Choo Shin-soo▶ Click here to enlarge
Ahead of the 2021 season, major leaguers from Korea and Japan returned to their home country’s professional baseball stage.
At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics scheduled to be held in July of this year, it is noteworthy whether the two-shot battle between former Korean and Japanese big leaguers will be successful.
Batter Choo Shin-soo (39), who has played 16 years in the American Professional Baseball Major League (MLB), plays for the newly launched Shinsegae Group E-Mart baseball team this year.
Shinsegae Group, which acquired SK Wyverns, announced on the 23rd that it had signed an annual salary of 2.7 billion won with Choo Shin-soo.
Choo Shin-soo played 16 seasons for the Seattle Mariners, Cleveland Indians, Cincinnati Reds and Texas Rangers in the major leagues, recording a career batting average of 0.275, 218 homers, and 782 RBIs, setting the record for the most home runs and RBIs in the Asian Big League.
It also earned the nickname’Chu Choo Train’ and was selected as an All-Star in 2018. Choo Shin-soo was respected as a veteran hitter.
With Choo’s return to Korea, the possibility of boarding the national baseball team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which is scheduled to be held next year, also increased.
Japanese sports media showed interest in the possibility of Choo’s participation in the Tokyo Olympics while delivering the news of Shin-soo Cho’s U-turn in Korea.
This is because Korea is Japan’s competition for gold medals in baseball.
Korea and Japan competed in the Premier 12 Finals of the 2019 Baseball National Competition. At the time, the gold medal was taken by Japan and the silver medal was taken by Korea.
Tanaka returns to Rakuten after 8 years▶ Click here to enlarge
Japan also recently secured a strong Olympic athlete with the comeback of the major leaguer.
Pitcher Masahiro Tanaka (33), who played for the New York Yankees, returned to the Rakuten Golden Eagles, a Japanese professional baseball team after seven years of big league pitching.
Tanaka played as a starting pitcher for the Yankees, recording an average of 78-46 and an ERA of 3.74. It recorded 7 complete fights and 4 complete games, and was also selected as an All-Star in 2014 and 2019.
At a return press conference on the 30th of last month, Tanaka said, “I want to compete in the Tokyo Olympics this year and win a gold medal.”
Tanaka once represented Japan at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when Korea won the gold medal in baseball.
Tanaka said, “I participated in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, but I had a disappointing result.”
Choo Shin-soo promoted to join the 2008 Beijing Olympics national team, but the opposition from his team Cleveland at the time was misfired.
There are voices opposing the holding of the Tokyo Olympics against the spread of the new coronavirus infection (Corona 19), but if it is held as scheduled, Shin-soo Choo’s joining is expected to be a great help to the national team.
In particular, Choo Shin-soo made good grades against Tanaka.
Shin-soo Choo recorded a batting average of 0.450 with 9 hits in 20 at-bats against Tanaka in the major leagues.
There were no home runs, but he hit 3 doubles and scored 1 RBI and 2 points. He struck out 4 and picked 3 walks.
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