“He can’t talk on the field, he’s serious…but he’s actually cute”
National teams are a place of socialization and exchange.
We often see each other at the ballpark, but the difference between the dugouts and uniforms across the street doesn’t make it easy to bridge the distance.
But the same players who play for the league also play for the national team. Since they were selected for the national team, they always keep an eye on each other and ask each other questions, which is an easy way to get closer.
What about Lotte Giants’ Yoon Dong-hee, who traveled to the APBC (Asian Professional Baseball Championship) after the Hangzhou Asian Games? He is like a brother to Ahn Kwon-soo and Kim Min-seok, who lived in the same house this year, 먹튀검증 and is best friends with fellow draftee Lee Min-seok.
When he first joined the Asian Games team, there was a lot of awkwardness as he was called up the day before as a replacement for Lee Yi-ri (KIA Tigers).
But the overlap between the APBC and the Asian Games made it easier to adjust.
“The captain is the same, (Kim) Hye-sung is my older brother, so it felt like a continuation of the Hangzhou Games, and my brothers took care of me really well,” Yoon laughed.
For Choi, it was even more meaningful to be on the team with teammates Choi Jun-yong and Son Sung-bin. A total of seven players from the other team also had a meal together before traveling to Japan.
After batting 4-for-10 with a home run and a 1.196 OPS (on-base percentage) at the Asian Games, Yoon was just 2-for-33 with one home run and a 0.610 OPS at the APBC (17-for-4). “I think there was more pressure than in Hangzhou, so I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would, and I really wanted to beat Japan,” Yoon said.
When asked to name a player on the national team that she is particularly close to, Yoon thought for a while before naming Kim Do-young (KIA). The two players represent the future of Lotte and Kia.
“Maybe I have a good skin, I didn’t think anything of it,” Yoon Dong-hee said shyly.
“But (Kim) Do-young and (Park) Seung-kyu (Samsung Lions) kept asking me, ‘How do you take care of your skin?’ So I started with what to put on my skin…and Do-young is also a big fan of saunas, 안전놀이터 so we got to know each other better in Japan because we kept going to saunas together.”
On the field, Kim is very serious and focused on the game of baseball. “He’s got a sharp face, but he’s also very masculine, so I didn’t know much about him, but he’s actually very playful and cute,” laughs Yoon Dong-hee.