• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
• /
• v.5 no.3
• /
• pp.147-154
• /
• 2019

Baseball was first introduced in Korea by American Gillette, who was the general manager of the YMCA in the late Joseon Dynasty. There are many discussions about the timing of the first baseball game in Korea, but it has yet to be sorted out. But what is certain is that baseball was introduced directly from the after 1903, when the first Korea YMCA, the Hwang seong Christian Youth Association, was founded. Gillett studied at Springfield YMCA International Training School in the United States from 1900 to 1901. The school is where Gulick worked as a teacher, who actively embraced strong Christianity from Britain and laid the foundation for the YMCA project in the United States. Therefore, Gillett was influenced by this Muscular Christianity, and the reason behind the introduction of baseball in our country is the same Muscular Christianity idea. Gillett, the manager of the YMCA in Korea, has developed various sports projects in Korea based on this Manager idea. It also helped the Korean people, who have been under Japanese colonial rule since 1905, to strengthen their bodies and minds and It helped the independence movement of Koreans. These specific and practical examples are YMCA baseball team active and the 105-member incident.