‘Shinhan Discord. If you believe in the sweat you shed, you will not be shaken.’
This is the phrase written on the helmet of Chae Eun-seong (33, Hanwha Eagles). Batting has a cycle, and even when it hits well, it is a characteristic of baseball that you have to avoid where the fielder is. Luck always has to follow.
That’s why I don’t have a good time. It is because there is a belief that if hard work follows, luck will follow one day.
Chae Eun-seong started as the 4th hitter and 1st baseman in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League visiting game with the Doosan Bears held at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on the 4th, and made a big success with 2 hits in 3 at bats, 4 RBIs and 2 runs, including a grand home run, leading the team to a 10-3 victory. Towed. With Chae Eun-seong’s one shot, Hanwha ran two consecutive victories.
Although they have been at the bottom for the past three years, expectations for Hanwha have risen this season. This is because the free agent (FA) recruited from outside after 7 years was Chae Eun-seong, and he invested a huge amount of 9 billion won (contract period of 6 years) for him.
It was ‘as expected’. He swung hard at the beginning of the season and scored an RBI, satisfying both club officials and fans.
Even so, Hanwha did not get better easily. All of the pitchers failed to find a solution and struggled at the bottom. The 30% win rate also collapsed. Recently, he fell into a 6-game losing streak. At the same time, Chae Eun-seong also suffered ups and downs.
In the game on the 3rd, the Hanwha batting line blew fire. He ended his losing streak by giving up 8 runs only in the 7th inning with 14 hits. However, Chae Eun-seong was silent with no hits in 4 at-bats. His 10-game batting average was just 0.105.
It was a more difficult period because it worked well from the beginning of the season. Chae Eun-seong said, “It would be nice to hit well every time, but baseball is not such an easy sport, and of course there are times when you fall.” The number of times has decreased. When you have to hit really boldly, you have to swing the bat a lot, but I couldn’t.”
The opportunity came on this day. After Roh Si-hwan’s solo shot in the 4th inning, he shook the Doosan starter Dylan’s file with a heavy hit and stepped on the home run when Kim In-hwan’s consecutive home runs. In the 5th episode, he completely washed away the sadness of his sluggish performance with a powerful blow. With a 3-2 lead, Kim Yu-seong pulled a 146km/h fastball to the body and hit a grand slam that went over the left fence. It was his 5th home run of his personal season and his 7th total base run.
Rather, he swung more boldly. He revealed, “I talked a lot with the hitting coaches, and while preparing, they asked me to hit a little bolder, which seems to have led to good results.”
Juniors have taken Chae Eun-seong as their role model since the spring camp period. Not only batting skills and body management, but even the mindset when things go wrong, they set an example in every way. He said, “After being hit by the bat, there is nothing I can do. So I think I was able to shake off my regrets more quickly.” After that, the situation is to pick up the garbage diligently, do a lot of good things, and buy a lot of food for the younger siblings.”안전놀이터
“My juniors don’t ask me directly, but I tell the players who regret it and keep thinking about it,” he said. He told me not to fall into it too much.”
Park Yong-taek, who was also a senior on the team in the past, called this misfortune ‘saving money’. In the end, when the due date comes, it all comes back. Chae Eun-seong expressed sympathy, saying, “That’s right. The word installment savings seems to be right.”
He scored 18 points in two games from the previous day. Compared to when he was fighting a lonely battle alone, his shoulders were much lighter. “We are preparing very well, but it seems that we were a bit unlucky in the first game (with Doosan). All of the well-hit balls were straight, and if that was missing, we would have been able to explode more easily. I thought it was a good sign.” “The players were very passive, but thanks to the coaches’ advice, they aggressively took the plate. I asked him to boldly use the bat in a comfortable count, but he did that from Tuesday. The advice seems to have helped a lot.”
When asked about the phrase written on his helmet, he said, “I used to think of words like ‘If you work hard, you won’t betray’, but he betrayed you.” I wrote it to remind myself,” he explained.
Of course, it can’t be helped that it still depends on the outcome. Chae Eun-seong said, “I’m shaken because I’m a person. But I still keep thinking about trying to catch up.” I will,” he said, laughing.