Park Kyung-soo chose KT, who embraced and recognized him.
Park Kyung-soo also chose to become a “KT Man” as a leader.
KT officially announced on Wednesday that it appointed Park as its new coach. The position will be determined in the future. However, the fact that Park chose to become a leader is meaningful in itself.
Park Kyung-soo decided to take off his uniform at the end of this season. Over 40 years old in Korean age, retirement is not a strange age. It was great to play baseball as a mainstay until this age.
It was a life of ups and downs in baseball. After graduating from Seongnam High School in 2003, he received the first nomination from the LG Twins. He paid a whopping 430 million won (390,000 U.S. dollars) in down payment at the time, which was a huge amount considering inflation. Expectations were high. He was an ultra-high school shortstop with strong slugging capability. He was evaluated as a major infielder to succeed Yoo Ji-hyun’s generation.
Life at LG, however, was not smooth. Whether he had high expectations or felt pressure from them, Park failed to establish himself as a starting player.
Twelve years have passed since the beginning of his career at LG. You never know how your life will turn out. KT, a new team, will join the first team starting from the 2015 season. At that time, we had to pay attention to the “cost-effectiveness” FA players with insufficient budget, but we saw Park Kyung-soo who became an FA. Considering Park’s record of 1.82 billion won for four years, there were rumors that he was overpaying, but who would have thought this would be a “legendary contract” in the history of professional baseball.
Park hit 22 home runs in the first season of his transfer, becoming a key second baseman of KT. Since then, he has transformed himself into a “big shot second baseman” with 20 home runs in the 2016 season and 25 home runs in the 2018 season. Amid Park’s stellar performance, KT has emerged as a regular in fall baseball, and also won the overall title in the 2021 season. He also had outstanding leadership. Until his retirement season, he served as a captain.
KT evaluated Park Kyung-soo as a leader early on. That’s why the team let him take leadership lessons this season, rather than players. Of course, I knew he would become a coach at KT.
However, Park Kyung-soo was troubled. When news of his retirement spread, he made a flurry of suggestions to the eloquent speaker. It was his suggestion as a commentator. Multiple broadcasters offered suggestions. Park thought, “It’s good to coach right away, but watching multiple teams of baseball outside will also help me learn.”
Park Kyung-soo’s conclusion after a long hiatus was made by KT. He couldn’t leave the club, which gave him a big hug and treated him well with good contracts and veterans. He himself concluded that if he wants to succeed as a leader, he should start with KT, not any other team.
Park Kyung-soo said, “I’m grateful to the club and coach Lee Kang-chul for giving me a chance to start anew as a leader,” adding, “There were suggestions from the broadcasting industry. I really want to thank you for looking at it positively.”
With her debut as a leader, Park said, “No specific position has been decided yet. However, I will meet my juniors as a leader and a player, not an older brother. As coaches have done for me, I will also do my best to help my juniors show good performance as a player.” 먹튀검증
