Chan Ho Park

Park Chan-Ho (, born June 29, 1973) is a South Korean professional sportsperson.  He is best known as a baseball player.

In 2012, Park plays for the Hanwha Eagles of Korea Baseball Organization.

He also played for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Texas Rangers, San Diego Padres, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees, and Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball. He was the first Korean to play baseball in the MLB in the USA.

Early life
Park was born in Gongju, in the province of the Choong-cheong in 1973. He started playing baseball from the elementary school in the region he was born. At first, he wanted to be an athlete but he had a more talent in baseball. Then he was called by the baseball coach of his elementary school. From then, he played the baseball and he was famous for the speed ball in their ages. Park was a member of the 1992 and 1993 South Korea national baseball team. He was a sophomore at Hanyang University, Seoul in 1994 when he was signed by the Los Angeles Dodgers as an amateur free agent.

Career
As he was famous for in the MLB, he was taken out for the Korean National Baseball team for the main pitcher in 2006 in World Baseball Classics. The reason is that he was good at playing baseball in the all matches and he noticed that he functioned as a cheering up the other players. He once won 18 games in one year, was selected as an all-star player and made 100 wins in his own life three years ago.

In addition, he participated in the 18th Asian Games in Bang-Kok, getting the gold medal and the privilege so he did not have to serve in the military. All this privilege originated from getting an award from the vice-premier in 1998. However, as shown above, he did not get any award in the MLB except for being selected as one of the all-star players in 2001.

An absolute 5th starter Park Chan-Ho
He was selected in the 5th starter of LA Dodgers. At that time, there were so many famous pitchers in the team. There are Ramon E. Martinez, Nomo Hideo and Pedro Julio Astacio Pura etc. The players were players in that period in the MLB. The most surprising was the first pitcher who participated in the all games, and then the second pitcher who are selected in the 5th starter. However, in the practicing matches, he committed error by himself and then he was in the trouble situation, but after the game, he was also noticed that he had to go down for minor leagues. Nevertheless, he displayed his abilities and potentials to the all of coaches in the Dodgers. In a series of games, he was participated in the middle of the game, the results of the game was a record with no losing point during 2innings. As a result of this kind of good game, fortunately, he was left in the major leagues.

Starting with Asian famous pitcher in the MLB
He got first winning in April 7th in 1996 when the time is first year left in the major leagues. The match was against with Chicago Cubs, and he was participated in the middle of the game. Then, he recorded no losing point during 4innings, so that he got the first winning point and he started with the period of prosperity. Then, he was selected in the fixed starter of LA Dodgers and then his annual salary was sharply increased. From then on, he was really famous for the Korean super pitcher in the LA and all of United States. And he pitched whole game first in 1997 and then in 1998 he got fifteen winnings and nine loses and in 1998 thirteen winnings and eleven loses etc.

A severe trial Park Chan-Ho
During about ten seasons, he was really good at baseball game. However, all of sports players had more or less tough seasons for about one or two times. It means that the suffering was stimulus for the players so that they were trying to recover the trial, but Park Chan-Ho was not exception. He was traded into another team such as Texas Rangers, Sandiego Padres, New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillis. Then, he was always in the minor leagues and, of course, he was cut down for his annual salary. At last, he announced that he decided to resign the player and to be a good coach in this year.

The meaning of entry of him in the MLB
It means that the Asian players can be a MLB player and they can achieve their purpose. Thus, we will show our potential to citizens of U.S.A. In addition to this, the players who are in the Korean leagues and the amateur players have a dream that they will be in the leagues. Then, the players are motivated by the different chances and they also contribute to develop economy of our society. And then, if they stop the players, they will become coaches in Korea, and then our chronic problem about the culture of sports players will have some solutions.

References

Other websites
 박찬호 at Naver.com

1973 births
Living people
South Korean baseball players
Los Angeles Dodgers players
Texas Rangers players
San Diego Padres players
New York Mets players
Philadelphia Phillies players
New York Yankees players
Pittsburgh Pirates players
National League All-Stars