Jeju's National Sports Festival Baseball Venue Is Tarnishing Korean Baseball's Image - Is This Acceptable?

Nowhere for even MLB scouts to watch
A deficient scoreboard missing batting orders and defensive positions
Foul balls threaten passersby at the ill-equipped stadium

At the high school baseball tournament of the National Sports Festival, the root of Korean baseball's record-breaking popularity and the country's most prestigious sporting event, which boasts a 107-year history, domestic professional clubs and Major League Baseball (MLB) scouts have not even been provided with the basic seating and space needed to observe players. This has brought international embarrassment, while artificial turf batter's boxes that put players at risk of injury, foul balls flying beyond the field and threatening passersby, and a deficient scoreboard missing even basic information have laid bare the host Jeju Special Self-Governing Province's inadequate preparations for the National Sports Festival.

A batter prepares to hit after stepping into a “slippery artificial-turf batter’s box without dirt,” a surface not used in official games, during a high school baseball game at the National Sports Festival at Gang Chang-hak Baseball Stadium in Seogwipo on the 17th. Photo by Park Changwon.

On October 17, KBO League and MLB scouts visited Gangchanghak Baseball Stadium in Seogwipo, where high school baseball games were being held as part of the 107th National Sports Festival, to assess firsthand the skills of promising high school players who will lead the next generation of Korean baseball.

However, the domestic and international scouts at the venue could not hide their dismay as soon as the game began.

There were no designated seats for scouts to closely observe the players' performance and record data, nor even a proper viewing area.

Given the nature of baseball, scouts need to sit in the center behind home plate, with radar guns, video equipment and score sheets at hand, to analyze pitchers' velocity and pitching quality, as well as batters' hitting mechanics.

But with viewing seats and analysis space in desperately short supply, even overseas scouts were left wandering around the stadium to watch the players.

To make matters worse, the stadium scoreboard provided neither scouts nor spectators with any useful information. It had no display for pitching velocity, nor any space to show either team's full batting order (lineup) or defensive positions. The only fields provided, for the "Current Batter" and "Next Batter," remained blank throughout.

A scout from a professional club lamented, "At the country's most prestigious tournament, which even MLB scouts have come to watch, there isn't a single place to observe the players, and the country's top high school baseball tournament is being held at a stadium fit only for practice games. It's an international embarrassment that tarnishes the standing of Korean baseball."

The scoreboard at Gangchanghak Baseball Stadium in Seogwipo, where a high school baseball game at the 107th National Sports Festival was held on the 17th. It has no space to display the full batting order, defensive positions, or pitching speed. The “Current Batter” and “Next Batter” fields are left blank, and all ball, strike, and out (B/S/O) count lamps are off.

Conditions inside the field were directly threatening the players' safety.

The pitcher's mound was made of dirt, but the batter's boxes, where batters need to swing with explosive rotational force and take off immediately after hitting the ball, were covered with artificial turf instead of dirt.

At a proper high school baseball stadium, batter's boxes must be packed with dirt to prevent players' spikes from slipping.

A coach from one of the participating teams said, "Because the batter's box is covered with artificial turf, players' feet slip when they hit, and they can't stabilize their lower bodies at all. It's difficult for them to perform at their best, and the conditions are extremely dangerous because they could easily suffer a serious injury, such as a twisted ankle or knee."

Safety concerns outside the stadium were even more serious. Safety netting had been installed along the foul lines, but it was far too low, allowing foul balls hit by high school players to sail over it toward a nearby track and field stadium and the road.

An average of five to six balls per game were flying beyond the stadium, repeatedly creating alarming situations that threatened passersby and moving vehicles. The danger was so extreme that it was almost surprising no one had been hurt.

Reporting confirmed that, during a pre-tournament site inspection, the Korea Baseball Softball Association had pointed out all of the risks: the inadequate scoreboard, the artificial turf batter's boxes, and foul balls escaping over the low fences and safety netting. The association had called on Jeju Province to make improvements.

However, during the inspection, Jeju Province officials claimed, "Not once has a foul ball gone beyond the stadium during a game here." With no alternative stadium available, the association ultimately approved the use of the venue.

Jeju Province's desk-bound administration, which failed to consider the difference in hitting distance between recreational players and elite high school players on the verge of being drafted by professional teams, thus created a foreseeable risk.

An association official also expressed frustration over the scoreboard, saying, "We kept requesting improvements during the inspection, so we should be grateful that they managed to install even that scoreboard ahead of this tournament."

This year, Korean professional baseball has drawn a record number of paying spectators and established itself as a national sport. High school baseball, the wellspring of that success, is also attracting the attention of scouts on the world stage.

Yet the baseball venue for the National Sports Festival, the country's most prestigious tournament with a 107-year history, has been left without even basic facilities for spectators and scouts, let alone measures to protect the safety of players and members of the public.

Another baseball figure who visited the venue strongly criticized the organizers, saying, "Forcing games to go ahead amid such poor facilities and inadequate safety measures is such a rushed and incompetent approach that it would be better not to hold the tournament at all. Are they going to shift the blame only after the harm gets worse, with player injuries or passersby being struck by balls?"

Meanwhile, Jeju Province had said it would issue an official response by the end of the day to criticism over the stadium's inadequate facilities and lack of safety measures, but ultimately provided no response.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.