[That person] 25 years of baseball life fighting 'prejudice', Yoo Hee-gwan

1. Half-time fast retirement

It has been more than two months since he announced his retirement in January, but it is not enough time for his body after 25 years of exercise to adjust to his new life.

He said that as the new season starts, I feel like I need to prepare something.

“There are times when I wake up in a hurry even when I’m sleeping. ‘I have to go to the gym right now’ and then when I come to my senses, I say, ‘I’m retired. "

In the second half of last year, I already felt that it would be difficult to continue to stand on the mound.

His own ball was no longer going through the batters.

The batters didn't find it difficult to hit this guy's ball.

After winning 99 on May 9 last year, it took him four months, ten days, and 130 days to get to the long-awaited 100 wins.

My acquaintances offered words of consolation, saying that it was because it was a twin, not a nine, but I realized the difficulty of one win.

There were times when victory seemed like a natural thing to do just by standing on the mound, but now becoming a winning pitcher is becoming more and more distant.

He was not included in the postseason entry, so he watched Doosan's fall baseball on television.

I thought it was natural not to be able to stand there because of my lack of skills, but it was a shame for a professional baseball player.

Words such as first-team players, starting pitchers, and winning pitchers that were taken for granted were no longer taken for granted.

From then on, the word “retirement” started running around in my head.

He hasn't had any major injuries since he started playing baseball, and his stamina was still good enough.

If he played for two more years, he would be able to break the record for most wins by a Doosan pitcher of 109, held by Ho-yeon Jang.

Still, I decided to admit that it was time to let it go.

If he was late, he would not only look funny, but it was also clear who he would be on the team.

I knew I had to come down someday, but the time came too soon.

It's not like I'm being pushed down by other people's demands, but it's still sad.

Last January 8, he announced his retirement and went home and cried to himself.

2. Middle and high school days when I never heard of a promising prospect

Playing with the ball was all good.

He was good at soccer and even better at basketball.

He was short in stature, but his athleticism was unusual, and his character, who was not shy about others, was suitable for exercise.

Of all the sports, baseball was particularly good.

After school, he ran to the parking lot near his house and played baseball with his neighborhood brothers and tennis balls.

LG Lee Sang-hoon, who fluttered his long hair and sprayed a fastball, was this man's hero.

To see Lee Sang-hoon, I joined the LG Twins as an annual child member.

Whenever he had a chance, he ran to Jamsil Baseball Stadium with a 10,000 won bill.

With the money he bought a hamburger and spent the weekend watching baseball.

A friend who transferred to another school when he was in 5th grade appeared wearing a baseball player's uniform.

That uniform looked so cool.

He decided to become a baseball player.

His father, who runs his business, wants his only son to study, go to college, and live a normal life with a salary.

His son's physique was too small to be a baseball player.

When he was in elementary school, he was second or third from the front when he called for attendance in key order.

He cried and cried for several days.

He had no parents to be children.

His parents allowed him to become a baseball player only after he was promised that he would never regret playing baseball.

He was an ordinary player.

He started playing baseball when he transferred to Bangbae Elementary School in Seoul, where the baseball team is located, but he did not show off his prominence early.

He wasn't 170 cm by the time he was in his third year of high school, so he was on the small side among regular students, not to mention athletes.

“When I was in middle school, my parents told me that I was not tall and my skills were inferior to others, so I interviewed the coach several times without realizing it. He said, ‘I’m tall and my skills can go up in an instant, so trust me and give it a try’.”

He transferred again in high school with the gift, and although he was an ace at that school, his personal grades were not good, and his grades at Jangchung High School were just average.

His best performance was advancing to the round of 16 in the national competition.

He spent his middle school and high school days without even being told that he was an ordinary prospect.

The year he was graduating from high school, he appeared on the draft market, but no team showed interest in this man.

It was expected, but it was a huge disappointment.

It was the first setback and defeat I experienced in my life.

"I had a dream of becoming a professional baseball player and worked hard since I was little, but I think it was really difficult because I thought I couldn't go where I wanted to go. Will I be able to go pro someday, what should I do if I stop playing baseball here? I haven't studied since I was a kid, so I can't go to college... But I couldn't say I'd quit baseball first.

No matter how hard you try, not everyone can throw a high-speed ball at 150 km/h.

People who can use a fiery fastball are born.

No matter how much the dragon used, this person's maximum speed was difficult to exceed 130 km.

When I asked him if he had ever considered choosing the path of a hitter rather than a pitcher, he said he never did.

He wasn't going to get much better and it wasn't going to change, but he didn't think he was giving up on baseball.

I've come a long way to go back, and I loved baseball more than anything else.

3. Someone who knows the pain of not being chosen

I grew taller when I joined the baseball club at Chung-Ang University.

He was under 170 cm when he entered, but by the time he graduated he had grown to 180 cm.

As his weight increased, so did his ball speed.

That being said, his top speed was barely over 130km.

He realized that he was born with the body not capable of throwing a ball of 140, 150 km.

If he didn't have the speed, he thought he'd let the fight go by with control.

His speed did not increase significantly, but as his ball began to put weight on him, he began to shine in college baseball.

He had an ERA of two points for four years in college, and as the ace of Chung-Ang University, he led the team to the 2008 National Collegiate Baseball Championship.

He was the only college player to be selected for the national team at the 2007 Baseball World Cup.

Although he was one of the best pitchers in college baseball, the prejudice that he was a player with a slow ball and a player with a decisive limit as a pitcher did not disappear.

The year he was graduating from college, he went to a PC room with his friends to watch the draft of a professional baseball rookie.

Even then, he wasn't sure he would be nominated.

He was called by the names of the 41 players in front of him, Yu, Hee, and Kwan.

Doosan chose this person.

"Seeing Doosan name my name, it felt like everything stuck in my chest was going to go down. I was so happy that I called my parents. It was so good that my parents cried and I cried together when I heard that I was nominated by Doosan."

He felt like he had won a star in the sky, but he couldn't like it.

Because among his motives, there were far more people who were not nominated than those who were nominated.

“Among 8 or 9 of my classmates, only me and one other friend were nominated, and the rest were not. You can't like it... because in sports there are winners and losers, and it's very different."

I know the pain of people who are not chosen, and the pain of players who cannot win.

He talked about his first match in the first team of professional baseball as if it were yesterday.

It's a story from May 2009, but I wanted to remember it in detail like this.

That day, in front of the 20,000 spectators that filled the Sajik Stadium in Busan, this man froze.

The ball, which was already slow, was slower this day.

He faced only two batters and was slapped.

“What I thought at that time is that it’s really pathetic, it’s baseball I’ve been playing since I was very young, and what makes me tremble there… I felt really pathetic about myself. Opportunities don’t come to everyone. But I wasted 4 years (in college) than others. I can't play baseball... I'm getting older and the team doesn't give me many opportunities. Besides, I didn't go to the military until then, so I didn't know what to do. If you don't show it, you don't know when it will be cut off."

He came up to the first team on Saturday, faced just two batters, and was released to the second team on Monday.

It took another four years for this man to seize a winning pitcher's chance on the pro first team again.

4. Tired of hard work?

there was no such thing

The original starter against LG on May 3, 2013 was Nippert.

Before the match, Nippert suddenly became unable to compete due to a wall, and this person, who was a middle-class fighting agent, was called.

He didn't miss the opportunity.

"I think that match became the most meaningful match for me. Because I put the first button well, that continued and reached the record of 101 wins. If Nippert wasn't sick, I would be here. So Nippert When we

met

."

After that, in a word, it was a triumph.

That year, he won 10 games, and in 2015, he finished second with 18 wins, and in 2016 he won 15 games, firmly establishing himself as a starter for Doosan.

Up to 2020, it has raised double-digit wins for eight consecutive years.

This record is a record that only four pitchers, including this person, have in the 40-year history of Korean professional baseball.

“There was. There was. First of all, I had the belief that the team members were so good that they would block well from the back. If my ball is slow, I hesitate or feel embarrassed, or if I lose in a fight, I think I lose no matter how good the ball is. So I I always tried to play confidently on the mound like someone with a faster ball than others.”

When he was in good condition, he had the confidence to divide the strike zone into nine and put them wherever he wanted with the pitch and pitch he wanted.

I made an imaginary dot and threw it as if I was putting a ball into it.

The crowd was clamoring for why he couldn't hit this guy's ball that didn't reach 130km/h, but the batters were helpless in front of this guy's ball, which felt much faster than the speedgun could hit.

“Actually, until the 3rd year, I was most proud of other players not being able to hit the ball of Yoo Hee-kwan. However, after 3 years or more, players start to have a respect for each other. 1-2 years are lucky, but you can do it for 3 years. If you consistently achieve more than that, then it's not luck at all, it's your real skill."

/ Lee Ye-rang, CEO of Ricoh Sports Agency

As a pitcher, slow ball speed is not so different from saying that you lack innate talent.

He wanted to make an effort to make up for the lack of talent, but this person said there was no such thing.

I wondered if he would reply that he only thought of baseball when he opened his eyes or closed his eyes, but he is not.

"I don't think I'm thinking of baseball when I'm away from the baseball field. The reason is because it's overwhelming when I do it and it's hard to concentrate at that time, but thinking about baseball even after I'm away from the baseball field seems rather stressful. I would do it a lot, but I didn't."

He played hard when he was playing.

He also likes to drink.

There are many 'hyungs' who will buy you alcohol.

I thought meeting with such people would cut it off with a single knife, but he said that he tried not to cross the line, but he said that he did not end the relationship itself.

I asked over and over again that if I work hard like you, anyone can win more than 10 wins for 8 consecutive years and become a pitcher with 100 wins.

If it was more successful than others, there must have been special effort.

This person seemed to know what the person asking the question was looking for.

'I tried to die to be at the top with my lack of talent.

I knew that when everyone else threw 100, I threw 200, and I didn't let the ball out of my hand when I slept to gain control."

It wouldn't be too difficult to say something like that, but this person didn't want to say it or express it that way.

"I said I worked hard, but I don't think I worked harder than others. I think other people worked harder than me. If you want to make a story that you have worked hard, you can make it. But in this day and age, you can't do it. I think it's a good thing. I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't done that. Of course, I did it if I had worked hard to be invisible, but I didn't do it in such a way that anyone was there to show it. Anyway, it's not special because everyone does it anyway."

If only 32 players in the 40-year history of professional baseball have built a monumental achievement for pitchers with 100 wins, it must be a genius.

So, when I said that I thought you were a genius, I said that it was the first time I had ever heard of a genius in my 37 years of life.

I got results that other people couldn't achieve without making extraordinary efforts, so I said 'genius' anyway, and I said 'That's right, then that's a genius'.

If you want to call yourself a genius, you can call him, but he seemed to want to say that there are plenty of people who are as talented as he is.

He was a member of the children's baseball team who visited Jamsil Stadium on weekends since elementary school.

He was born in Gangnam, Seoul, and grew up enjoying abundance and leisure.

I wondered if he was trying to overwrite the success story of the twin-eighth year on such a person.

He said, "This is not the case with anyone who expects words like 'bloody effort' or 'training to the bone', he said.

"How would I have achieved such a result if I hadn't exercised? Is that right? You can think of it that way. It's not like I played at home every day and went out to play. I have a talent for it. I also had a lot of luck.”

More than 1,000 aspiring professional baseball players appear in the draft market each year.

Of these, about 100 are selected by the professional baseball team, and among them, only 1 or 2 are active in the first-team stage.

There are very few players among them who are treated like stars.

As people who like baseball and have talent in baseball go through the process of being selected and selected through competition, it is natural to think that luck is just as important to this person as talent and hard work.

5. Someone who has struggled with prejudice

Prejudice that an athlete must be muscular A person who has struggled with the prejudice that

There is an image of what an athlete's body should be like.

There are some differences depending on the sport, but we do not have an athlete with a belly.

This man's body betrayed such public expectations.

"I think my body shape is a bit like that. Also, I love to eat. If I exercise a lot, I eat more because it is hard. To be honest, I seem to gain weight more and more while drinking. And when I eat, I eat late at night and eat late-night snacks, so it seems that I gained weight. Because of my body, there were malicious comments and a lot of prejudice."

Not the best balls come from a muscular body.

He struggled to maintain a body capable of throwing the best ball on his own.

"I think 92kg is the best condition. I'm a control pitcher. To have good control, you have to have good balance, but as you gain weight, your balance breaks down, so I think I worked hard to maintain that weight."

He is accustomed to receiving attention from others and is willing to enjoy it.

It's not like it's just a saying that if he hadn't been an athlete, he would have been a celebrity earlier.

Just by looking at the hairstyle that stands out anywhere, you can guess this person's tendency to some extent.

"I did this a few years ago and I think it suits me well. It's my trademark. He remembers my hair a lot."

Some people acknowledge this person's hair style as individuality, but they have also been criticized for being a 'government person' who only cares about other people's interests.

I don't agree with the idea that athletes should only work hard.

He actively responded to interview requests and did not hesitate to appear on variety shows.

“Playing baseball is important, but I think showing something different outside of baseball is a factor that can give baseball fans fun.

This man's baseball life was a battle against prejudice.

He has won the fight, but he also lost it.

He was not selected for the national team due to the prejudice that he would not be able to compete in international competitions if he was not fast at the ball.

He was not selected for the national team even when he finished second in a record of 18 wins in 2015.

“It’s unfortunate. Every athlete’s dream is to wear the Taegeuk mark on their chest. Now, I had a chance when I was winning 18 or 15, but in the end I wasn’t selected for the final entry. I think that kind of prejudice prevailed. I think it would be better to move on thinking that I was not selected because I was lacking, but it is very unfortunate. If I had become the national team, it would have been better in my baseball life, and my baseball could have grown more and the country would be better off. It's a pity in that part because I'm going out as a representative. The

skill of inserting the necessary words into the necessary passages was great. I talked about it by making full use of the subtle differences between the words sad, disappointing, and disappointing. Even the same out-course fastball looks different to batters As if he had the ability to throw a shovel, he chose words with similar meanings, but with subtle differences, and said he was a good talker, so he wanted to be bluffed and exaggerated, but there was no such thing.

6. Bad comments are better than no comments

He said he gets a lot of bad comments.

During his 13-year career as a player, he had never acted ethically or socially condemned, and had exemplary fan service.

Attacks on this person are usually based on this logic.

"What kind of 100-win pitcher is a player who throws a slow ball like you" or "It doesn't make sense to have 10 wins in eight consecutive years with your skills".

They want to believe that there is some unholy conspiracy.

A typical example is the so-called 'Hee Gwan Zone'.

This means that the ball is judged as a strike by cheating the referees or using trickery.

In a word, the strike zone was generous only to this person.

"I think that batters pitched more elaborately, making it difficult for batters to hit. That's why I think that's why such a phrase came to be. If I threw it in the middle of the strike zone so that others could see it, would it be called Hee-gwan-zone? I said I had a strong desire to win. There are many times when I express my disappointment if this doesn't come out. There are times when I fall down because of the regret... But those actions are because I focused too much on the game."

If I had to criticize it, it's not the person who threw the ball with precision, but the batters who didn't hit the ball.

The story of baseball caster Jung Woo-young, who has been watching this person since he started professional baseball, sounds convincing.

"Yu Hee-kwan is a player who throws the ball 15km slower than other pitchers. He has to mobilize everything he has to be able to stand similarly to other pitchers. I think the expression of regret was one of the things that Yoo Hee-kwan could mobilize.”

/ Jung Woo-young, sportscaster for SBS Medianet

With the intention of showing something to people who complained about it, I put in more effort with Ogi.

He said that the number of malicious comments has decreased considerably.

He laughed, saying that he was freed from malicious comments and that malicious comments were better than no comments, but his smiling expression didn't necessarily make him smile.

Hearing the words, it seemed that there were a lot of wounds in my heart.

"If it were your family or friends, would you post malicious comments like that? If you think about it even a little, it's easy... There is such a thing as freedom of expression, but I want you to think about what the other person will think when you say something like this. ."

During the conversation, another baseball player came up.

He said I had a bad impression of the player, and he thinks differently.

These words can only be said because there have been many instances where people have been hurt by the words they say without much thought.

This guy's story was hilarious.

"I think people have to experience. It is different from experiencing, rather than judging before meeting or knowing. If you experience, meet, and talk to, you can find out what this person was thinking and come up with a good image that is different from what I thought. Because there may be."

They try to forget bad things quickly and try to see the world in a positive way.

He is best friends with LG Kim Hyun-soo.

He has been hanging out with Doosan since he joined, and he often slept at Kim Hyun-soo's house.

Kim Hyun-soo made an early appearance and became a star, and fans cheered wherever he went.

At that time, he was a member of the 2nd Army.

“I’m a baseball player, but I ask Hyun-soo Kim to sign an autograph and take a picture… But I’m standing there in a strange way. I don’t recognize him. He gave me a cell phone and asked to take a picture of himself with Hyun-soo Kim…. Then I took a picture and took a little more. I have to do well. I am a baseball player as well, so I thought about that a lot.”

Perhaps it was because of such insolence, he climbed the path of a star that seemed far away, and money and fame naturally followed.

Starting with an annual salary of 24 million won in his first year of joining, the man's annual salary has risen almost vertically over the years.

In 2013, 26 million won became 100 million won the following year, 200 million won the following year, and 400 million won the following year.

In 2017, he earned 500 million won, making him the highest-paid player outside the free agency.

In the world of professional sports, a high salary is the same as a high rank in the military.

If your grades are good and your salary is high, you will be treated differently.

The director and the front desk were especially considerate of this person, and this person enjoyed it.

"I didn't have anything to be afraid of back then. There's nothing to regret... When I'm good, no matter what I do, I don't say anything. I don't think so, but my behavior might have changed when others saw it. I wonder if I should have done it."

He thought that the remuneration given to him would be small compared to his performance, but he said that it was rather high.

“I think I was given a lot of rewards. I think I received a lot of love and benefits compared to what I have. It may sound obvious when I say this, but I really think so. are doing."

7. I want to give back as much as I received

"No, I'm not shabby. That's the reality. The old-fashioned, good old-fashioned play-gwan is useless. It's cold-hearted, but it's not what it used to be in people's eyes or in their minds. For people, the current view of play is important. That's important too, but if we don't do it now, people tend to leave. So I wasn't shabby and this is the reality. I thought we'd make the ending better."

He said he likes the phrase 'the aesthetics of slowness'.

He did not hide the pride that he presented his own trend.

He advises people who want to learn how to succeed with a slow ball to maximize their strengths rather than trying to overcome their shortcomings.

"I sometimes see interviews with players who say they use me as a role model. It's nice to see them. Do these players have to give up baseball just because the ball is slow? I want you to believe in yourself and work hard because you showed that you can succeed even with a slow ball.”

He did not hide his love for the Doosan Bears.

He said he would not be where he is today if it were not for the team that nominated him, the team he had won 10 games for eight years in a row, and that team.

Later, he said he definitely wanted to coach the Doosan Bears.

"If there is a chance, I want to try it. Doosan had a coach offer, but I was afraid and very tired of running nonstop for 25 years and living the same life again... I was very tired. I was not confident enough to wear a uniform and coach right away, and I was exhausted. So I studied baseball a lot and said that I would come back someday."

I thought he was a smart and witty athlete, but he was someone I needed to express more than that.

At the end of the interview that ensued with laughter, he made this request.

As a commentator, not a player, he is preparing for a professional baseball demonstration game, which will begin on March 12.

He said his heart was fluttering.

He said that he wanted to show in his baseball commentary that he was sincere as much as he was passionate about baseball.

His bright and cheerful side will only be shown in entertainment shows, and he will show a completely different side in baseball commentary.

He is also a person who knows the charm of reversal and the power of reversal.

※ The full video of the interview with commentator Yoo Hee-gwan will be released for the first time on the SBS News YouTube channel at 8:25 pm today (12th).