NC’s Park Seok-min (38) is retiring. The six-time Korean Series champion with Samsung and NC and two-time Golden Glove winner (third baseman) announced his retirement on Tuesday, saying, “I can’t show the fans the baseball player Park Seok-min, but I will try to be a person who is respected.”
Park made his debut with the first overall pick of Samsung in the 2004 KBO First-Year Player Draft. In 18 seasons, excluding his time in the mercantile sector, he has a career batting average of .287 (1537 hits, 269 home runs, 1041 RBIs). He endeared himself to fans with his comical behavior on the field, often spinning around and falling down after a botched swing at the plate.
He became a free agent after the 2015 season and signed with the NC for a total of 9.6 billion won ($9.6 million) over four years, and in 2019, he became a free agent again and re-signed for up to 3.4 billion won over three years. In the meantime, he has donated about 800 million won to baseball and society.
In July 2021, he was suspended for 122 games (72 KBO games + 50 club games) for violating corona quarantine rules, and even after returning in June last year, he went downhill. This season, he signed a one-year contract for 50 million won and tried to make a comeback, but injuries limited him to 30 games in the first team (batting .193 with one home run and eight RBIs). He will discuss his retirement with the club in the future.
Doosan left-hander Jang Won-jun (38), who is the same age as Park, also announced his intention to retire last weekend. A first-round pick of Lotte in 2004, he moved to Doosan in 2015 and led the team to the Korean Series title, then served as the ace the following year to win the combined regular season and Korean Series. After a four-year winless streak from 2019 to last year, he added three wins this year to become the oldest left-hander ever to win 130 games (37 years, 9 months) and the ninth to pitch 2,000 innings. His professional record is 132-119 with one save, 14 holds and a 4.28 ERA. Jang said, “I’m happy to have accomplished the last of my personal goals. It’s thanks to Team Bears that I was able to leave with a standing ovation. I will never forget the shouts of the fans for the rest of my life.”토토사이트
Teams that failed to advance to the postseason or ended their “fall baseball” early are preparing for next year. Lotte, which recently hired former Doosan manager Kim Tae-hyung as manager, is in the midst of finalizing training in Sangdong, Gimhae. Kiwoom has been sweating it out in Wonju, Gangwon Province since the 22nd, and Samsung has been in Okinawa, Japan since the 27th. Doosan will be in Icheon, Gyeonggi-do on the 31st, and Hanwha will set up a final camp in Miyazaki, Japan on the first of next month. SK will split its players between Kagoshima, Japan, and Incheon and Ganghwa, South Korea, starting next month. Doosan, Samsung, and Hanwha also participated in a training league in Miyazaki from the beginning of the month to the 30th, with a combined team of prospects, and played practice games against Japanese teams.