Baseball Tourney Unites Korea’s Stars

The World Baseball Classic, a 16-nation international baseball tournament including the U.S., Dominican Republic, and the Netherlands, will include many U.S. major leaguers and baseball stars from around the world.

Team Korea’s roster includes Park Chan-ho of the San Diego Padres, Seo Jae-ung of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Kim Byung-hyun of the Colorado Rockies, and Lee Seung-yeop of Japan’s Yomiuri Giants.

Lee and Bong Jung-keun (Cincinnati Reds) will join the team on February 19, and most of the other players playing in foreign leagues will be joining the Korean team’s Fukuoka camp on February 24. Park will join his teammates on February 25. Lee Jong-beom (Kia), Lee Byeong-gyu, (LG) and other Korean League baseball stars will join on February 19.

The Korean team will start its training camp after a team meeting at Gannosu Stadium on February 20 at 10:00 a.m. The next day, the team will switch its training location to the Yahoo Dome. Getting used to a dome-type stadium will help the team since the WBC games will be played at the Tokyo Dome.

Korea will play practice matches against Japan’s Lotte on February 25 and 26 at the Yahoo Dome. On February 28, the Korean team will move to Tokyo to face last year’s Japanese series champion Lotte Marines in a friendly match.

Manager Kim In-sik plans to observe the condition of his players throughout the training camp and decide the team’s starters. Kim says his first and foremost goal is to get past the Asian round. Belonging to Group A with Japan, Taiwan, and China, Korea will start play on March 3 with its first match against Taiwan. China and Japan matches will follow on March 4 and 5, respectively. Only two teams among these four will advance to the main round that will be held in America.

uni@donga.com