“It’s to make you understand once again.”
Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) umpires are also holding a spring camp. In Australia and Guam, Arizona in the United States, and Okinawa in Japan, each team is seeking cooperation to adapt to the actual battle.
At the Dededo Sports Complex in Guam, 메이저놀이터American territory, where Lotte is holding spring camp, five referees, including team leader Suwon Choi, are concentrating on improving their blunted senses. When players warm up, they use a pitching machine to practice ball judgment, and when live training begins, pitchers judge the ball thrown by them.
If it leads to the Cheongbaekjeon and the evaluation match, you can also train the baseman. Even in a place where the scorching sun is shining, he is sweating while wearing various protective equipment in a black referee’s suit. Referees often receive attention, so training cannot be neglected to reduce mishaps.
The work of the referees I met at Spring Camp is not just training. They also spend time clarifying any rules that have been changed or that may be misunderstood. Referee Choi Su-won also spent a considerable amount of time explaining the changed rules to the Lotte team.
This year, so-called “sliding gloves” and rosin regulations have changed markedly. To protect the fingers of sliding runners, the sliding glove made in the form of a glove is made larger than the hand. Long gloves are inevitably advantageous to runners due to the nature of baserunning where outs and safes are decided by a short shot. The KBO Rules Committee decided in December of last year that ‘gloves for running are limited to less than 30 cm in length and 13 cm in width’. When you stand at bat, your base glove shouldn’t stick out of your pocket.
The ball rules that fit the body have also changed slightly. If the ball hits the string attached to fix protective equipment such as elbow or shin guards, it will not be recognized as a ball that fits the body. The ends must be trimmed so that the drawstring does not protrude beyond the protector. The ball that fits the body must literally fit the batter’s body to allow ‘free on-base’ to enhance fairness.
he rosin used by pitchers was also adjusted to use only ‘off-the-shelf’ products. It was forbidden to use rosin powder in a separate pocket like in the major leagues. The manufacturer is irrelevant, but it means that we will use it as it is as it came out as a finished product to block cheating that will happen in the future.
Lotte coach Larry Sutton spent time separately from referee Choi to solve questions about home collision prevention. We focused on the range of home blocking that catchers can do. For example, it was at the level of confirming that the catcher, who was standing at the corner of the first base side of the home plate, moved toward the main line due to the direction of the throw and caught the ball because it was unavoidable and was not recognized as obstructing the base run.
The best way to build trust is communication. Spring camp is virtually the only time when players and referees can communicate. Baseball season is fast approaching.
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