야구 하는 것/야구 보는 것(을/은) 좋아해요

Question

1. 저는 야구 보는 것을 좋아해요.
2. 야구 하는 것은 좋아하지 않아요.
3. 야구 하는 것을 좋아하지 않아요.

1 and #2 are two consecutive sentences from a conversation. My friend was confused why the sentence #2 didn't use 을 instead of 은 as #3.

I tried to explain that using 은 because two reasons:
a) We are comparing two things "야구 보는 것" and "야구 하는 것". He likes watching baseball and doesn't like playing baseball.
b) We use 은 in 야구 하는 것은 to emphasize the fact that doesn't like"야구 하는 것" in compared to "야구 보는 것". This is to emphasize that he doesn't like playing baseball.

However, my friend doesn't agree with me on (b). She said that we shouldn't include any emphasis here. Could anyone share your opinion on this?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Basically it's because those two sentences(1 and 2) have something in common: baseball.

Since saying sentence #1 only might imply the listener that the speaker likes almost everything related to baseball, not only watching but also playing, etc. So in order to clarify the problem, sentence #2 appears to limit the range in terms of baseball and to get rid of possible misunderstandings that the #1 might bring.

http://krdic.naver.com/detail.nhn?docid=29985700

This document defines how '-은' works - especially the first definition matches the conversation you posted. Someone said you're wrong, but based on the dictionary and my common sense as a native speaker, it seems like actually you're right rather than wrong.