Chan Ho Park proud of Korean win over Israel, excited for team's future

Koreanbaseball legend Chan Ho Park said he was “very proud” of the Korea nationalteam’s stunning opening Tokyo Olympic win over Israel on Thursday. Commentatingon the game at Yokohama Baseball Stadium for Korea broadcaster KBS, Parkwitnessed a dramatic 10-inning 6-5 walk-off win, after Jeremy Bleich, withbases loaded, hit Euiji Yang to score Kunwoo Park.

“It was agreat game, it was so exciting to watch,” Park told the WBSC. “I commentatedbut I feel like I stood pitching on the mound. There were a lot of scores fromhome runs, which is bad for pitchers but Korean pitchers they all pitched wellexcept for the three pitches for three home runs. I’m very proud of the teamand proud of the Korean pitchers.

“We hadhigh expectations with the two starting pitchers, Taein Won and Wonjoon Choi,and they pitched very well but also the veteran shortstop Ji Hwan Oh had a homerun and defensive wise he was massive, I think he was MVP of the game.

Aphenomenal pitcher in his heyday, Park is Korean baseball royalty having been thefirst Korean to play Major League Baseball, when he signed with the Los AngelesDodgers in 1994. He still holds the record for the most MLB wins by anAsian-born player, with 124.

And while Korea are missing some experienced stars such as Ryu Hyun-jin and Kim Kwang-hyun, Park believes Korea has a bright future on the pitch mound.

“We have young pitchers but they’re not sure if they’re the best in the world but they showed it tonight. We had a few pitches missed but I saw they made some great pitches, the last strike outs especially so that’s bright for their future. That’s Korea’s future.”

Korea are the2008 defending gold medallists having beaten Canada, Japan, China, ChineseTaipei, Cuba and the Netherlands in pool play before overcoming Japan again inthe semifinals and Cuba in the final for their first Olympic gold. They’re inthe middle of a nine-game Olympic Games winning streak going back to a loss toUSA in their opening pool game in Beijing. Park says these heroics is inspiringthis current Korean team to aim for a repeat.

“Many kids inthis team would have been watching Korea’s win at the Bejing Olympic Games whenthey were younger..Seunghwan Oh (the last pitcher in the Israel game) and captainHyunsoo Kim (left field) played in 2008 so I’m sure the team chemistry is verystrong since coming together one week ago. Korea teams traditionally gelquickly, we have great team chemistry that’s why we had a great game today.

“I was alsoimpressed how Korea remained composed for the last score thrown by the Israel pitcher,we didn’t move anything but we just wanted to win, we then got a ball andthat’s a very hustling play of the game, which Korea is good at.”