&#91EDITORIALS&#93No gentleman’s game

Two baseball games between the LG Twins and the Samsung Lions in Daegu last weekend were tainted by brawls between the two teams. Baseball fans watching the broadcasts at home as well as those who used their weekend to enjoy their favorite sport at the stadium might have been greatly disappointed at the scene. It must have been displeasing for the spectators to see players who should respect rival players, follow rules and show fair play spirit engage in a fist-wielding scuffle.
The Korea Baseball Organization will penalize the players and coaches involved in the fights according to their responsibility for instigating them. But what happened in the stadium was a bitter reminder to us of the tendency in our society for unsolved issues to drift without being resolved ― indeed, the differences are amplified.
The rules are not honored and principles are broken. A beanball prompted the scuffle; the umpire can immediately eject the pitcher or his manager from the game if he believes the beanball was intentional, or just issue a warning.
Although it may have been difficult to judge whether the beanball was intentional, the umpire could have nipped two consecutive games of basebrawl by taking action instead of letting the game proceed.
We want to see clean and fair games. Instead of promoting a sprit of sportsmanship, a win-at-any-cost mentality is dominant in the pro baseball world here. Regardless of whether it was intentional or not, the pitcher should apologize to a hit batsman. Nowadays, gestures of apology by taking off one’s cap and nodding or waving a hand is fast disappearing. The attitude of managers and coaching staff is a problem. They watch their players run amok with their hands folded. Ugly incidents like these could be responsible for the lower number of fans that go to the ballparks since the pro baseball league was started 20 years ago.
Pro baseball fans want to watch games where players observe the rules, even though our society is rampant with high-handedness and power struggles.