Chan-Ho, “Depressed”

It was finally happened to him.

Park Chan-Ho (29) of the Texas Rangers was placed on the 15-day disabled list due to a strained right hamstring. The Rangers officially announced yesterday that they have placed Park on the disabled list. He was retroactively placed on the disabled list on April 3rd, the next day of his Opening Day start, and will play games after 18th.

The rangers made this decision because Park`s MRI results were worse than expected. Therefore, the team has not named a starter for Park`s scheduled start Saturday against Anaheim Angels and called up Francisco Cordero from Triple-A to Big League.

This is the first time Park has been placed on the disabled list since he became a full-time Major League player in 1996. Although he had missed few games due to light colds, he never had been placed on the disabled list for treatment.

Park said, “The injury made me lost power and made my delivery worse during the Opening Day pitching in Oakland on 2nd.” He continued that, “It`s too bad, but what can I do? Because the hamstring is a sensitive spot, if I keep pitching it could get worse. I just have to keep trying to get ready. I am trying to help the team.”

Park Chan-Ho plans go back to Dallas from Oakland in order to take a rest and rehabilitating training. However, it is not quite sure that he will be fully recovered within 15 days. He set up an ambition to lead Rangers into the post season play with 20 wins in this season. But it became opaque. Suffering from waist pain during last year, he met another obstacle, a hamstring injury.

After having three consecutive loses from the Opening Day, the Texas Rangers recorded 7-5 victory over Oakland due to starter Doug Davis` nice pitching on 5th.

Sang-Soo Kim ssoo@donga.com