“I’ll buy you something delicious, so I’ll ask you.”
NC Dinos outfielder Park Geon-woo (33) defines this year as “a year of learning a lot about baseball.” The season’s performance was not on fire, and as a veteran, he was notified of the second group of reprimand by coach Kang In-kwon for acting without responsibility. Season performance of .295 batting average (85 hits in 288 at-bats), 8 home runs, 47 RBIs, and OPS of .841 in 78 games. Like Park Gun-woo, he has a high OPS, but Park Gun-woo is still lowering himself.
He said, “There weren’t many seasons where the good feeling didn’t last as long as this year. It’s a year where I study a lot while playing baseball,” he said. “I don’t know what kind of player I am. Compared to good players like Lee Jeong-hoo (Kiwoom), Choi Hyeong-woo (KIA), and Kim Hyun-soo (LG), I am not that far yet. In the past, there was a color called a hitter who hit a lot of doubles, but now that color has disappeared. It seems that my center is shaking a lot,” he lowered himself.
In fact, Park Kun-woo showed his unique leg kick going back and forth at bat that day. He has an un-veteran-like trial and error, such as hitting without leg kicking. The third place in career batting average (.325) is the part where the agony of the hitter is revealed.
To escape the sluggishness, Park Kun-woo asked for help from a distant junior who was working full-time for the first time since his debut. Park Gun-woo said, “I am copying the form of younger players, but now I am following and learning the form of Seo Ho-cheol a lot.”
Infielder Seo Ho-cheol (27), who was nominated in the 87th overall in the 2nd 9th round in 2019, started to stand out by becoming the Futures League batting king with a batting average of 3.88 li (97 hits in 250 at-bats) in Sangmu in 2021. Last year, the first season after his discharge, he went through trial and error in the first team, but this year he started to fully bloom. He has a batting average of 3.7 (79 hits in 257 at-bats), 2 homers, 30 RBIs, and an OPS of .761 this year. He is solidifying his spot as the starting third baseman.
Park Gun-woo put down his veteran pride and asked Seo Ho-cheol. He said, “It was very difficult because I felt like I was constantly breaking the flow. That’s why (Seo) Ho-cheol is closely watching how he plays. He is a player who works really hard,” he said. “So I asked Hocheol for a long message. ‘I’m sorry, but I’m asking you to tell me what routine you do and how to exercise from before you start batting to the end. Hyung will buy me something delicious, so let’s do a favor,’ and Hocheol sent me a routine. There are a lot of good players on the team, but I wanted to see what the closest and most developed player would do.” 꽁머니지급
That’s how Park Geon-woo puts himself down and starts over. Despite his reprimand, manager Kang In-kwon believes in Park Kun-woo again and appoints him to the center lineup. And Park Geon-woo is struggling to be reborn as the original Park Geon-woo, asking for help from his juniors to regain his past glory.