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| Will Choo Shin-soo compete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics? © AFP=News1 |
When Choo Shin-soo (39) joined the Shinsegae Group E-Mart baseball team, the possibility of wearing the Taegeuk mark in 11 years increased. It remains to be seen whether the 2020 Tokyo Olympics can be held normally due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), but first, Kim Kyung Moon-ho welcomed Choo Shin-soo’s move to the KBO League.
On the 23rd, Shinsegae Group delivered a surprise news contract with Choo Shin-soo, who had been active in the major leagues since 2005, for an annual salary of 2.7 billion won. It was a big home run that broke the day when SK Telecom acquired 100% of the baseball team’s stake.
It is the appearance of a big figure that will shake the 2021 KBO league. At the same time, attention is on whether 39-year-old veteran Choo Shin-soo will be able to participate in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which will open on July 23rd.
Choo Shin-soo is a star with 1,652 matches, 1671 hits, 218 home runs, 782 RBIs, 961 points, 157 steals and 0.824 OPS in the major leagues. However, there was no relationship with Taegeuk Mark.
The 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou was the last to be selected for the baseball team. At that time, Choo Shin-soo won the gold medal with 8 hits and 3 home runs and 10 RBIs in 14 at-bats. However, after that, the major league team refused to participate in the international competition.
Especially when the first round of the 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was held at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, Shin-soo Choo expressed his intention to participate, saying, “I want to show the public a good performance”, but the opposite of the Texas Rangers, the team at the time. It was lost.
As Shinsegae Group E-Mart became the No. 1 baseball team, the barriers to the Tokyo Olympics have disappeared. Choo Shin-soo’s name was omitted from the Tokyo Olympics pre-registration list (111 people) announced in March last year, but the event has to be rewritten as the event is postponed for one year due to the global pandemic of Corona 19. Choo Shin-soo’s will is the most important, but it is unlikely that he will return the Taegeuk mark.
Coach Gyeong-moon Kim, who took the battalion of the baseball team in January 2019, won the World Baseball Softball Federation (WBSC) Premier 12 with the right to compete in the Olympics. ) And so on. Veterans such as Lee Dae-ho (Lotte), Kim Tae-gyun (retired), Jung Woo-ram (Hanhwa), and Kim Jae-ho (Doosan) were excluded.
Choo Shin-soo was born in 1982 and is thirty-nine years old. Age is not a stumbling block. He is the’best hitter’ who left a clear footstep in the major leagues.
In particular, in the position of Kim Kyung Moon-ho, who has been hit hard by the advancement of Kim Gwang-hyun (St. Louis Cardinals), Yang Hyun-jong (Texas Rangers), and Kim Ha-seong (San Diego Padres) to the major leagues in the last two years, Choo Shin-soo is’Thousand Guns Manma. Director Kim Gyeong-moon also fell in love with the news of Choo Shin-soo’s trip to Korea.
An official from the baseball team said, “The top priority of the national team is not to change generations, but to have the best power. Nothing has been decided yet, but it is a great welcome for a player like Shin-soo Cho to join the national team.”
“Choo Shin-soo also showed excellent contact ability in the major leagues. His on-base ratio (0.377 in total) was competitive (even in his late 30s). It is not a small age, but if Shin-soo Choo has the skills, he will do a good job in the KBO league.” Added positive expectations.