[Lee Jong-gil's Movie Reading] 'Baseball Girl' Resembling a Knuckleball That Can Curve Anywhere

Director Choi Yoon-tae and Lead Actress Lee Joo-young in 'Baseball Girl'

"Baseball is something anyone can play. So whether you're a woman or a man, that's neither an advantage nor a disadvantage."

In the film Baseball Girl, Joo Su-in (Lee Joo-young) dreams of playing professional baseball. Her competitiveness is not high. While her ball rotation is excellent, her top speed remains at 134 km/h. Her growth stopped after entering high school. Professional teams all turn her away. Even Coach Park (Kim Jong-soo) of the baseball club and her mother Shin Hae-sook (Yum Hye-ran) urge her to give up. But Joo Su-in pays no mind. She continues practicing, determined to confront the world's prejudices and snap judgments.

Joo Su-in feels two major limits: the barrier of gender exclusion and her stagnant baseball skills. As a breakthrough, she hones the knuckleball. This pitch goes against baseball’s basic principle of speed. It drastically reduces the ball’s rotation, causing irregular movement. The knuckleball’s direction can change with just a slight difference, greatly affecting its force. Even pitchers somewhat familiar with it struggle to maintain consistent control. If the ball doesn’t break, it can be worse than a practice pitch for batters.

Joo Su-in’s stubborn challenge resembles the unpredictable knuckleball. The factor that makes the knuckleball curve is the turbulence caused by contact with the ball’s seams. The asymmetry of the seams creates an imbalance in force, altering the ball’s trajectory. On the seam side, small turbulence arises due to air resistance. Meanwhile, the smooth side allows air to pass smoothly.

Joo Su-in could have lived smoothly like the seamless side. She received an offer from a softball team and got a job through her mother’s introduction. But she turned back to a life with seams. She set the goal of entering professional baseball and works tirelessly toward it.

A rosy future is hard to promise. The knuckleball often results in wild pitches and frequent catcher errors. It also easily allows stolen bases. Few managers can embrace the anxiety stemming from such uncertainty. Naturally, opportunities are rarely given first.

Baseball Girl supports an uncertain future with a fantasy-like storyline. Coach Choi Jin-tae (Lee Joon-hyuk), who has no professional baseball experience, volunteers to be her knuckleball mentor. The knuckleball is not a pitch that can be easily mastered. Phil Niekro, a representative knuckleballer in Major League Baseball, devoted his life to studying it. His successors, Tim Wakefield and R.A. Dickey, were able to take the mound thanks to the dedicated help of knuckleballer predecessors like Niekro.

In reality, Joo Su-ins have all tasted numerous setbacks. Yoshida Eri, who advanced to the Kansai Independent League (a Japanese semi-pro league) relying on the knuckleball, left the mound due to a shoulder injury without leaving much impression. Jane Oh, a Korean-American, was tested as a shortstop by KIA, Samsung, and SK but faced bitter defeats each time. She boasted a top speed of 132 km/h but struggled at bat due to lack of strength and swing speed.

Media outlets mentioned the "barrier of gender exclusion" every time these players challenged themselves. They even offered absurd interpretations that the knuckleball and fastball are thrown with the same posture, fostering a male-female confrontation narrative.

A female professional athlete who became a star under such spotlight is golfer Michelle Wie. With excellent physical attributes (183 cm, 70 kg) and an average driving distance of 300 yards, she competed against male golfers from the age of thirteen. Despite repeated poor results such as missing the cut, she attracted attention simply by participating in men's tournaments.

A woman’s challenge in a male-dominated sports arena is meaningful in itself. For that value to grow, it must become a movement that rejects the order planned and structured by male power. This character was not seen in Michelle Wie’s gender battles. Instead, it led to a strange phenomenon where femininity was commodified. Mainstream men were fascinated by provocative femininity, while mainstream women were captivated by the romance of opposing male power. Michelle Wie, unknowingly forced to emphasize femininity alone, eventually bowed her head with results far below expectations.

Joo Su-in was not ignored by professional teams because she was a woman. It was because her skills were insufficient. There are plenty of stages where she can play baseball even if not in professional baseball. Yet she insists on competing against men until the end. The reason or purpose is unclear. She only shows a tenacious side. Could it be that she is unknowingly being forced into femininity?

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.