can't watch Kia Tiger games any more. Although I may just become a Lotte Giant fan if things continue the way they're going with the Tigers.
I went to the game on Friday with a Kasia, Maria and another couple of friends. The game on Thursday was yet another frustrating effort for the Tigers. Or for the Tigers coaches to be exact. It was 10-10 in the 6th inning. It was 10-6 but my fave player Son Young Min gave up 2 runs then a couple other pitchers gave up two more all in the L.G. Twins half of the 6th inning. In the bottom of the 6th Kia's lead-off hitter got on. So OF COURSE, IN A 10-10 ballgame! In the 6th inning!!! Sacrifice bunt. God I hate that pussy baseball. And I'm positive the Kia players do too. Then the next Kia batter walked. The next guy got a hit, the next guy got a hit and Kia had three runs before the next two guys got out. There was a shot of Tiger coach Jo Beom Hyun in the dugout clapping about it like he had been the cause of it. The fact if he hadn't sacrificed they'd still have two guys on base with two out. But he'll never understand that.
So it's 13-10 and Yoon Seok Min comes out for the 9th. He's the best pitcher in Korean baseball being wasted as the closer for Kia. He proceeds to allow two runners on. Then the LG coach applies some Jo baseball and tries to bunt the two runners over. HELLO? You're down by 3 runs!!! Best pitcher in the league? So the bunt goes right to Yoon, the pitcher who fields it with loads of time to throw to third and get the lead runner, a double play or even a TRIPLE play. He double clutches then throws the ball two feet out of the reach of the third baseman. This is a pitcher who makes his living throwing the ball with pinpoint accuracy. I think he might have done it on purpose. Again I was kind of glad because I don't want Yoon Seok Min to do TOO well as the closer because then it would make a collossally stupid coaching move look good. Maybe that's Yoon's thinking too and I support it if it is. Again it's a conspiracy theory of mine and I don't think we will ever know.
BUT perhaps as punishment??? the next night, (when we went), there were only three regular starters on the field for the Tigers and the pitcher was a guy, (Lee Dae Jin), who hasn't been in the starting rotation since the opening week of the season and I don't think he'd pitched since then. Now okay, maybe Jo was resting guys because the Thursday game went into extra innings and it took 6 hours before the final 13-13, which is a loss for both clubs. One of the few things I hate about Korean baseball. But I don't know because the next night, the game I couldn't watch because my TV blew up, Jo throws out three guys who are even WORSE! The starter hasn't pitched all year. He went 2 innings with a 27 ERA. One of the guys who relieved him was a guy who Jo threw out there the previous week who got shelled for 3 runs in 1 1/3 for a 20 ERA and yesterday he pitched for a 15 ERA. Getting better!
Now I'm all for giving the new guys a chance but the way the Tigers are hitting these days they could field half decent pitchers and get wins. Jo isn't even doing that. He's managing to mess up the best thing his team has going for it: starting pitching. But the Tigers continue to win despite him. I just hate seeing a good team being managed into mediocrity. Still think Jo must go. Maybe today he'll choose one of the back-up catchers to pitch. I'll have to go to the game to find out...
Here's Kasia and Maria with Soju Man.
Here they are looking pretty bored, (cuz they WERE), in the 6th inning after Kia fell behind 7-2 and Jo kept the best players on the bench. They decided to leave and I don't know if I was mad or bored but I left with them. The final was 8-3. I've never left a game early until that one. I think I'll go today but I might leave early if this coaching nonsense continues.
First of all does he often go hiking alone with a security guard? I know he's a public figure but was he THAT famous? And it was pretty dog gone early in the morning to be so worried about being mobbed by adoring, (or not adoring), fans. I think it's probably scumbag businessmen he's worried about more than fans. But I want to know more about this security guard who is presumably tough enough to stop people from killing Roh but not tough enough to stop him from kiling himself. AND who gave him a last cigarette as if he were the firing squad commander. Very suspicious.
I am also kind of puzzled by his selection of location. If I were to kill myself I might do it in nature like that, instead of an office building, but a 30-meter cliff? That's just high enough to break a few bones. And he WASN'T dead until the first response and medical services of Korea, (whose ineptitude I have written about before), got ahold of him. They say it nicely in the article but what they did was they took him to the wrong hospital then had to transfer him again. Par for the course. And brain massage? That might be a genuine medical procedure but it conjures up images of Koreans pounding themselves or each other in injured areas. I wonder what "brain massage" entailed.
They found suicide notes but please, anyone can type a suicide note on someone's computer. I'm thinking of the situation he was in. Here is a president who two of my friends have told me, (spookily enough within the last month!), was one of Korea's best. From what I've heard he actually DID do some things to fight corruption in Korea. That alone would be a very good reason for him to have a security guard with him at all times. And now, (huMONGOUS surprise!), it's been found out that he may have been corrupt himself. Although I don't think a measly 6.4 mil. would even be enough to QUALIFY as corruption here! He'll still be fondly remembered as a relatively squeaky clean politician. To me, a small amount of corruption like that seems more like a hastily manufactured explanation for suicide.
In a country that may be more capitalist than any other, where money is the measure of a man by traditional and modern social ideals, where you'd be more likely to sight Bigfoot than an honest businessman, (and where more people believe the former exists than the latter), politics is gonna be a cesspool of deceit. What if there really WAS a guy who was honest? An uncorruptable politician who made it to the presidency and made it harder for dishonest, not-so-hard-working guys to steal a buck. Or a won. What would you do with a guy like that. You'd try realy hard to pass the money disease on to him of course. But if that failed, you'd make him look like he was corrupt. Just so nobody else thinks there can be such a thing as an honest politician in Korea and no future Roh Moo Hyun admirers will rise up to disrupt the well oiled capitalist corruption machine that is the Korean economy. And then just so he can't defend himself against the corruption charges, (or reveal anything that might reveal real corruption on YOUR part), you'd rub him out. Really, in a place like this how hard would it be to corrupt, say, a body guard or an ambulance driver or a doctor?
Maybe I've been watching too much CSI but I have a feeling there's more to this than meets the public eye. I said earlier that we may not have heard the last of this but on second thought even if this IS all an elaborate assassination of a former president, I doubt anyone will ever know. Intriguing though. It may not be the Kennedy assassination but I bet they'll make a movie soon.
At any rate, I may be the last guy in the country to hear about it. One of the reasons is that for the second time in two years my damn TV blew up! How can that happen to one guy so often? This time it wasn't as smoky an explosion but it set off a kind of alarm and it wouldn't stop beeping until I unplugged the TV. That is not easily done since in any room here you are VERY lucky to have more than one electrical outlet so behind every stick of furniture and appliances are tangles of dusty, disgusting extension chords. I had to go through all that to find the TV plug, which eventually required me to move the TV, a big cabinet full of stuff, a table and the fridge. By the time I'd done all that a fuse had blown and everything on one side of my room was powerless including my fridge, cable TV box, Wii, computer, toaster, and microwave.
The top plug in the outlet was the only one with anything in it. And it had a series of extension chords that lead to all the things listed above. It was burnt out. I couldn't get any power from it. So just for kicks I tried plugging into the BOTTOM plug. It worked. I tell you, OINK!
So now I have a big TV on the floor in my room. I have no idea how to throw it away and I have a feeling I might have to pay for it if I do. I doubt I'll be able to fenagle a new one out of the college. At least not till re-contracting time. AND I can't watch Kia Tiger games any more. Although I may just become a Lotte Giant fan if things continue the way they're going with the Tigers.
I went to the game on Friday with a Kasia, Maria and another couple of friends. The game on Thursday was yet another frustrating effort for the Tigers. Or for the Tigers coaches to be exact. It was 10-10 in the 6th inning. It was 10-6 but my fave player Son Young Min gave up 2 runs then a couple other pitchers gave up two more all in the L.G. Twins half of the 6th inning. In the bottom of the 6th Kia's lead-off hitter got on. So OF COURSE, IN A 10-10 ballgame! In the 6th inning!!! Sacrifice bunt. God I hate that pussy baseball. And I'm positive the Kia players do too. Then the next Kia batter walked. The next guy got a hit, the next guy got a hit and Kia had three runs before the next two guys got out. There was a shot of Tiger coach Jo Beom Hyun in the dugout clapping about it like he had been the cause of it. The fact if he hadn't sacrificed they'd still have two guys on base with two out. But he'll never understand that.
So it's 13-10 and Yoon Seok Min comes out for the 9th. He's the best pitcher in Korean baseball being wasted as the closer for Kia. He proceeds to allow two runners on. Then the LG coach applies some Jo baseball and tries to bunt the two runners over. HELLO? You're down by 3 runs!!! Best pitcher in the league? So the bunt goes right to Yoon, the pitcher who fields it with loads of time to throw to third and get the lead runner, a double play or even a TRIPLE play. He double clutches then throws the ball two feet out of the reach of the third baseman. This is a pitcher who makes his living throwing the ball with pinpoint accuracy. I think he might have done it on purpose. Again I was kind of glad because I don't want Yoon Seok Min to do TOO well as the closer because then it would make a collossally stupid coaching move look good. Maybe that's Yoon's thinking too and I support it if it is. Again it's a conspiracy theory of mine and I don't think we will ever know.
BUT perhaps as punishment??? the next night, (when we went), there were only three regular starters on the field for the Tigers and the pitcher was a guy, (Lee Dae Jin), who hasn't been in the starting rotation since the opening week of the season and I don't think he'd pitched since then. Now okay, maybe Jo was resting guys because the Thursday game went into extra innings and it took 6 hours before the final 13-13, which is a loss for both clubs. One of the few things I hate about Korean baseball. But I don't know because the next night, the game I couldn't watch because my TV blew up, Jo throws out three guys who are even WORSE! The starter hasn't pitched all year. He went 2 innings with a 27 ERA. One of the guys who relieved him was a guy who Jo threw out there the previous week who got shelled for 3 runs in 1 1/3 for a 20 ERA and yesterday he pitched for a 15 ERA. Getting better!
Now I'm all for giving the new guys a chance but the way the Tigers are hitting these days they could field half decent pitchers and get wins. Jo isn't even doing that. He's managing to mess up the best thing his team has going for it: starting pitching. But the Tigers continue to win despite him. I just hate seeing a good team being managed into mediocrity. Still think Jo must go. Maybe today he'll choose one of the back-up catchers to pitch. I'll have to go to the game to find out...
Here's Kasia and Maria with Soju Man.
Here they are looking pretty bored, (cuz they WERE), in the 6th inning after Kia fell behind 7-2 and Jo kept the best players on the bench. They decided to leave and I don't know if I was mad or bored but I left with them. The final was 8-3. I've never left a game early until that one. I think I'll go today but I might leave early if this coaching nonsense continues.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Playing Games
One of my recent comments on facebook was how one of my classes gave me some really nice teachers day gifts and threw me a party. I said something like "sometimes this job is pretty good." That class wanted to play a game that day and I had a boring lesson prepared for them. We didn't do the lesson but we didn't really play a game either. Just chatted. Most of us chatting in Korean. They are my best class in every way. So I decided to make a game especially for them. Because there are fifty of them it was gonna be a real challenge to play a game. I've done little game-like exercises with them before and they have turned out okay. But to play an actual game that involves listening to instructions and following them - I don't know what possessed me to be so optimistic!
The construction of the game was a(n?) Herculean task! First I had to think of a game that related to what we were doing in class. I thought of the game Whozit that my family played when I was young. We had just finished talking about jobs in class and were concentrating on present tense questions. PERFECT! So I surfed the net for hours and hours choosing just the right pictures of people of varying race, age, and gender doing interesting jobs. Then I had to make the pictures the right size to not only fit on a game board but onto little cards too. Then I had to print out five copies of the board pics, (24 jobs in all so that's 120), and 120 job cards. I had to take them to the print shop down the street because my printer ran out of ink as I was doing it. There I also bought 5 boards, some lamination paper to stick on the boards and I got them to laminate all the cards. Four cards to a page so that's 30 pages of lamination. Plus I copied out some homework for this week. It all cost me about $30.00. I took everything home and measured, cut and pasted for a few hours and had a fairly decent board figured out. Then I tried to laminate the board and THIS
was the result. See all the wrinkles? But I thought I'd still be able to use it. So I started cutting out the cards. In order to try to make the cards cheat-proof, (cuz I play games A LOT and have never played one without somebody trying to cheat), I double up the paper. I put a piece of paper behind the paper with the pics on it. Not ingenius I know. So of course they separated when I cut them out. And because the lamination plastic is heated it shrinks causing the paper to bend. So the result is two bent pieces of paper. Here's a pic of the sheet of four and a pic of the curly cards you get when you cut them out.
So I figured I'd just RE-laminate them with the self-lamination paper I had bought. That sounds a lot easier than it is. This was the horrifying and demoralizing result:
SOooo, I chucked the whole works against the wall, cracked open a beer and sat down in front of the computer. I complained about the whole process on facebook and one of my friends, Sharon, was also online. She was very supportive. After cooling down a bit I decided I'm not the kind of guy to give up that easily. I'm too stupid. So I went down to the stationary store AGAIN and had the whole works of cards, (for the four remaining games), laminated AGAIN. It worked! So I came home and after a couple hours of cutting and pasting I had a better board design with all the questions they could ask incorporated into the board. Then it was time to laminate again. This time I did it on the floor instead of my bed. Aside from the few hairs it picked up it was a success! This is what the new board looked like:
Not too shabby! And the cards are okay too. So it was time to test it out. I had a class on Monday that was almost ready for the game. So I brought it and with three students played it. It was a huge success! They had no problem understanding what to do because I was playing with them and they just learned as we went along. I didn't TELL them, I SHOWED them.
Then I went home and it took me all night but I made the rest of the boards for my good class on Tuesday. My big class. The ones who were nice enough to throw me a teachers day party. This morning, (Tuesday), I went in with 4 games all ready to give them the game they wanted. I explained in English and the looks got blanker and blanker and I got sweatier and sweatier. You have to understand with a class of 50 you can't sit down and play with everyone. I had to try to explain. I wished I could SHOW them but I had to try to TELL them. The game is fairly simple. Every person gets a card. That is their character. Written on the card is every possible answer to every possible question and all possible questions are written on the gameboard. Each person asks one question to one person at a time. They take notes on the answers. After many questions if they think they know the identities of every other player they guess. You can only guess on your turn and if you don't guess all other players correctly, it's the next player's turn. When someone guesses everybody correctly they win.
When you try to explain something you are fighting all kinds of inherent problems in the Korean student.
First of all their listening skills, no matter WHAT the language, are abysmal. For English, even worse.
Secondly there are always a couple of "translators" in the class. They think they are helping but what they are doing is discouraging learning. 48 people tune out while the English explanation is giving them a chance to improve their listening skills and 2 people listen and try to translate as I'm explaining. Usually they translate wrong or the others HEAR wrong. What they don't realize is if they ALL listen to the explanation in English maybe NObody will understand it all but if they work together and combine what they each understood, they'll get the gist.
Thirdly for most Korean students, the gist is nowhere near enough for them to have the confidence to start playing. They feel, (wrongly), that they need to understand every nuance, every facet, every jot and tittle of the game before they can begin to play it.
Fourthly, while I am explaining there are always a lot of people talking, in Korean, thinking that they'll just get someone else to explain it to them in Korean.
Fifthly, Koreans ALWAYS want to learn English through Korean. They're trained that way. So there are going to be things that don't really translate well.
Sixthly, when they know it's a game they get eager to play and they don't finish listening. They assume they know what I'm gonna say, even the translators, and they start playing the wrong way.
For example, the first group I went to was all asking questions to one person. Then they were all guessing willy nilly trying to get the one person's identity. Then when someone got it right they asked questions to the next person. So I had to demonstrate. Another group was just sitting there. Some were talking on their phones some were sleeping so I went to them. I told the first person to ask a question. He said he couldn't cuz he didn't know how to play the game. "Just do it!" I said about 5 times. Finally he picks up the board and studies it for 10 minutes and says, "Are you a man?" All the other players say, "Yes, no, no, yes, no." I'm thinking, "WHAT THE F?" "NO," I exclaim, "One person, one question." Then the next person asks the same person a question. Then the next person then the next. All to the same person. Another group calls me over and says they don't understand. So I go over. One of them is looking through the cards that haven't been dealt out. SIGH! I take all the cards and deal out new ones. "Okay, now ask any question," I say. She looks at her card. She's the ballerina, "Are you the ballerina?" she asks. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!
Every group was having every problem you could think of. And some you can't. We spent about 80 minutes struggling with the game and not one of the four groups figured it out. It took 2 minutes for me to explain and start doing it in my Monday class. This is why we shouldn't EVER have classes of 50. It's counterproductive to any kind of education. It's okay for training but not education.
The thing is, in the game when a person guesses everybody is supposed to put a piece of paper with "YES" or "NO" written on it into a container so that the person who guesses is the only one who knows how many were right or wrong. But he/she doesn't know who. I DIDN'T EVEN DO THAT PART. I just let them give answers verbally because they were all having such a hard time figuring out the easy part of the game.
Try to explain this to my boss. All I can say is I can't do some things with such a big class. He just thinks I'm being lazy cuz I don't want to mark that many exams or correct that many homework assignments.
Anyway, some days my job IS pretty good. But then again some days it ISN'T!
*In case you don't know you can click on any picture to get the full sized image. For some of these you need to.
The construction of the game was a(n?) Herculean task! First I had to think of a game that related to what we were doing in class. I thought of the game Whozit that my family played when I was young. We had just finished talking about jobs in class and were concentrating on present tense questions. PERFECT! So I surfed the net for hours and hours choosing just the right pictures of people of varying race, age, and gender doing interesting jobs. Then I had to make the pictures the right size to not only fit on a game board but onto little cards too. Then I had to print out five copies of the board pics, (24 jobs in all so that's 120), and 120 job cards. I had to take them to the print shop down the street because my printer ran out of ink as I was doing it. There I also bought 5 boards, some lamination paper to stick on the boards and I got them to laminate all the cards. Four cards to a page so that's 30 pages of lamination. Plus I copied out some homework for this week. It all cost me about $30.00. I took everything home and measured, cut and pasted for a few hours and had a fairly decent board figured out. Then I tried to laminate the board and THIS
was the result. See all the wrinkles? But I thought I'd still be able to use it. So I started cutting out the cards. In order to try to make the cards cheat-proof, (cuz I play games A LOT and have never played one without somebody trying to cheat), I double up the paper. I put a piece of paper behind the paper with the pics on it. Not ingenius I know. So of course they separated when I cut them out. And because the lamination plastic is heated it shrinks causing the paper to bend. So the result is two bent pieces of paper. Here's a pic of the sheet of four and a pic of the curly cards you get when you cut them out.
So I figured I'd just RE-laminate them with the self-lamination paper I had bought. That sounds a lot easier than it is. This was the horrifying and demoralizing result:
SOooo, I chucked the whole works against the wall, cracked open a beer and sat down in front of the computer. I complained about the whole process on facebook and one of my friends, Sharon, was also online. She was very supportive. After cooling down a bit I decided I'm not the kind of guy to give up that easily. I'm too stupid. So I went down to the stationary store AGAIN and had the whole works of cards, (for the four remaining games), laminated AGAIN. It worked! So I came home and after a couple hours of cutting and pasting I had a better board design with all the questions they could ask incorporated into the board. Then it was time to laminate again. This time I did it on the floor instead of my bed. Aside from the few hairs it picked up it was a success! This is what the new board looked like:
Not too shabby! And the cards are okay too. So it was time to test it out. I had a class on Monday that was almost ready for the game. So I brought it and with three students played it. It was a huge success! They had no problem understanding what to do because I was playing with them and they just learned as we went along. I didn't TELL them, I SHOWED them.
Then I went home and it took me all night but I made the rest of the boards for my good class on Tuesday. My big class. The ones who were nice enough to throw me a teachers day party. This morning, (Tuesday), I went in with 4 games all ready to give them the game they wanted. I explained in English and the looks got blanker and blanker and I got sweatier and sweatier. You have to understand with a class of 50 you can't sit down and play with everyone. I had to try to explain. I wished I could SHOW them but I had to try to TELL them. The game is fairly simple. Every person gets a card. That is their character. Written on the card is every possible answer to every possible question and all possible questions are written on the gameboard. Each person asks one question to one person at a time. They take notes on the answers. After many questions if they think they know the identities of every other player they guess. You can only guess on your turn and if you don't guess all other players correctly, it's the next player's turn. When someone guesses everybody correctly they win.
When you try to explain something you are fighting all kinds of inherent problems in the Korean student.
First of all their listening skills, no matter WHAT the language, are abysmal. For English, even worse.
Secondly there are always a couple of "translators" in the class. They think they are helping but what they are doing is discouraging learning. 48 people tune out while the English explanation is giving them a chance to improve their listening skills and 2 people listen and try to translate as I'm explaining. Usually they translate wrong or the others HEAR wrong. What they don't realize is if they ALL listen to the explanation in English maybe NObody will understand it all but if they work together and combine what they each understood, they'll get the gist.
Thirdly for most Korean students, the gist is nowhere near enough for them to have the confidence to start playing. They feel, (wrongly), that they need to understand every nuance, every facet, every jot and tittle of the game before they can begin to play it.
Fourthly, while I am explaining there are always a lot of people talking, in Korean, thinking that they'll just get someone else to explain it to them in Korean.
Fifthly, Koreans ALWAYS want to learn English through Korean. They're trained that way. So there are going to be things that don't really translate well.
Sixthly, when they know it's a game they get eager to play and they don't finish listening. They assume they know what I'm gonna say, even the translators, and they start playing the wrong way.
For example, the first group I went to was all asking questions to one person. Then they were all guessing willy nilly trying to get the one person's identity. Then when someone got it right they asked questions to the next person. So I had to demonstrate. Another group was just sitting there. Some were talking on their phones some were sleeping so I went to them. I told the first person to ask a question. He said he couldn't cuz he didn't know how to play the game. "Just do it!" I said about 5 times. Finally he picks up the board and studies it for 10 minutes and says, "Are you a man?" All the other players say, "Yes, no, no, yes, no." I'm thinking, "WHAT THE F?" "NO," I exclaim, "One person, one question." Then the next person asks the same person a question. Then the next person then the next. All to the same person. Another group calls me over and says they don't understand. So I go over. One of them is looking through the cards that haven't been dealt out. SIGH! I take all the cards and deal out new ones. "Okay, now ask any question," I say. She looks at her card. She's the ballerina, "Are you the ballerina?" she asks. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!!!
Every group was having every problem you could think of. And some you can't. We spent about 80 minutes struggling with the game and not one of the four groups figured it out. It took 2 minutes for me to explain and start doing it in my Monday class. This is why we shouldn't EVER have classes of 50. It's counterproductive to any kind of education. It's okay for training but not education.
The thing is, in the game when a person guesses everybody is supposed to put a piece of paper with "YES" or "NO" written on it into a container so that the person who guesses is the only one who knows how many were right or wrong. But he/she doesn't know who. I DIDN'T EVEN DO THAT PART. I just let them give answers verbally because they were all having such a hard time figuring out the easy part of the game.
Try to explain this to my boss. All I can say is I can't do some things with such a big class. He just thinks I'm being lazy cuz I don't want to mark that many exams or correct that many homework assignments.
Anyway, some days my job IS pretty good. But then again some days it ISN'T!
*In case you don't know you can click on any picture to get the full sized image. For some of these you need to.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Hiking on Cinquo De Mayo
Okay the title might be a bit misleading. I DID go hiking but that wasn't the plan and this won't JUST be a post about that. It's ANOTHER Kia Tigers post too. Aww come on! If you were following the Tigers you might be having as much fun as I am too! I will essplain...
I only work Monday of this week because it's sports week here at Seokang University so I had planned to go to Seoul to watch my first Kia Tigers road game of the year. I called up the guy I was gonna go with but he didn't answer his phone. So instead I went hiking at Moodeung Mountain with David, Angie and Rebecca. It was a good day. I managed to get home at exactly 6:30 to watch the game on TV. I knew it was coming on a channel that I get. Unfortunately I forgot it was Children's Day here in Korea. So the game took place at 1:00 in the afternoon. There is no way I would have made it to Seoul by 1:00 to watch it live so I'm glad I didn't try to go. Also I had fun at the mountain. BUT, I sure would have loved to be at the game!!! There is ALL kinds of drama happening with the Tigers! "Bronx is Burning" ppppbbbtthhhhbbbbtttt! I got a REAL baseball drama here and now!
First the good news, two players I haven't seen in ages played today, both of whom I really like: Hong Sae Weon (a good hitter) and Lee Beom Seok the pitcher I figure was Kia's second best last year. He was starting today. He starts the game and he's not doing too bad but not too great either. In the 4th inning after getting two out he loads the bases with a few very close walks. So what do you do if you're the Kia coach? I leave a warmed up Lee in the game every time before I take any member of the Kia bullpen and put him in the game cold. But you be the coach. You REALLY REALLY NEEEEED one out. Who do you bring in? If you read my last entry you will know the obvious thing to do. KIM YOUNG SOO! With all of Jo Beom Hyun's games he's been playing with Kim Young Soo all we really know about him is he is AWESOME at getting one guy out! Who do you bring in if you are not a baseball guy and have a man crush on a really really bad pitcher? Son Young Min. Of course that's Kia Tiger coach Jo Beom Hyun I'm taking about and of course he calls for his beloved Son Young Min. Son faces 4 guys gives up two hits and a walk. ALL THREE of Lee's runners score blowing his E.R.A. way up and before Son's runners score he's taken out with his E.R.A. still at zero after giving up three runs. Then the next pitcher gets the outs Son couldn't, (because he's a team guy), and KEEPS Son's E.R.A. at zero. This is what Jo has done for Son for the past few years so as to make a bad pitcher seem like he's good by artificially raising his stats at the expense of the team.
But the Kia bats are hot. With the aid of two-run homers from Na Ji Wan and Hong Sae Weon they go into the 8th with a 6-5 lead. Here's where the drama begins! Out to the mound comes Yoon Seok Min, the greatest pitcher in Korean baseball who is being wasted on this team as it's closer. In the 8th Yoon is Yoon. He strikes out the side. Three batters, three strikeouts. Bam, Bam, Bam!
Then in the ninth inning a strange thing happens. Here is what I mean when I say I'm seeing signs of frustrated players. I saw Na Ji Wan bunt straight to the pitcher (ON PURPOSE) to get the double play because Jo stupidly told him to bunt in the 5th inning of a 4-3 game. I've seen other guys fake like they are trying to bunt when he stupidly makes these calls too. And today I think I saw Yoon Seok Min throwing beach balls in the 9th to make a statement. He had to do it after pitching like the champ he is in the 8th to make the statement clear. I think he was successful.
Kia lost 7-6 but I am very happy. I think the statement is to teams around the league and to Kia management, there needs to be a trade: Jo Beom Hyun and his pet Son Young Min for a jock strap and a box of baseballs. Any takers?
Anyway, I didn't go to that game or watch it on TV but I caught the highlights of it and I was doing the hand wash gesture and saying, "HOO HOO HAAA HAAAAAH!" as I watched. Jo's days have GOT to be numbered now! I kinda hope the team just keeps on losing like this. With the pitching staff they have 6 runs is MORE than enough for them to win when they are playing for a coach who the players like and who knows what he's doing. Sooner or later management will realize what's going on. Although it has been my experience in Korea that they'll get rid of a lot of players, (teachers), who aren't the problem before getting rid of the coach, (supervisor), who is. We shall see. You can be sure I'll keep you posted.
As for the hike, we went to a part of the mountain I'd never been to before. We were gonna go to a temple I forget the name Jeo Bool Sa or something like that by way of the temple named Yak Sa Sa. A nice hike on the southern side of Moodeung Mountain along a cool stream. We stopped at a picnic area and had some kimbap, hotdogs, fruit, veggies and Rice Tard! Ha ha ha ha. I'm not kidding. And we played a little catch with the mini football, which must have been tasty because I think Rebecca liked it the best. There were a LOT of stairs! And it was a really nice day so a good sweat was enjoyed by all. We ran out of bottled water but I was drinking the water we got from a tap at Yak Sa Sa. I put 500 weon into the charity box there so Buddha will protect me from any parasites. I hope.
Bus 51 comes right back to the intersection down the road from where I work. VERY convenient! I just might do that little hike again sometime.
The best thing about the hike was that there were absolutely NO mosquitoes! I'm sure they are soon to come but it sure makes for better hiking!
It was a bit windy at the biginning of the hike. This Charlie Brown umbrella was intact when we started out. Oh well. Who has fun without breaking something?
I hope my next post includes a link to an article about Kia's coach being shitcanned. Fingers crossed!
I only work Monday of this week because it's sports week here at Seokang University so I had planned to go to Seoul to watch my first Kia Tigers road game of the year. I called up the guy I was gonna go with but he didn't answer his phone. So instead I went hiking at Moodeung Mountain with David, Angie and Rebecca. It was a good day. I managed to get home at exactly 6:30 to watch the game on TV. I knew it was coming on a channel that I get. Unfortunately I forgot it was Children's Day here in Korea. So the game took place at 1:00 in the afternoon. There is no way I would have made it to Seoul by 1:00 to watch it live so I'm glad I didn't try to go. Also I had fun at the mountain. BUT, I sure would have loved to be at the game!!! There is ALL kinds of drama happening with the Tigers! "Bronx is Burning" ppppbbbtthhhhbbbbtttt! I got a REAL baseball drama here and now!
First the good news, two players I haven't seen in ages played today, both of whom I really like: Hong Sae Weon (a good hitter) and Lee Beom Seok the pitcher I figure was Kia's second best last year. He was starting today. He starts the game and he's not doing too bad but not too great either. In the 4th inning after getting two out he loads the bases with a few very close walks. So what do you do if you're the Kia coach? I leave a warmed up Lee in the game every time before I take any member of the Kia bullpen and put him in the game cold. But you be the coach. You REALLY REALLY NEEEEED one out. Who do you bring in? If you read my last entry you will know the obvious thing to do. KIM YOUNG SOO! With all of Jo Beom Hyun's games he's been playing with Kim Young Soo all we really know about him is he is AWESOME at getting one guy out! Who do you bring in if you are not a baseball guy and have a man crush on a really really bad pitcher? Son Young Min. Of course that's Kia Tiger coach Jo Beom Hyun I'm taking about and of course he calls for his beloved Son Young Min. Son faces 4 guys gives up two hits and a walk. ALL THREE of Lee's runners score blowing his E.R.A. way up and before Son's runners score he's taken out with his E.R.A. still at zero after giving up three runs. Then the next pitcher gets the outs Son couldn't, (because he's a team guy), and KEEPS Son's E.R.A. at zero. This is what Jo has done for Son for the past few years so as to make a bad pitcher seem like he's good by artificially raising his stats at the expense of the team.
But the Kia bats are hot. With the aid of two-run homers from Na Ji Wan and Hong Sae Weon they go into the 8th with a 6-5 lead. Here's where the drama begins! Out to the mound comes Yoon Seok Min, the greatest pitcher in Korean baseball who is being wasted on this team as it's closer. In the 8th Yoon is Yoon. He strikes out the side. Three batters, three strikeouts. Bam, Bam, Bam!
Then in the ninth inning a strange thing happens. Here is what I mean when I say I'm seeing signs of frustrated players. I saw Na Ji Wan bunt straight to the pitcher (ON PURPOSE) to get the double play because Jo stupidly told him to bunt in the 5th inning of a 4-3 game. I've seen other guys fake like they are trying to bunt when he stupidly makes these calls too. And today I think I saw Yoon Seok Min throwing beach balls in the 9th to make a statement. He had to do it after pitching like the champ he is in the 8th to make the statement clear. I think he was successful.
Kia lost 7-6 but I am very happy. I think the statement is to teams around the league and to Kia management, there needs to be a trade: Jo Beom Hyun and his pet Son Young Min for a jock strap and a box of baseballs. Any takers?
Anyway, I didn't go to that game or watch it on TV but I caught the highlights of it and I was doing the hand wash gesture and saying, "HOO HOO HAAA HAAAAAH!" as I watched. Jo's days have GOT to be numbered now! I kinda hope the team just keeps on losing like this. With the pitching staff they have 6 runs is MORE than enough for them to win when they are playing for a coach who the players like and who knows what he's doing. Sooner or later management will realize what's going on. Although it has been my experience in Korea that they'll get rid of a lot of players, (teachers), who aren't the problem before getting rid of the coach, (supervisor), who is. We shall see. You can be sure I'll keep you posted.
As for the hike, we went to a part of the mountain I'd never been to before. We were gonna go to a temple I forget the name Jeo Bool Sa or something like that by way of the temple named Yak Sa Sa. A nice hike on the southern side of Moodeung Mountain along a cool stream. We stopped at a picnic area and had some kimbap, hotdogs, fruit, veggies and Rice Tard! Ha ha ha ha. I'm not kidding. And we played a little catch with the mini football, which must have been tasty because I think Rebecca liked it the best. There were a LOT of stairs! And it was a really nice day so a good sweat was enjoyed by all. We ran out of bottled water but I was drinking the water we got from a tap at Yak Sa Sa. I put 500 weon into the charity box there so Buddha will protect me from any parasites. I hope.
Bus 51 comes right back to the intersection down the road from where I work. VERY convenient! I just might do that little hike again sometime.
The best thing about the hike was that there were absolutely NO mosquitoes! I'm sure they are soon to come but it sure makes for better hiking!
It was a bit windy at the biginning of the hike. This Charlie Brown umbrella was intact when we started out. Oh well. Who has fun without breaking something?
I hope my next post includes a link to an article about Kia's coach being shitcanned. Fingers crossed!
Friday, May 01, 2009
Jo Dont Know. Jo MUST GO!!!
Another Kia Tigers post. If are somebody who doesn't like baseball, stop reading now. I'm gonna get into some little things that are only interesting to us baseball fans.
Jo Beom Hyun, the coach of the Kia Tigers is not a baseball guy. He has always been a below average coach who makes a lot of questionable little calls. Now he's making some BIG mistakes and it's pretty obvious to me that he's alienating players and fans alike. He's gotta go. Kia still has most of the season left and they could easily recover from a bad start to the season under a new coach that the players like. Why do I think the players don't like him? Many reasons.
First I have to mention the braindead move he just made last week. There is no question that the Tigers' closer situation hasn't been very steady. I've blogged about Han Ki Joo before. He's one of the big salaries I said the Tigers should have dumped at the start of the season. He's young and he throws really hard. He used to throw so hard people couldn't hit him. Now he just throws so hard and so straight that he actually makes it easier for opposing batters to hit homeruns. And they do. I'm just guessing but I think maybe his celebrity has been too hard for him to handle at such an early age. He almost cost Korea the gold medal at the Olympics. He got labelled as a choker after really bad performances vs. the U.S., Taipei and Japan there. And he's continued to blow as many saves as he gets. So aparently Jo decided that rather than stop calling him into the game at all, he'll let Han blow the game in the 7th or 8th innings and replace him with someone else who could be the closer.
So you go down the list of pitchers on the team. Lopez who was a closer for the Toronto Blue Jays and got 14 saves in the majors. He's been used on Kia as a starting pitcher but Kia has a 6-man rotation, another really dumb idea that NEVER works. Yoon Suk Min, Yang Hyun Jong, Guttormson, Seo Jae Eung, Lopez, Kwag Jong Cheol or Lee Dae Jin. Both Kwag and Lee have looked very hittable although Kwag DID get one win, but either would be fine for just one inning. Cut the rotation down to 5 so that your best starting pitchers can pitch more often and use Kwag or Lee as a fireman. Since Han Ki Joo and Son Young Min will blow a lot of close games in the late innings there won't be as many opportunities for a closer to save a game so you don't want to waste a really good pitcher here. Or use Lopez and put Kwag or Lee in the #5 slot.
OR trade Han and get another pitcher who can go one inning without fucking the game up.
Here's a better idea: Kim Young Soo. This has been a guy that Jo has used strictly to make himself look like a coach. He has been brought in repeatedly in the late innings to face one or two batters. His record against those batters has been fantastic and every time he's pulled I am upset. Not just that he's pulled but for all the time wasted bringing out two new pitchers. Can't we just leave him in for THREE batters instead? He's been striking guys out and getting guys out with regularity. A good baseball guy would consider that. Jo is NOT a good baseball guy.
* See if you can figure just what the hell Jo is trying to do with this guy. Here's his record this year so far: Apr. 4- 1 batter 1 strikeout; Apr. 7- 1 batter, 1 walk; Apr. 8- 1 batter, 1 out; Apr. 9- 1 batter, 1 out; Apr. 15- 1 batter, 1 hit (and because Son Young Min followed him and gave up a walk and a hit the run scored and Kim took the loss); Apr. 18- 1 batter, 1 out; Apr. 21- 1 batter, 1 out; Apr. 22- 1 batter, 1 out; Apr. 23- 1 batter- 1 strikeout; Apr. 24- 2 batters, 2 outs, 1 strikeout; Apr. 28- 1 batter, 1 out; Apr. 30- 1 batter, 1 out; May 3- 1 batter, 1 strikeout. So overall he's made 13 appearances, faced 14 batters, got 12 outs, 1 walk, 1 hit, 4 strikouts, and one loss he didn't deserve. You figure that out and it's 4 2/3 innings of one-hit ball with 4 K's. ANOTHER pitcher Jo is wasting. And he's come off the mound more than once shaking his head. You can bet a lot of the players and fans like me who are noticing this are shaking heads too. It's like he's just playing around.
ORRR why not let your starters pitch? Jo is nothing if not predictable. It doesn't matter how well a starter is doing he'll be yanked after 7 innings. He could have a no-hitter going and a pitch count of 80 and Jo will pull him. The only guy who Jo has allowed to stay in the game for 9 innings is Kia's best pitcher, Yoon Suk Min. On April 11th he pitched 9 innings and had a 1-1 tie going till his defence cost him a win. Again!
So what did Jo do? None of the above. In fact one might believe that Jo is TRYING to LOSE when you wonder what the hell he could have possibly been thinking to choose Yoon Suk Min as the new closer. The only thing I can guess is that Jo remembered that shitty games Han pitched in the Olympics. Who came in to get the win for Korea when Han blew a lead vs. the U.S.? Yoon Suk Min. Then in a game vs Japan Yoon Suk Min was brought in as a reliever when Korea was behind 2-0 and pitched a few innings while Korea got 5 runs to make it 5-2. Even though Han Ki Joo came in and gave up a run in THAT game Yoon and Korea ended up winning 5-3. Or maybe he was thinking of the game vs. Chinese Taipei in which Korea was ahead 8-2 when Han Ki Joo came in. He inherited some runners from starting pitcher, Bong, and they all scored. Then Han gave up two of his own next inning. He left after pitching 2.1 innings and changing an 8-2 game to an 8-8 game. Luckily for Han Korea scored after he got yanked for Kwon in the 7th. Kwon got two outs then Yoon Suk Min came in to get the last 5 outs and the save. Han Ki Joo got the win. Yoon did some relief pitching in the recent World Baseball Classic too. He got holds vs. Venezuela and Japan. Maybe Jo thinks that Yoon wasn't brought to the Olympics and the W.B.C. as a reliever. Or maybe he's thinking of his first two years with the Tigers when he was used successfully as a reliever and a closer. But, hello? He's evolved into arguably the best Korean STARTING pitcher period! He got 2 wins in the Olympics and had a 2.34 E.R.A. He got two wins in the W.B.C. with an incredible 1.13 E.R.A. and 13 strikeouts in 16 innings. He's a proven starter. The best on the team. The only guy Jo trusts to pitch a complete game. A national hero. Now Jo has busted him back to his rookie days. The absolute WORST choice to be the closer especially on a team that doesn't figure to get many save opportunities. In essence Jo has just wasted the best pitcher on his team. A stupid move that NObody's happy about.
What else does he do to piss off fans and players? He is in love with the bunt and the walk. Hitters are constantly frustrated when they have to waste an at bat hoping for the pitcher to miss the strike zone and staring at pitches they could be bashing for hits. Or when the coach takes the bat out of their hands, (almost always unnecessarily), by telling them to sacrifice bunt. Kia walks more than any other team. It's not so much that the hitters are selective, I think it's because the coach is selective. He tells the hitters to "take" a lot. I could be wrong but I think I see a lot of Kia hitters taking. It really has produced a lot of walks. Kia probably leads the league in that stat. But they just never seem to hit the guys home. I can't remember the last time I saw a Kia Tiger swing at the first pitch. When I was a ball player I LOVED the first pitch because it was usually a strike. Pitchers like to work ahead in the count so they often start batters with a strike. I think a lot of Kia batters are being told to wait until the pitcher throws at least one strike. Again there's no way of knowing for sure but I can recognize signs of frustrated players and I'm seeing them on Kia.
Bunting. Probably once a game Jo calls a bunt when he shouldn't. I think the best example of how he screws things up this way would be April 21st. The score was 4-3 in the 5th inning. NOT a defensive, pitchers duel sort of game. There was no reason to expect the run scoring to stop. But in the 5th Kia's lead off hitter got on and out comes Na Ji Weon sacrifice bunting. The message Jo was sending to Na Ji Weon was that not only did he not believe Na Ji Weon could hit the ball, he didn't think he could hit a sac fly, ground ball, work a walk, or even bunt for a base hit. Just give up a good hitter early in the game. Also there are other things that could happen that result in better situations than you'd get with the bunt like a passed ball, wild pitch, batter hit by pitch, balk, error, walk, stolen base, botched pick-off attempt, or the HIT and RUN: another thing Jo don't know. He's eliminating all of these good things from happening. STUPID! Also he's sending a message to the OTHER hitters that he doesn't expect THEM to score any more runs in the next 5 innings, (2 at bats each at least), so he wants to manufacture one run now. Players know these little things and they DON'T like it when a coach does shit like this. So what happened? Na Ji Weon bunted right to the pitcher who threw to second to start the 1-4-3 double play. Then in the 7th inning with the score 4-3 Na Ji Weon comes up again with the leadoff guy aboard and no outs. A situation in which I might have forgiven Jo for calling the sac bunt but still was happy to see Na swinging away. What happened? 2-run home run, Kia takes the lead 5-4. Han Ki Joo managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in THAT game too and the Tigers lost it but who knows what would have happened if Jo would just stop trying to LOOK like a coach and start letting his players play? A sacrifice bunt is something that should be used in emergencies only. It's WAY overused by Jo.
Another way he tries to tinker and make it APPEAR as though he knows what he's doing when he really doesn't is playing the infield and the outfield shallow and player positioning in general. He doesn't know when or how to do this. The best example would be opening day, which I have already written about in my Kia Tigers Season Opener post. May have cost Yoon a win. And if I'm not mistaken I think Lee Yong Gyu, the team MVP, was playing shallow when he shouldn't have been and had to run back to the wall to get a fly ball and jumped into it thereby breaking his ankle. Who knows how much of a difference HE would have made so far? A couple more things Jo Don't Know: It's a lot easier for fielders to run forward and catch a blooper over the infielder's heads than it is to run backwards and get a blooper over the outfielders' heads. Also the former when missed results in a single, the latter almost always a double or triple. You play the outfield in to guard against a single when a deep ball, even if caught, will score a run. Jo pulls the infield in A LOT aparently on a whim and it has cost the team.
And as mentioned before he NEVER calls the hit and run and this team is built for it. I am pretty sure Jo doesn't even RECOGNIZE the hit and run. Again April 21st against Doosan, probably his worst game, Jo proved this. Guttormson wasn't pitching a gem by any means but there was a situation early on when the Bears had a runner on first and one out and Guttormson induced a perfect double play ball. BUT the guy on first was running and by the time Lee Hyun Gon got the ball and tagged second base the Doosan player was already there - safe. AND Lee Hyun Gon was just thrown off enough by the sliding player that he threw the ball over the head of 6'5 Choi Hee Seop - batter on 2nd advances to 3rd, batter on 1st advances to 2nd. THAT'S what the hit and run can do! Suddenly play stops and the two assistant pitching coaches are walking out to the mound to check on Guttormson after he had just made the perfect pitch! It never entered the coaches head that it was just well-timed aggressive base running by the other team that caused all of that. Later in the game aggressive baserunning got Doosan the win. Other teams kill Kia with the hit and run but Jo don't know.
I think Doosan has a great team this year and will likely win it all. Barring any debilitating injuries. But Kia has a good shot at second if they get rid of Jo. I think so anyway. As it is they have really great starting pitching. Probably the best in the league from top to bottom. Early in the year they had Lee Beom Seok closing. That's almost as bad as Yoon closing. Lee was excellent last year. What they did with him I don't know. Probably in his wisdom Jo sent him to the minors. If Jo wasn't so in love with his crappy bull pen Kia would be where they should: in second place. With rookie An Chi Hong doing well and newcomer Kim Sang Hyun's clutch hitting it looks like Jo has made some good moves so his coaching days with Kia might be extended. Also Choi Hee Seop is playing a LOT better than last season. When Lee Yong Gyu comes back Kia will be a stacked team. They are probably going to start winning and making Jo look a whole lot better than he's been. Right now he's coaching the second best team in the league into 5th place. I think Kia will win in spite of and not because of Jo. And probably that'll keep him employed. But I still think they'd do better without him.
Jo Beom Hyun, the coach of the Kia Tigers is not a baseball guy. He has always been a below average coach who makes a lot of questionable little calls. Now he's making some BIG mistakes and it's pretty obvious to me that he's alienating players and fans alike. He's gotta go. Kia still has most of the season left and they could easily recover from a bad start to the season under a new coach that the players like. Why do I think the players don't like him? Many reasons.
First I have to mention the braindead move he just made last week. There is no question that the Tigers' closer situation hasn't been very steady. I've blogged about Han Ki Joo before. He's one of the big salaries I said the Tigers should have dumped at the start of the season. He's young and he throws really hard. He used to throw so hard people couldn't hit him. Now he just throws so hard and so straight that he actually makes it easier for opposing batters to hit homeruns. And they do. I'm just guessing but I think maybe his celebrity has been too hard for him to handle at such an early age. He almost cost Korea the gold medal at the Olympics. He got labelled as a choker after really bad performances vs. the U.S., Taipei and Japan there. And he's continued to blow as many saves as he gets. So aparently Jo decided that rather than stop calling him into the game at all, he'll let Han blow the game in the 7th or 8th innings and replace him with someone else who could be the closer.
So you go down the list of pitchers on the team. Lopez who was a closer for the Toronto Blue Jays and got 14 saves in the majors. He's been used on Kia as a starting pitcher but Kia has a 6-man rotation, another really dumb idea that NEVER works. Yoon Suk Min, Yang Hyun Jong, Guttormson, Seo Jae Eung, Lopez, Kwag Jong Cheol or Lee Dae Jin. Both Kwag and Lee have looked very hittable although Kwag DID get one win, but either would be fine for just one inning. Cut the rotation down to 5 so that your best starting pitchers can pitch more often and use Kwag or Lee as a fireman. Since Han Ki Joo and Son Young Min will blow a lot of close games in the late innings there won't be as many opportunities for a closer to save a game so you don't want to waste a really good pitcher here. Or use Lopez and put Kwag or Lee in the #5 slot.
OR trade Han and get another pitcher who can go one inning without fucking the game up.
Here's a better idea: Kim Young Soo. This has been a guy that Jo has used strictly to make himself look like a coach. He has been brought in repeatedly in the late innings to face one or two batters. His record against those batters has been fantastic and every time he's pulled I am upset. Not just that he's pulled but for all the time wasted bringing out two new pitchers. Can't we just leave him in for THREE batters instead? He's been striking guys out and getting guys out with regularity. A good baseball guy would consider that. Jo is NOT a good baseball guy.
* See if you can figure just what the hell Jo is trying to do with this guy. Here's his record this year so far: Apr. 4- 1 batter 1 strikeout; Apr. 7- 1 batter, 1 walk; Apr. 8- 1 batter, 1 out; Apr. 9- 1 batter, 1 out; Apr. 15- 1 batter, 1 hit (and because Son Young Min followed him and gave up a walk and a hit the run scored and Kim took the loss); Apr. 18- 1 batter, 1 out; Apr. 21- 1 batter, 1 out; Apr. 22- 1 batter, 1 out; Apr. 23- 1 batter- 1 strikeout; Apr. 24- 2 batters, 2 outs, 1 strikeout; Apr. 28- 1 batter, 1 out; Apr. 30- 1 batter, 1 out; May 3- 1 batter, 1 strikeout. So overall he's made 13 appearances, faced 14 batters, got 12 outs, 1 walk, 1 hit, 4 strikouts, and one loss he didn't deserve. You figure that out and it's 4 2/3 innings of one-hit ball with 4 K's. ANOTHER pitcher Jo is wasting. And he's come off the mound more than once shaking his head. You can bet a lot of the players and fans like me who are noticing this are shaking heads too. It's like he's just playing around.
ORRR why not let your starters pitch? Jo is nothing if not predictable. It doesn't matter how well a starter is doing he'll be yanked after 7 innings. He could have a no-hitter going and a pitch count of 80 and Jo will pull him. The only guy who Jo has allowed to stay in the game for 9 innings is Kia's best pitcher, Yoon Suk Min. On April 11th he pitched 9 innings and had a 1-1 tie going till his defence cost him a win. Again!
So what did Jo do? None of the above. In fact one might believe that Jo is TRYING to LOSE when you wonder what the hell he could have possibly been thinking to choose Yoon Suk Min as the new closer. The only thing I can guess is that Jo remembered that shitty games Han pitched in the Olympics. Who came in to get the win for Korea when Han blew a lead vs. the U.S.? Yoon Suk Min. Then in a game vs Japan Yoon Suk Min was brought in as a reliever when Korea was behind 2-0 and pitched a few innings while Korea got 5 runs to make it 5-2. Even though Han Ki Joo came in and gave up a run in THAT game Yoon and Korea ended up winning 5-3. Or maybe he was thinking of the game vs. Chinese Taipei in which Korea was ahead 8-2 when Han Ki Joo came in. He inherited some runners from starting pitcher, Bong, and they all scored. Then Han gave up two of his own next inning. He left after pitching 2.1 innings and changing an 8-2 game to an 8-8 game. Luckily for Han Korea scored after he got yanked for Kwon in the 7th. Kwon got two outs then Yoon Suk Min came in to get the last 5 outs and the save. Han Ki Joo got the win. Yoon did some relief pitching in the recent World Baseball Classic too. He got holds vs. Venezuela and Japan. Maybe Jo thinks that Yoon wasn't brought to the Olympics and the W.B.C. as a reliever. Or maybe he's thinking of his first two years with the Tigers when he was used successfully as a reliever and a closer. But, hello? He's evolved into arguably the best Korean STARTING pitcher period! He got 2 wins in the Olympics and had a 2.34 E.R.A. He got two wins in the W.B.C. with an incredible 1.13 E.R.A. and 13 strikeouts in 16 innings. He's a proven starter. The best on the team. The only guy Jo trusts to pitch a complete game. A national hero. Now Jo has busted him back to his rookie days. The absolute WORST choice to be the closer especially on a team that doesn't figure to get many save opportunities. In essence Jo has just wasted the best pitcher on his team. A stupid move that NObody's happy about.
What else does he do to piss off fans and players? He is in love with the bunt and the walk. Hitters are constantly frustrated when they have to waste an at bat hoping for the pitcher to miss the strike zone and staring at pitches they could be bashing for hits. Or when the coach takes the bat out of their hands, (almost always unnecessarily), by telling them to sacrifice bunt. Kia walks more than any other team. It's not so much that the hitters are selective, I think it's because the coach is selective. He tells the hitters to "take" a lot. I could be wrong but I think I see a lot of Kia hitters taking. It really has produced a lot of walks. Kia probably leads the league in that stat. But they just never seem to hit the guys home. I can't remember the last time I saw a Kia Tiger swing at the first pitch. When I was a ball player I LOVED the first pitch because it was usually a strike. Pitchers like to work ahead in the count so they often start batters with a strike. I think a lot of Kia batters are being told to wait until the pitcher throws at least one strike. Again there's no way of knowing for sure but I can recognize signs of frustrated players and I'm seeing them on Kia.
Bunting. Probably once a game Jo calls a bunt when he shouldn't. I think the best example of how he screws things up this way would be April 21st. The score was 4-3 in the 5th inning. NOT a defensive, pitchers duel sort of game. There was no reason to expect the run scoring to stop. But in the 5th Kia's lead off hitter got on and out comes Na Ji Weon sacrifice bunting. The message Jo was sending to Na Ji Weon was that not only did he not believe Na Ji Weon could hit the ball, he didn't think he could hit a sac fly, ground ball, work a walk, or even bunt for a base hit. Just give up a good hitter early in the game. Also there are other things that could happen that result in better situations than you'd get with the bunt like a passed ball, wild pitch, batter hit by pitch, balk, error, walk, stolen base, botched pick-off attempt, or the HIT and RUN: another thing Jo don't know. He's eliminating all of these good things from happening. STUPID! Also he's sending a message to the OTHER hitters that he doesn't expect THEM to score any more runs in the next 5 innings, (2 at bats each at least), so he wants to manufacture one run now. Players know these little things and they DON'T like it when a coach does shit like this. So what happened? Na Ji Weon bunted right to the pitcher who threw to second to start the 1-4-3 double play. Then in the 7th inning with the score 4-3 Na Ji Weon comes up again with the leadoff guy aboard and no outs. A situation in which I might have forgiven Jo for calling the sac bunt but still was happy to see Na swinging away. What happened? 2-run home run, Kia takes the lead 5-4. Han Ki Joo managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in THAT game too and the Tigers lost it but who knows what would have happened if Jo would just stop trying to LOOK like a coach and start letting his players play? A sacrifice bunt is something that should be used in emergencies only. It's WAY overused by Jo.
Another way he tries to tinker and make it APPEAR as though he knows what he's doing when he really doesn't is playing the infield and the outfield shallow and player positioning in general. He doesn't know when or how to do this. The best example would be opening day, which I have already written about in my Kia Tigers Season Opener post. May have cost Yoon a win. And if I'm not mistaken I think Lee Yong Gyu, the team MVP, was playing shallow when he shouldn't have been and had to run back to the wall to get a fly ball and jumped into it thereby breaking his ankle. Who knows how much of a difference HE would have made so far? A couple more things Jo Don't Know: It's a lot easier for fielders to run forward and catch a blooper over the infielder's heads than it is to run backwards and get a blooper over the outfielders' heads. Also the former when missed results in a single, the latter almost always a double or triple. You play the outfield in to guard against a single when a deep ball, even if caught, will score a run. Jo pulls the infield in A LOT aparently on a whim and it has cost the team.
And as mentioned before he NEVER calls the hit and run and this team is built for it. I am pretty sure Jo doesn't even RECOGNIZE the hit and run. Again April 21st against Doosan, probably his worst game, Jo proved this. Guttormson wasn't pitching a gem by any means but there was a situation early on when the Bears had a runner on first and one out and Guttormson induced a perfect double play ball. BUT the guy on first was running and by the time Lee Hyun Gon got the ball and tagged second base the Doosan player was already there - safe. AND Lee Hyun Gon was just thrown off enough by the sliding player that he threw the ball over the head of 6'5 Choi Hee Seop - batter on 2nd advances to 3rd, batter on 1st advances to 2nd. THAT'S what the hit and run can do! Suddenly play stops and the two assistant pitching coaches are walking out to the mound to check on Guttormson after he had just made the perfect pitch! It never entered the coaches head that it was just well-timed aggressive base running by the other team that caused all of that. Later in the game aggressive baserunning got Doosan the win. Other teams kill Kia with the hit and run but Jo don't know.
I think Doosan has a great team this year and will likely win it all. Barring any debilitating injuries. But Kia has a good shot at second if they get rid of Jo. I think so anyway. As it is they have really great starting pitching. Probably the best in the league from top to bottom. Early in the year they had Lee Beom Seok closing. That's almost as bad as Yoon closing. Lee was excellent last year. What they did with him I don't know. Probably in his wisdom Jo sent him to the minors. If Jo wasn't so in love with his crappy bull pen Kia would be where they should: in second place. With rookie An Chi Hong doing well and newcomer Kim Sang Hyun's clutch hitting it looks like Jo has made some good moves so his coaching days with Kia might be extended. Also Choi Hee Seop is playing a LOT better than last season. When Lee Yong Gyu comes back Kia will be a stacked team. They are probably going to start winning and making Jo look a whole lot better than he's been. Right now he's coaching the second best team in the league into 5th place. I think Kia will win in spite of and not because of Jo. And probably that'll keep him employed. But I still think they'd do better without him.
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