FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Sports

South Korean LLWS Catcher Has Some Set of Stones

South Korea catcher Jungseo Cho framed a pitch for about ten minutes in yesterday's Little League World Series. (He didn't get the call.)

New York beat South Korea in the Little League World Series Sunday afternoon 2-1 after being overmatched by Junho Jeong's sidewinder delivery for much of the game. Jeong retired the first ten batters he saw, seven by strikeout, but New York finally got to him in the fourth inning, scoring the only two runs they would need.

But enough about that—we had some much more interesting action in the fourth, thanks to catcher Jungseo Cho and his iron stones.

Advertisement

Early in the fourth, on a 1-2 count, Jeong slung a pitch that appeared to catch every part of the strike zone. He and his catcher thought they had another strikeout, but the home plate umpire disagreed. Jeong simply walked around the mound, looking up to the sky in disbelief, while Cho seemed frozen in time. He framed the pitch for…ev…er. He held it so long, ABC cameras never even showed him break position. That GIF up there is one continuous shot, like the Copacabana scene in Goodfellas. Eventually the home plate umpire came out from behind the catcher to dust off the plate, but in reality it was to give Cho a stern look/talking to.

But Cho was not done showing off his wily veteran-catcher arsenal. Later in the inning, he tried crossing up pitcher Ryan Harlost by pounding his mitt on the inside of the plate, before moving to set up on the outside of the plate.

The move didn't pay off, and Harlost didn't bite on the pitch that was well off the plate. Instead, he eventually got a single up the middle, to start the game-winning rally. South Korea may have lost the game, but they had the one true star of the World Series final.

[ABC]