Korea’s 2 High School Baseball Powers

As of late 2005, there are 57 high schools with baseball teams in Korea. Nineteen of these have produced at least one of the 30 players that will participate in the World Baseball Classic in March.

Gwangju Jeil High produced five, the biggest number: Lee Jong-beom, Kim Jong-guk (Kia), Kim Byung-hyun (Colorado), Seo Jae-eung, and Choi Hee-seop (L.A. Dodgers). If only Park Jae-hong (SK), who was replaced with Song Ji-man (Hyundai) due to a finger injury and is also an alum of this high school made it, it would have been six. Busan High School takes second place with four alums: Sohn Min-han (Lotte), Jin Gap-yong, Park Han-yi (Samsung), and Jeon Byeong-du (Kia).

Gyeongbuk (Lee Seung-yeop, Bae Young-su), Shinil (Cho In-seong, Bong Jung-geun), Gunsan Commercial (Jeong Dae-hyun, Lee Jin-young), and Huimun (Kim Seon-woo, Jeong Jae-hoon) HS each developed two players that will play in WBC. The remaining 13 schools including Gongju (Park Chan-ho), Jangchung (Lee Byung-kyu), and Baemyung (Kim Dong-ju) have one each. Many agree that a good rivalry is the recipe for the baseball prestige of Gwangju Jeil High.

uni@donga.com