‘The Oldest’ Park Se-woong’s resolution of the cliff-edge military service and Jang Hyun-seok’s ‘Bidan-gil’ opened

The Asian Games gold medal means a lot to professional athletes. This is especially true for male players who have not resolved military service. According to the Military Service Special Act, which has been in effect since 1973, if a gold medal is won in the AG, it is considered that the military service has been completed after completing only four weeks of basic military training. The national baseball team, which won four consecutive AGs at the Hangzhou tournament, 19 of the 24 players included in the final entry are “unwritten.” 스포츠토토

The most eye-catching is right-handed pitcher Park Se-woong (Lotte Giants). Park Se-woong was the oldest member of the national baseball team. The final entry was limited to players under the age of 25 or under the age of 4 years of joining the KBO League, and Park Se-woong was a wild card (WC) selected without age and age restrictions. I needed a gold medal more than anyone else. He participated in the 2022 Tokyo Olympics, but his first military service benefit went blank as he ended up with no medal.

Park Se-woong, who was born in November 1995, was on the first successful candidate list for the military sports unit last year, but gave up. Ma Jin-seon, who joined the Korean Armed Forces Sports Unit (Sangmu), is 27 years old. If he was not a gold medalist at the Hangzhou Games, he had to consider joining the military as an active player. Lotte, which signed a multi-year contract with Park Se-woong for five years and up to 9 billion won (annual salary guarantee of 7 billion won, option of 2 billion won) in October last year, also included a clause that delays the expiration of the contract for two years when he joins the army. Military service was such a hot concern, but he won the gold medal and got more satisfactory results than anyone else. Park Se-woong started against Japan in the Super Round of the tournament and allowed two hits, nine strikeouts and no runs in six innings.

Jang Hyun-seok (Masan Yongma High School), who became the first high school student in AG baseball history, also received a big “gift.” All amateur players who joined the AG’s final entry, including Jeong Jae-bok (then Hanyang University), Jeong Min-hyuk (then Yonsei University), Kim Myung-sung (then Chung-Ang University), and Hong Sung-moo (then Dongui University) in 2014, were college students. The selection of high school student Jang Hyun-seok as the representative was so close to a “breakthrough.”

However, after joining the final entry, he signed a contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the U.S. Major League Baseball (MLB) and the atmosphere changed strangely. The Hangzhou AG Technical Committee, which was formed last year, nailed that amateur players should be included in the final entry, but that players should not have any intention of advancing overseas. However, the competition was postponed for a year due to COVID-19, and the existing stance disappeared as the Technical Committee (Chairman Yeom Kyung-yeop) was reorganized into the Power Enhancement Committee (Chairman Cho Gye-hyun). After the entry announcement, Cho Gye-hyun, chairman of the Power Reinforcement Committee, said, “AG is an amateur competition. (Choosing Jang Hyun-seok) is a dimension that gives dreams and hopes to young players for amateur development, he said. “(Jang Hyun-seok) received the highest score in ball power, speed (restraint), and game management among amateur players.”

In the professional baseball field, negative voices were not small about Jang Hyun-seok’s Taegeuk mark. There were also many ups and downs, with the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) checking its physical condition as rumors circulated that his elbow condition was not good ahead of the tournament. Jang Hyun-seok, who kept the Taegeuk mark until the end, received a gift of military service benefits before a high school diploma. Most Korean players in the minor leagues choose to return to Korea because they cannot resolve their military service.