The average 23-year-old baseball player, said :
Immediately after the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games, Korean baseball was shaken. Even after winning the gold medal, I suffered all kinds of humiliation. As suspicions continued over player selection, the national team coach at the time, Seon Dong-yeol, had to participate in a government audit. It was an Asian Games victory full of scars. After that, a change came.
For the first time, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) decided not to suspend the league during the Asian Games. In order to reduce noise regarding military service exceptions, it was decided to form a national team (including 3 wild cards) of people under 23 years of age and with less than 3 years of professional experience, like in soccer. As the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games was postponed by a year, the national team was made up of players under 24 years of age and four years of professional experience. This is why a large number of people with little experience in international competitions were selected to the national team this time. Of the 24 pla
The average age of the national team was 23 years old, which was much younger than the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (28.63 years old) and the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC, 29.17 years old). The same is true when looking at salary alone. There is also Park Se-woong (Lotte), who receives an annual salary of 1.5 billion won under a multi-year contract, but 12 of the 23 professionals (excluding amateur Jung Hyun-seok) are paid less than the average annual salary of professional baseball this season (146.48 million won). Six people, including Moon Dong-ju (33 million won, Hanwha), who was the starting pitcher against Taiwan, have annual salaries of less than 50 million won. This means that it was different from other baseball teams that were composed only of the league's elite players. On the other hand, Taiwan had a formidable force, including eight minor league players.
The coaching staff had trouble forming the national team until the last minute due to age restrictions and player injuries. The biggest concern was the lack of left-handed starting pitchers and right-handed hitters. In the end, Koo Chang-mo (NC) and Lee Ui-ri (KIA) dropped out, leaving no left-handed starter. It was fortunate that right-handed hitter Yoon Dong-hee (Lotte), who was chosen to replace Lee Ui-ri, played his role in the batting lineup (batting average of 0.435, 10 hits in 23 at-bats). Without Yoon Dong-hee, the only right-handed hitters in the national team's starting lineup were Noh Si-hwan (Hanwha) and Kim Hyeong-jun (NC), including switch hitter Kim Joo-won (NC).
Coinciding with the period of generational change, the national team was evaluated as the weakest team in the Asian Games in history, but the national team overcame the nightmare of a crushing defeat (0-4) against Taiwan in the group stage and won the tournament for the fourth time in a row. It was great that the trio born in 2003, including Moon Dong-ju, Park Young-hyun (4 games, 5⅓ innings, no runs, KT), and Choi Ji-min (4 games, 4 innings, no runs, KIA), who were selected for the national team for the first time, held on on the mound. In particular, 19-year-old ‘fireballer’ Moon Dong-ju showed his potential as the next-generation right-handed ace for the national team. In a situation where Kwak Bin was unable to play due to shoulder pain, he took on the important role of the national team's ace at a young age. Against Chinese Taipei, he pitched 10 innings, allowing 6 hits and 10 strikeouts in both the group stage (4 innings, 2 runs on the 2nd) and the final (6 innings, no runs on the 7th). He pitched well, conceding 2 runs.
In attack, while Lee Jeong-hoo was unable to participate in the tournament due to injury, Kim Hye-seong (Kiwoom Lee) took center stage as the 'captain', and Choi Ji-hoon (batting average 0.524, SSG) and Noh Si-hwan (batting average 0.438) also shined. It is also significant that Kang Baek-ho (batting average 0.273, KT), who suffered greatly during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 2023 World Baseball Classic, has been relieved of his mental burden. In the future, he is expected to play an active role as a key hitter for the national team along with Noh Si-hwan.
National team coach Ryu Joong-il, who won gold medals twice at the Asian Games following the 2014 Incheon Games, said, “We won gold medals in 2014 and again this year with great difficulty,” and added, “I think this is a competition that announces a generational change in Korean baseball. “Looking at our pitchers, it was a game that showed the future of Korean baseball,” he said. It was the Hangzhou national baseball team that captured two birds with one stone: a gold medal and a generational change.
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