Kim Ha-seong taking a commemorative photo in San Diego uniform
Park Chan-ho wearing a Los Angeles Dodgers uniform and pitching
Park Chan-Ho Thumbs Up
(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Shin Chang-yong = Park Chan-ho, 48, who joined the Los Angeles Dodgers in the American professional baseball in 1994, still remembers the first day of Spring Camp vividly.
After training, Park Chan-ho went into the shower and offered to push his back to a teammate who showered next to him after soaping.
In Korea, it’s a familiar culture to push each other’s backs between first-time viewers, but it was the United States.
That’s exactly what Park Chan-ho can give as an experienced person to Major League junior Kim Ha-seong (26, San Diego Padres).
According to the San Diego regional magazine’San Diego Union-Tribune’ on the 24th (Korean time), Park Chan-ho laughed loudly, saying in a recent interview, “I will advise Kim Ha-sung not to push his back when taking a shower.”
In a non-face-to-face zoom interview on this day, Kim Ha-sung introduced that the San Diego club, players, coaches, and front desk are comfortable adapting to him, saying that they are treating him like a family.
At the same time, Kim Ha-sung also expressed his gratitude to Park Chan-ho, a major league senior and special advisor to the San Diego club, who gave him generous advice.
Park Chan-ho said, “I’m going to tell Ha-Sung Kim my story until the blood comes out of his ears.” He said, “I will help him adapt quickly and learn quickly. You can do it on your own inside the stadium, but outside the stadium you need someone to help you like family “Do” he said.
This is to prevent the trial and error that he suffered. Park Chan-ho remembered his past teammates who were disgusted with kimchi.
“Every time I ate Korean food, they said bad things,” said Park Chan-ho. “I had to eat kimchi because kimchi for me was stronger than eating a large chunk of steak. I thought people hated me. They just hated the smell.”
Park Chan-ho struggled in the early days of his career, but in his third year, his skills flourished. It overlaps with the time when my mother started living together in Los Angeles.
Park Chan-ho emphasized that it is very important to have a strong bond with at least one of his teammates.
However, I am not very worried about the problem of adaptation. This is because the owner of San Diego is the O’Malley group that previously owned the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Former Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley was called Park Chan-ho’s’stepfather’. The relationship was so strong.
Park Chan-ho, who had a strong helper named O’Malley, made his heyday at the Dodgers, laying the groundwork for the most victorious (124 wins) of major league Asian pitchers.
O’Malley claimed to be her adoptive father, saying that Park Chan-ho was “my third son.”
Park Chan-ho said, “Kim Ha-sung has me and (O’Malley’s nephew of former owner) Peter Sadler. They have a good manager, good manager, and good teammates. “I think it would have been an easy decision to sign Kim Ha-sung with Padris. Peter Sadler is the one who can make another history with a player from Korea.”
(End)