Thursday, July 29, 2021

Active Former Korean Olympians

I did a post last week on the former Japanese Olympic baseball players still active in either NPB or MLB but for some reason it took me a week to realize that I could do a similar post for Korean players.  There are just seven former Korean Olympic baseball players still active in KBO or MLB.  All of whom played on the Gold Medal winning team from the 2008 Beijing Games.  The players are Kang Min-ho of the Samsung Lions, Kim Hyun-soo of the LG Twins, Kim Kwang-hyun of the St Louis Cardinals, Lee Dae-ho of the Lotte Giants, Lee Yong-kyu of the Kiwoom Heroes, Oh Seung-hwan of Samsung and Ryu Hyun-jin of the Toronto Blue Jays.  Oh, Kang and Kim Hyun-soo are on the Korean roster for the Tokyo Games.  In fact, all three played in the team's win against Israel "today" (yesterday Korea and Japan time) with Oh getting the win (after blowing the save by giving up a game tying home run to Ryan Lavarnway in the ninth inning) and Kim hitting a game tying home run of his own in the seventh inning.  

Here's cards of each of the seven players.  Since there are no Korean Olympic team cards that I'm aware of, these are all KBO cards:

2019 SCC KBO Collection 2 SCCR2-19/111 All Star

2018 SCC KBO Collection SCCR-01/141 (Kim Hyun-soo)

2015 Superstar Baseball Season Two Sticker

2017 SCC #SCC-01-LT15/N

2018 Hanwha Eagles Calendar cards

2020 SCC Premium #SCCP1-20/L05

2010 KBO Game Set #AH-002

I guess it's not surprising that out of the seven players, five are either current or former MLB players.  Besides Kim Kwang-hyun and Ryu, Kim Hyun-soo played for the Orioles and Phillies, Lee Dae-ho played for the Mariners,  and Oh pitched for the Cardinals, Blue Jays and Rockies.  

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