[Current & Culture] The Heart of Baseball Fans Who Send Two Trucks

KT Wiz Fans Still Waiting for 10th Win
Protest and Coffee Trucks Arrive Together
Different Ways of Loving the Team

Professional baseball opens in spring and ends in autumn. This spring, professional baseball has also started in Korea, the United States, and Japan, with teams playing around 30 to 50 games. Among these dozens of teams, there are still two that have not reached 10 wins: the Oakland Athletics in the U.S. and the KT Wiz in Korea. The Athletics have a record of 9 wins and 34 losses in 43 games, while the Wiz have 9 wins, 2 draws, and 22 losses in 33 games. Neither team has managed to surpass a .200 winning percentage. Considering that even the worst teams typically win about 4 out of 10 games on average, and the best teams barely win 6 out of 10, these two teams seem to have some issues.

The hardest people during continuous losing streaks are probably the managers and players, as well as the fans supporting those teams. As a KT Wiz fan myself, I have been sighing more often these days. Why has a team that won its first-ever championship just two years ago fallen into this state? Fans find various reasons: many injuries to key players with few substitutes available, overworking the main players, unnecessary tactics, lack of will to win, and so on.

When losing streaks get long, fans do not stay silent. A typical example is sending trucks to protest. This is a method commonly used by ordinary people these days when making complaints. They attach banners or electronic displays with messages on trucks and park them in front of the company. Since it clearly conveys the protest without much human effort, it seems to be widely used. While I do not know how Oakland fans have reacted, KT Wiz fans took action. They sent a truck with a message urging the team to get their act together because the team is falling apart for various reasons. It must have cost a considerable amount, but seeing fans spend their own money to do this makes one wonder what baseball really is beyond just a ball game.

Last weekend at KT Wiz Park, a truck was parked staging a protest. Interestingly, a coffee truck was also parked nearby. The coffee truck was prepared by fans for the managers, players, and staff. It is unlikely that a single individual or group handled both the protest and the coffee; different fans must have come together to do this. Hundreds of cups of coffee were provided free of charge, and players received coffee and expressed their gratitude on their social media accounts.

Later, I learned that there was much discussion on fan forums. Some said that the players should be scolded and questioned why coffee was even sent, while others wondered if it was necessary to send a protest truck for their own team’s players. I am not sure what is right. However, whether sending a protest truck or a coffee truck, probably no one among them would change the team they support. It is likely just each person’s way of loving their team.

I also thought, what is baseball anyway? When I heard about the coffee truck, I contributed some money to send a cup of coffee. The Wiz lost that day as well, but a single cup of coffee would not have changed the outcome. However, seeing the team captain perform a head-first slide at first base despite the risk of injury, I understood his determination and felt that the cost of the coffee was worth it. He must have seen both trucks. I wonder what the people of Oakland feel.

Kim Minseop, Social and Cultural Critic

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