“I have come to break the curse (the cruelty of other LG players). I want to break that and renew the contract next year.”

Will the LG Twins’ atrocities by foreigners finally come to an end? It seems that a foreign hitter with extraordinary skills and mindset will wear the LG uniform this season. This is the story of Austin Dean (29), who became the main character of the KBO League season’s first ending hit in just seven games. Austin promised to play an active part this season, saying that he had come to break the curse of “LG’s cruelty to foreign batters.”메이저사이트

LG won 2-1 thanks to Austin’s timely hit at the end of the 9th inning of the 2023 professional baseball KBO League regular season home game against the Samsung Lions held at Jamsil Stadium on the 8th. With this, LG won 2 wins first in the weekend series against Samsung, secured the winning series, and ran 3 consecutive wins. With a record of 5 wins and 2 losses in the season, the win rate exceeded the 70% (0.714) mark.

Austin’s performance was decisive. In the top of the ninth inning with a 1-0 lead, finisher Lee Jeong-yong committed a blown save to tie the game. Austin, who was on the bench that day, was the hero who changed the flow of the game that could have flowed into overtime into a victory.

Austin, who did not start this day due to a slight Achilles tendon pain, took the place of Song Chan-eui, who was runner-up on second out and first base, at bat. And against Samsung finishing pitcher Oh Seung-hwan, Austin hit a 144km fastball driven to the center on the 3rd ball count with a quick swing and hit a 1 RBI double from the right side at the right time.

Austin, who was happy watching the deep batted ball and running the bases, waving his arms, threw down his hat and cheered along with the players who rushed out as the finish runner Min-seong Kim stepped on the groove.

Austin, who we met after the game, said, “I knew that I would be put into the game at some point, so I was constantly preparing.” I believed that And he actually did it. He explained the situation of the ending hit, saying, “I had no choice but to believe in my teammates and ‘let’s just hit and run’.”

Austin hit a walk-off home run with Triple-A last August. He said that although he had many finishing experiences, his first finishing hit as a member of LG in the KBO League was one of the few moments in his career.

Austin said, “I’ve hit it a few times, but the most recent one was a home run last year in the United States, and the one I hit today is probably in the top 5 among all hits.”

Until this day, in the regular season game, except for the opening game, he had a hit in every game, but only one RBI. Was there any pressure for that?

Austin said, “When Oh Ji-hwan was in the entry, he said, ‘I will give you an RBI in place of you. So, at some point, an RBI will come out, so instead of forcibly hitting for my own benefit, I thought I would devote myself to the team.” I tried to help the team as much as possible,” he explained his mindset in the regular season.

Prior to Austin, LG suffered the “cruelty of LG foreign batters” as numerous foreign batters repeatedly failed. He was well aware of this.

“I know a lot about curses,” Austin said. Because so many people told you via DM,” he laughed, “but I came to break the curse, so I will break it. Also, because I like Korean baseball so much, my biggest goal is to play in the KBO league this year and come back next year to renew the contract,” he said, expressing his desire to play for LG for a long time after his performance this season.

Of course, it wasn’t without heartache. The exhibition game batting average was only 0.194, and the ‘eating and running controversy’ broke out again.

Austin also said, “During the demonstration game, I was under a lot of stress because I was under pressure to ‘show myself’. After confessing that he suffered from a mental burden, saying, “I know I am better than this myself, but it wasn’t coming out.” I changed my mind to ‘Let’s make it possible’ and gradually improved.”

Due to this sluggishness, some of LG’s devoted fans criticized Austin by leaving comments on his social media or sending direct messages. When the story of the fans’ interest and support came out, Austin laughed and told an episode.

“Obviously there were messages of support and messages of hate,” Austin said. Among them, I heard harsh remarks such as, ‘Are you a baseball player who can only get 1 hit in 10 at bats?’, but I wonder if they sent such a message because they were interested in me. As a baseball player, I want to be a player who humbly shares good moments with the team.”

He was completely mesmerized by his own cheering song. “I really like it,” Austin said. I like it because it’s something special that can’t be expressed,” he said with a broad smile. I changed my son’s name to ‘Dallas’ and arranged it.”

In fact, he is an Austin who has already fully adapted to ‘Korean culture’. Even after the game on the 8th, Austin greeted the fans in the first base spectator seat at 120 degrees, and after the broadcast interview, Austin shouted “LG Fighting” in a loud voice in an interview with a distinguished player in front of fans, and appeared as if the “Korean patch (?)” was complete. also showed

Although he is a foreign player from the opposing team, he said that while watching the scene where Samsung’s Jose Pirella slammed his body into the fence while defending, Austin also promised something.

“I didn’t know much about Pirella before, but I naturally learned that he is a very passionate and hard-working player while watching him play. Seeing him crashing into the fence recently made me think that even if it wasn’t like getting injured, I would become a player who devotes himself to the team’s victory while passionately devoting himself to the team.”