"Rot Tae-hyung," "Gyabum-ho" and "Monster" returned. "Happiness is guaranteed." First 9 million viewers. Ghana

The Korean baseball community is excited by the return of "Monster" Ryu Hyun-jin. Fans of the Hanwha Eagles are literally cheering, and fans of the other nine teams are worried but welcome the return of the "Made in KBO" national ace, who is returning after commanding the Major League.  스포츠토토

It feels similar to when Park Chan-ho moved to Korea in 2012. Park, who has the most wins among Asian major leaguers, joined the Hanwha Eagles in 2012 after playing in the Japanese pro baseball league.

Park Chan-ho's pure heart to reward Korean fans who have supported him by throwing them at the ballpark worked to keep his will to decorate the end of his career in the KBO League.

When Park Chan-ho, who was born in 1973, returned to the Hanwha Eagles at the age of 39. He failed to start in the Major League as a starter, but pitched in an intermediate struggle, and subsequently did not produce remarkable results in the Japanese professional baseball league. It was not easy to achieve good results in Korea.

If he fails to perform well in the KBO League, his pride could be hurt, but Park came back with the intention of repaying his Korean fans. As expected, Park did not have a very good performance in 23 games that year with 5 wins and 10 losses and 5.06 ERA.

Nevertheless, Park Chan-ho drove a cloud of spectators, and the aftermath fueled the rising popularity of professional baseball. Fans were happy just to see him throw, as he was the first Korean major leaguer to set up Korea's pride with more than 100 wins.

That year, the KBO League experienced a truly tremendous explosion of spectators. Under the eight-team system, each team played 132 games, totaling 532 games, and the number exceeded 7 million for the first time in history. The number reached 7,156,157. This record was broken by posting 7,365,530 in 2015 when a total of 720 games became a 10-team system.

However, the number of spectators per game in 2012 is still unbroken. The number of spectators was 12,801 in 2011, the second highest ever, and 11,668 in 2017. The number of spectators in the KBO League was 8,406,888, the highest ever.

Ryu Hyun-jin occupies a large position in Korea as well as Park Chan-ho. He is the first KBO league player to directly move to the Major League and succeed. As a "made-in-KBO" player, he took great pride in himself.

Ryu Hyun-jin made his debut with Hanwha in 2006 and pitched in 190 games until 2012, recording 98 wins and 52 losses and one save with a 2.80 ERA. In his first year of debut, he recorded 18 wins and 6 losses with 2.231 saves, winning the title of multiple wins, ERA, and strikeout king to achieve the Triple Crown, becoming the first and last KBO league player to win the Rookie of the Year and the regular league MVP.

After the end of the 2012 season, Ryu transferred to the Los Angeles Dodgers for posting. He was the first player who went directly to the big league without going through a minor league in the KBO League. Ryu, who played as an ace with Clayton Kershaw in the Dodgers, became an FA after the 2019 season and transferred to the Toronto Blue Jays. He played 186 games and 1,055 ⅓ innings in 10 seasons in the big league until last year, recording 78 wins, 48 losses and one save ERA of 3.27.

What makes him different from Park Chan-ho is that he still has capability to start first in his team. Last year, he returned in the second half of the season after elbow surgery, and pitched in 11 games, recording three wins and three losses with an ERA of 3.46. As he returned after surgery, he was managed to throw well, but was later removed from the team. He is capable enough of throwing balls as third or fourth starters in the Major League, but decided to make a U-turn in a surprise move to Korea.

Not all baseball fans just welcome him because he has the ability to shake the game in the KBO League. He is also worried because he is a pitcher who can give even one loss to the team he wants right now.

Still, he represents Korea's ace and is a proud KBO league pitcher who topped the Major League. He left as a Hanwha player but is now back as a national team member. Of course, he drives fans around.

What is encouraging is that last year's crowd mobilization was very good. Despite various unfavorable factors such as the WBC failure, baseball fans visited the ballpark, and a total of 8.1,326 spectators visited. It was the first time in five years since 2018 that 8 million people were recaptured. 11,250 people per game was the sixth-highest record in history.

The LG Twins are popular as they won the championship for the first time in 29 years last year, the Lotte Giants recruited "master" Kim Tae-hyung, and the KIA Tigers renewed the atmosphere by recruiting a new manager, Lee Bum-ho, although Kim Jong-kook was suddenly dismissed. The three most popular teams in the KBO League are expected to have a warm atmosphere this season.

On top of that, Ryu Hyun-jin's return is naturally a factor that increases the number of spectators. If it becomes a big typhoon like 2012, it could literally bring a "second renaissance" to the KBO League.

Converting the average attendance of 13,541 people from 2012 to 720 games, the number of spectators stands at 9,684,720. If the average is 12,500, the number is 8.64 million. To break the 9 million mark that has never been recorded before, the average attendance must be 12,500.

How much effect will Ryu Hyun-jin have? I'm very curious about the KBO League.