Controversy is brewing over Choo Shin-soo (41, SSG Landers)’s ‘remarks’ that came out at the end of the Lunar New Year holiday.
Choo Shin-soo, who is on vacation at his home in Texas during the off-season, recently appeared on a Dallas-area Korean radio show and expressed regret over the slow generational change in the Korean baseball team.
He said, “Kim Hyun-soo (35, LG Twins), Kim Gwang-hyun (35, SSG), and Yang Hyeon-jong (35, KIA Tigers) are also good players, but there are many talented young players.” 24 Kiwoom Heroes) should have been given the opportunity to participate in the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC).”
In particular, regarding An Woo-jin, he said, “He has the talent to become the second best player after Park Chan-ho, but it seems that it is not easy to forgive him in Korea.”
It cannot be said that Choo Shin-soo’s remarks are completely wrong. As with any other international competition, the WBC’s results are the most important.
An Woo-jin stood tall as the best pitcher in Korea both in name and reality, ranking first in earned run average and strikeouts last year when he was in his 5th year as a pro. He must be a player who is useful to the national team in terms of skills.
In the case of Moon Dong-ju, who has a 155 km fastball, there is a task to improve his control, but it is no exaggeration to say that An Woo-jin has already reached the top.
However, when the label of ‘school violence’ is attached, the words change. Ahn Woo-jin has been stripped of his national team qualifications from the Korea Sports Association and the Korea Baseball Softball Association because he used violence against his juniors while he was in Whimoon High School.
In the case of the WBC, since the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) supervises it, Ahn Woo-jin can also wear the Taegeuk mark. Last season, Ahn Woo-jin’s skills improved and he reached an agreement with some victims of school violence, drawing attention to the KBO’s final selection, but An Woo-jin was eventually eliminated.
Regarding the exclusion of Ahn Woo-jin, KBO Technical Committee Chairman Cho Bum-hyun confessed that it was a choice conscious of public opinion, saying, “Skills are important, but the symbolic meaning, responsibility, and pride of the national team representing the country were considered.”
In a situation where the KBO had already explained that it had no choice but to exclude An Woo-jin, it is pointed out that the regret Shin-soo Choo poured out was because he did not properly understand the Korean sentiment toward school violence. 먹튀검증
In Korea, school violence is a sensitive subject enough to blow the reputations of celebrities, sports stars, and other celebrities at once.
Kim Yoo-seong (21), who was nominated by the Doosan Bears this season, received the first nomination for the NC Dinos while attending Gimhae High School in 2020, but public opinion on school violence in Korea was such that the nomination was withdrawn after 3 days after his history of school violence was revealed in middle school. is not good
This is the reason why there are voices saying that Choo Shin-soo, due to his long life in the United States, did not properly understand the Korean sentiment toward school violence and only came up with his own thoughts.
In addition, even after being caught drunk driving in the US in 2011, Choo Shin-soo, who is still playing as an athlete in Korea without any additional punishment, is being criticized for taking the word forgiveness easily.
In addition to the An Woo-jin controversy, Choo Shin-soo’s comments are also regrettable in that they may affect the morale of veteran players who have already been selected for the national team.
Regardless of age, if players who were justly selected based on their skills feel that they have taken away the seats of their juniors, there may be a blemish on their organizational power.
Choo Shin-soo, who usually scratched baseball fans’ itches with cool remarks, but this time, he made a ‘missing speech’ that did nothing to benefit both himself and the national team.