Chosun: Unsurprising, but still a savage way to go – Korea eliminated by mercy rule, losing 10-0 to Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic quarterfinals
I’m not at all surprised at this result, and it almost felt like the Korean national team not only read about all the hype of the seemingly lopsided matchup between them and the Dominican squad, which is literally all MLB players, but they bought into it, and the perception quickly became the reality as the DR team immediately and pretty much effortlessly put them away in the WBC quarters.
I took my dad to a sports bar where we could watch the game, and in spite of the massive task of taking down DR, I still had hope that we could go back to 2006, where the underestimated Koreans obliterated Team USA, and this squad would like, ambush DR early, and they’d unravel on the way to an embarrassing defeat.
But yeah, that didn’t happen, and despite getting out of the first inning unscathed, things quickly fell apart for Team Korea in the second. Ryu Hyun-Jin facing his old Jays teammate in Vlad Guerrero, Jr. walked him, and then from there it was a death by a thousand cuts as the usually powerful DR squad would collect some ugly singles to get runners on, and then suddenly it was 3-0 DR, with Ryu coming out as quickly as the game started.
After Korea finished their entire lineup to no effect, my dad and I left; neither of us were mad or upset, since it’s not like they lost to the Czech Republic or Australia again, they were getting bodied by the Dominican Edit Team B that was playing like Alysa Liu, completely loose, and a whole bunch of best friends bro-ing it up and having a great time and mashing tanks.
However, it’s the ending that piqued my interest, and made me realize just how brutally savage the mercy rule rules are in the WBC, and how not only did the Dominicans do it to Korea, but this was actually the second time in the tournament that they did it – by hitting a home run that pushed the score into a mercy ending, but because they’re the home team (figuratively, and literally, being in fucking Miami), it effectively becomes a walk-off home run.
Few things in sport is as joyous of an event as the walk-off home run; but traditionally, the spice that enhances them is the fact that they’re usually as a result of being in a tense game, where the score is tied, or even more spicy, when the home team is behind, and they not only wipe away the deficit, they overtake, and the away team has no shot to redeem.
But the WBC Mercy Rule Walk-off Home Run that the Dominican team has now done twice, is especially savage, because the team is basically never at any risk of losing the game, so they don’t have to deal with the anxiety, stress and tension of being in an intense affair, but they still get to celebrate the release of an exciting victory, when they hit the homerun that pushes the score into the mercy rule.
And the losing team, they’re already getting creamed, but then they basically take a second L, when the pitcher literally gives up a game-winning hit to a team that had no risk of losing in the first place, and then they get to watch them yuk it up at home plate in celebration, as if they had clobbered a go-ahead walk off in the ninth.
So yeah, it’s bad enough that Korea was pegged to get destroyed to begin with, but they actually do get destroyed, and on top of that, in spite of getting destroyed, still somehow manage to give up walk-off home run in the process, and suffer the indignity of watching their opponent celebrate like they just won the World Series.
Yep, that’s a tough day at the office.
But at least Korea took it in stride, and even in spite of the demoralizing loss, they held their heads high, took their defeat with grace, integrity and class, and showed the world that Koreans are some pretty good motherfuckers
