Heungkuk Life recruits daughter of MLB legend Randy Johnson

The Korean women's professional volleyball team Heungkuk Life Pink Spiders has signed Willow Johnson (26, opposite spiker) as its newest foreign player. Johnson is the daughter of legendary Major League Baseball pitcher ‘Big Unit’ Randy Johnson (61). Like her father (208 centimeters), she is tall (191 centimeters) and left-handed.

According to the Korean volleyball community, Johnson already joined the Heungkuk Life team on Saturday. However, the team did not officially announce the foreign player until Sunday, as there are still procedures to finalize the signing, such as obtaining a visa. If Johnson completes the signing process, Heungkuk Life's existing foreign player Jelena Mladenović (27) will leave the team after a season and a half.

With the addition of Johnson, Heungkuk Life will challenge for the lead by banking on the ‘two spikers’ of Kim Yeon-kyung (36) and Johnson. Heungkuk Life continued to lead the standings with 30 points (11-1) through Round 2. They are more than a game ahead of second-place Hyundai E&C (26 points). However, Jelena's attack success rate, which was 43.6 percent (4th ranked overall) through Round 2, dropped to 36.4 percent from Round 3, and the team was only able to add 20 points (seven wins and five losses). Heungkuk Life is now in second place with 50 points, nearly three games behind leader Hyundai E&C (58).

Johnson's father, an MLB Hall of Famer, played for 22 years with Seattle and Arizona from 1988-2009, compiling a record of 303 wins and 166 losses with an ERA of 3.29. He won five Cy Young Awards, the symbol of the MLB's best pitchers, and was named an All-Star 10 times.


Hong-Gu Kang windup@donga.com