"If you don't throw enough, you can't control your command"... Legendary pitcher Son Dong-yeol's painful critique in the era of 'walks galore'

*This content was translated by AI.

Career ERA: 1.20, Most Valuable Player (MVP): 3 times, Championships: 6 times.

These are the dazzling career achievements of former national team manager Son Dong-yeol (63). Yet, as he watches the KBO League where walks are being issued recklessly, he has offered some harsh words of criticism.

Son Dong-yeol, the former manager, attended the event as the chairman of the 17th Son Dong-yeol Cup OK National Deaf Baseball Tournament held at Hwaseong Dream Park Baseball Stadium in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, on the 31st. Since 2019, he has been leading a tournament that allows deaf athletes to pursue their dreams under his name.

Having performed at the highest level as a player, requiring no further explanation, he has recently shown interest in the KBO League as well. In particular, he expressed regret over the situation where pitchers are struggling with command and walks are pouring in.

So far this season, 265 games have been played, resulting in 2,072 walks. This averages 7.82 walks per game, the highest figure in the past five years. With the era of 12 million spectators having begun and moving toward even higher numbers, concerns are rising that the excessive number of walks could lead to game delays and a decline in the quality of play.

In an interview with StarNews, Manager Son Dong-yeol urged his juniors to engage in more aggressive competition. "I think it would be better to fight head-on rather than pitching to avoid contact," he said, adding, "It's sad to see so much avoidance pitching these days."

He also conveyed that the only way to master command is to throw more pitches. Manager Son stated, "If a pitcher can throw more than seven out of ten pitches to the desired location, they can be called a true A-class pitcher. However, it seems that pitchers who are currently doing well are only slightly above the halfway mark." He continued, "There are unavoidable aspects because pitchers are reluctant to throw many pitches. Command cannot improve without practice. It would be better if they could improve their command through more practice."

Oh Seung-hwan, who visited the site as a ceremonial first pitcher that day, shared a similar story. Now living an active life after retirement, he revealed on Yoon Seok-min's YouTube channel that he threw many pitches in the past to improve his command. During training periods, he threw over 200 pitches at full power within an hour, gaining many insights. He explained that this training became a turning point where he clearly felt the ability to throw the ball accurately.

Of course, he emphasized that building a body capable of throwing such a large number of pitches must come first, but he also made it clear that the high number of pitches that young pitchers worry about today is not necessarily harmful in all cases.

Son Dong-yeol, the manager, shared a similar story. During his playing days, he frequently moved between starting and relief roles. In 1986, he pitched 262 2/3 innings. He even faced Choi Dong-won, whose career was later made into a movie, and threw 232 pitches in that matchup, enduring an unreasonable schedule without any major injuries or decline in performance until the end of his career.

Manager Son stated, "Whether in Major League Baseball or Japanese professional baseball, you cannot improve your command without throwing a lot of pitches. You must learn to understand through the act of throwing. The feeling of throwing is not constant. Ultimately, you must learn the feeling through practice, and trying to learn it mainly during games is not easy."

In Manager Son's case, he threw 50 or 100 pitches almost every day during his youth, and even after entering the professional league, he did not neglect such training to maintain his feel. In particular, after experiencing a painful failure in his first season in Japan, he said he threw 100 pitches every day to develop a new weapon, even at the relatively advanced age of his mid-30s, to regain his feel.

Manager Son emphasized, "For veterans, maintaining their feel through games is acceptable, but for young players who need to grow further, they should not do that. I think it would be much better if they could throw more by increasing their training volume."

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*This content was translated by AI.