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The Dodgers' peak, Hanhwa's final stop... Park Chan-ho and Ryu Hyun-jin's baseball trajectory
Park Chan-ho, retired from Hanwha in 2012 after playing in MLB-Japan Baseball Park Chan-ho and Ryu Hyun-jin, who signed a one-season contract with Hanwha in 2012 for '8 years and 17 billion won', also finished his active career with his former team
Ryu Hyun-jin (36), who finally returned to his former team, the Hanwha Eagles, on the 22nd, left behind Park Chan-ho (50) one of the few achievements among Korean major league pitchers.
If you look at the trajectories of the two players' baseball lives, you can see that they are surprisingly similar. 카지노사이트탑
Park Chan-ho, who debuted in the Major League Baseball (MLB) in 1994 and played for 17 seasons until 2010, was a pioneer in Korean baseball.
As the first Korean major leaguer, he debuted with the Los Angeles Dodgers and played for seven clubs, including the Texas Rangers, San Diego Padres, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees, and Pittsburgh Pirates.
Chan-ho Park, who was on the mound in the big league 476 times, earned 124 wins, the most among MLB Asian players, and pitched 1,993 innings, striking out 1,715 times.
The public found great comfort in seeing Park Chan-ho turn around the world's best hitters during the International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout period in the late 1990s.
Ryu Hyun-jin, who grew up watching Chan-ho Park and dreamed of playing in MLB, succeeded in entering the major league of his dreams through the posting system (private competitive bidding) after the 2012 season.
It was even more meaningful because he wore the Dodgers uniform, where Chan-Ho Park was in his prime.
Unlike Chan-ho Park, Ryu Hyun-jin's advancement and success in the big league after going through the KBO served as an opportunity for many KBO league star players to go to the United States.
Afterwards, Ryu Hyun-jin achieved achievements that even Park Chan-ho had never achieved, such as leading the National League in ERA in 2019 (2.32) and being a starting pitcher in the 2019 MLB All-Star Game.
Now, he has returned to Hanwha, the starting point of his baseball career, leaving behind the big league mound where he worked for 11 seasons.
Ryu Hyun-jin's career MLB records are 186 games, 78 wins, 48 losses, 1 save, 1,055⅓ innings, 934 strikeouts, and an average ERA of 3.27.
It is also fateful that Hanwha is where Chan-ho Park and Hyun-jin Ryu returned after completing their great challenges in MLB.
Chan-ho Park, who played for the Orix Buffaloes of the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) in 2011, wore a Hanwha uniform in 2012.
Because he went straight to the United States without going through the KBO league, it was expected that the KBO would have difficulty deciding on Park Chan-ho's destination.
However, Chan-ho Park, from Gongju-si, South Chungcheong Province, wanted his hometown team Hanwha, and since Hanwha was the only player not to select a player in the 2007 overseas special draft, things went smoothly.
Park Chan-ho only received 24 million won, the minimum annual salary in professional baseball at the time, and instead Hanwha donated 600 million won to the youth baseball development fund.
It was at this time that the trajectories of Chan-ho Park and Hyun-jin Ryu briefly overlapped.
Park Chan-ho, who wore the Hanwha uniform at the age of 39, did not show an impressive performance on the mound.
His record of 5 wins, 10 losses, and an ERA of 5.06 in 23 games was disappointing considering the value of his name.
Instead, he became a 'mentor' to Ryu Hyun-jin, who was planning to challenge MLB after the 2012 season.
Chan-ho Park announced his retirement after the season, and he was able to watch Ryu Hyun-jin, who had become a junior of the Dodgers since 2013, play an active role on the MLB mound with a much more comfortable mind.
Just as Chan-ho Park returned to his ‘hometown club’ Hanwha 12 years ago, Ryu Hyun-jin will also wear the Hanwha uniform of his ‘home team’.
Like Park Chan-ho, Ryu Hyun-jin's 'last professional team' is likely to be Hanwha.
However, when considering their value as active players, Park Chan-ho and Ryu Hyun-jin are in slightly different situations.
While Park Chan-ho returned to Hanwha to retire beautifully from his hometown team, Ryu Hyun-jin is likely to dominate the league if he is not injured.
Due to his injury history and age, MLB clubs were unable to meet Ryu Hyun-jin's desired contract terms, but if it were not for salary issues, he is still a player who has no problem making the MLB starting rotation.
The highest treatment in the KBO League of all time, ‘8 years and 17 billion won’, proves this.
If Ryu Hyun-jin completes his eight-year contract, he will play as a Hanwha player until the age of 44, surpassing Song Jin-woo (former Hanwha) as the oldest player to play in the KBO (43 years, 7 months, 7 days).