Thursday, March 5, 2009

Cleveland's? ROK's?

The New York Times reports on efforts by the Cleveland Indians to bar their own outfielder, Korean Shin-soo Choo (추신수/秋信守; ch'u shinsu or Chu Sinsu), from playing in the World Baseball Classic in Tokyo. They say he has an inflamed left elbow and they want him to take it easy. 

The NYT explains how Choo is being pulled from both ends:
The Indians are counting on Choo this season. He hit .309 with 14 home runs and 66 runs batted in after being called up from the minors on May 31. His 98 hits and 66 R.B.I. were the most ever for a Korean player in the big leagues.

[The Korean national team] is pulling on the other end. The team needs his bat and his experience, especially after slugger Lee Seung-Yeop elected not to participate. Choo is the only Major Leaguer on the Korean roster.
The Korean team manager, Kim In-sik (김인식) says it's ultimately up to the US pro team to decide how this goes, so this doesn't appear it will turn into a nasty international incident, but this is a blow to the Korean National Team. 

I have mixed feelings about baseball. I enjoy it when the home team is doing well, but I have horrible memories of playing it. My father never played catch with me, thinking homework was much more important and hiking on the weekends was an adequate amount of outdoorsiness. My mother also pushed schoolwork, but she forced me into sports like soccer and baseball, insisting that playing these things would make me well-rounded and a success in life (she also pushed schoolwork). The end result was that I got hit in the face with the ball a lot. 

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