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Japan is in a state of shock after its defeat at the hands of Korean baseball aces in the ongoing World Baseball Classic. The sting of defeat was all the worse coming from a team the Japanese had long considered inferior. On Monday morning, the local press chorused in unison on Ichiro's failure to produce and Lee Seung-yeop's strong performance, some referring to the match as "the Great Tokyo Defeat.¡± Lee's face was on all the TV channels, with big broadcasters including NHK and Fuji TV covering the match in every last detail.
The papers were even more upset, with the Sports Hochi headlining, ¡°Lee Seung-yeop Victory Bomb, S. Korea Three Victories in a Row¡± and commenting that Lee's flurry of outstanding performance may have caused Yoimuri Giants fans some inner conflict since the athlete normally plays for their team during the season.
The Sports Nippon was covered in bold print that read, "Lee Seung-yeop the Pulverizer -- Eighth inning reversal, two homeruns,¡± and also dwelled on his "thoroughly targeted curve ball.¡± On page 2, the paper claimed a part of Korea¡¯s victory for Japan, headlining a piece, ¡°Taking Advantage of Two Years of Experience,¡± in which it also quoted Lee as saying it was a slider that he aimed to capture for the hit. K Sports mingled joy and sorrow, showing Lee, who was rounding second after hitting a two-run home run, which led to Korea¡¯s come-from-behind victory, and pitcher Hirotoshi Ishii standing at the mound. Japan¡¯s top sports newspaper, the Nikkansports, was forced to avert its eyes from the WBC. It ran news that Yanagisawa recorded a hat trick in the J-league on the front page instead.
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A Japanese man reads Monday's sports newspaper covering Japan¡¯s defeat by Korea at the WBC match.
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Most of the sports dailies led with a picture of Japan¡¯s top player, Ichiro Suzuki, in despair. The Sports Hochi titled ¡°Three Hits in 13 at bats, Shame, Ichiro¡± and said the player aims at a return match with Korea in final round. Some papers forecast any such repeat will see Ichiro take the mound as no.3 and left-handed Tsuyoshi Wada or Toshiya Sugiuchi replacing Shunsuke Watanabe as starting pitcher.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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