Hanwha Eagles coach Choi Won-ho (50), who became a ‘victim of misunderstanding’, confessed, “I thought about withdrawing for a moment, but I couldn’t do that when I thought of the fans.”
A day has passed, and the players have softened by blocking the run after the misjudgment came out, but the regret remains.
Head coach Choi Won-ho recalled the defensive situation in the bottom of the 9th inning the previous day ahead of the visiting game against LG Twins, a professional baseball game to be held at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on the 21st.
On the 20th, at the end of the 9th inning against 1-1, Hanwha Battery made a ‘pitch out’ to get the ball out of the batter to block LG’s bunt attempt.
LG Jung Joo-hyun threw a bat to prevent a runner from dying.
However, the bat hit the stomach of Hanwha catcher Choi Jae-hoon, not the ball.
At the end of the 4-sim agreement, the referees declared ‘catcher’s obstruction of the hit’.
“The catcher, who should be in the right position, moved first and received the ball,” was the judge’s judgment at the time.
Accordingly, first base runner Shin Min-jae’s stealing of second base was acknowledged, and Jung Joo-hyun walked to first base thanks to a strike obstruction judgment.
Coach Wonho Choi ran to the referees and protested.
Director Choi said, “I saw Jung Joo-hyun’s hand fall off the bat at dugout. Of course, I thought it was defensive interference. I waited because the referees agreed, and the decision was made to interfere with hitting.” It wasn’t so, so I went to appeal directly to the referee. The referee said, ‘You can’t overturn the decision.'”
He continued, “Even if we protested for a long time, the decision did not change. All we could do was ‘withdraw the team’. We thought, ‘Should we withdraw the team momentarily?’ I came back to dugout again without it.”
Hanwha, who was driven to first and second base safely in the bottom of the 9th inning due to a mistake, got over the crisis with pitcher Park Sang-won handling Kim Min-seong with a double stroke in front of the third baseman. After that, the game was dragged into overtime and tied 1-1.
Manager Choi Won-ho praised the players who were not shaken by the wrong referee, saying, “Park Sang-won overcame the crisis well. Third baseman Roh Si-hwan also handled the difficult bounce well.”
Even before the game was over, the refereeing committee admitted a mistake.메이저놀이터
During the 12th inning of overtime, the KBO referee committee said, “As a result of additional confirmation, it was a situation that should have been judged as defensive interference, not hitting,” and said, “We plan to take follow-up measures such as disciplinary action by the referee.”
KBO Baseball Rule 6.03 stipulates that ‘if the batter hits the catcher (including the mitt) by throwing the bat into fair or foul territory with a third strike pitch or runners present, the batter is out for a foul play’.
Applying this rule, almost all experts believe that Jung Joo-hyun’s actions at the end of the ninth should be judged as ‘defense interference’ rather than ‘hit interference’.
The referee discipline has not been finalized yet, so the referee who started the Hanwha-LG match on the 20th will take charge of the two teams’ match on the 21st.