Stove League

Tracking Min Namkoong's performances brought me to Stove League. As am NOT a baseball fan I put off watching it. Then when everything else looked mediocre I tuned in--and wow--the foundations of corruption of the people who never step up to bat--those who want a team to fail for their own purposes, greed, ethical corruption and just plan dirty dealing bring a lot of substance to this drama. Min is generally stone cold stoic throughout--but still manages to give off pressure cooker steam somehow--he's a truly great actor. I didn't expect this kind of role after One Dollar Lawyer. There's solid performances from the entire cast fleshing out individual personal stories which also make it worth watching. This is not a fluffy cotton candy baseball drama. Loving baseball is not necessary for enjoying the human drama. See how long it takes before you're throwing verbal abuse at the nasty humans on your screen of choice.

This drama proves that winning a game doesn't all depend on just training hard but also been emotionally and psychological prepared is a factor. I really don't know much about baseball, but this drama really made me interested in at least knowing the rules of this game. The story tells how people especially are always fixed on the coaches and players when a team doesn't win a game ignoring the fact there could be some internal and management issues that doesn't motivate them to give their all. Yes, players should be blamed since they are the ones on the field but it wouldn't hurt to investigate the other factors causing their failure which every episode tries to address. Corruption, bribery, hiding of internal injuries and salary issues is what this drama tries to bring out. These issues are tackled so well with suspense that it makes someone who doesn't like sports to be glued to the drama. Overall, the drama is very fun and entertaining and also succeeds in getting its message across making it worthy to watch.

I watched this because of the presence of Eun-bin Park, even though I know nothing about baseball.

What struck me was the plot similarities with Ted Lasso: a struggling sports team bring in a manager with no knowledge of the sport because the owner wants the team to fail. The one thing missing was Ted Lasso himself. Here the manager concerned is much more cold and calculating, with the heart provided by the character played by Eun-bin Park.

Nevertheless, it seems that this series was made first and perhaps Ted Lasso took it as inspiration.

I was moderately entertained as I watched this, whereas I thought Ted Lasso was very good. So the absence of that character did suck something out of the entertainment for me. Perhaps baseball is just too alien to me also, whereas football is all around me, even though I don't follow it myself.

But hey, I was moderately entertained and Eun-bin Park is always worth watching.

Its baseball, greatest sport ever and the best sport for making series and movies, nothing bad here and i think ive seen ever baseball movie made.Not a huge fan of the leading male but he's good in this actually plays the perfect GM So little background on the name, in the USA in the cold of winter people would sit around the hot stove and talk/mostly arguing about well anything baseball hinse the name "Hot Stove League".

enjoy it... i sure am

A low cost drama that uses low budget material and low manpower. The low cost material like CEO using low cost cars still showed the same no make senses. They also keep showing the same faces which are bored to say low manpower. However the story plot are nice from episode 1 to 14 but episode 15 beginning to get low expectation and quite bored. Final episode 16 is a low standard conclusion which make no sense. Sadly the writer did not think of a better conclusion. But overall its a short 16 episodes drama so it quite exciting to pass time.