Chan Ho Park

Park Chan-Ho (, born June 29, 1973) is a South Korean professional  baseball player.Baseball-Reference.com, Park Chan-Ho; retrieved 2012-9-9.

In 2012, Park played 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  Choong-cheong in 1973. He started playing baseball in elementary school. 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 baseball and he was famous for  speed ball. 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 in the MLB, he was taken out for the Korean National Baseball team for the main pitcher in 2006 in World Baseball Classics.  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 of not having to serve in the military. This privilege originated from getting an award from the vice-premier in 1998. However 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 many famous pitchers in the team - Ramon E. Martinez, Nomo Hideo and Pedro Julio Astacio Pura etc. The players were players in that period in the MLB.  However, in the practice matches, he committed error by himself and then he was in trouble. Nevertheless, he displayed his abilities and potential to the coaches in the Dodgers. In a series of games,  participated in the middle of the game, the results of the game was a record with no losing point during 2 innings. As a result of this kind of good game he was left in the major leagues.

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

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

The meaning of entry of him in the MLB
He showed that  Asian players can be  MLB players and they can achieve their purpose.  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 solutions.

References

Other websites
 박찬호 at Naver.com

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