Move to Changwon → join team right away’
Ryu Joong-il made a golden comeback by winning his fourth consecutive Asian Games title. Now the players return to their respective teams and play the remaining games. Among them, Noh Si-hwan has an individual title at stake, so attention is being paid to his performance in the remaining games.
The Korean baseball team, led by coach Ryu Joong-il, won 2-0 in the final against Chinese Taipei at the Hangzhou Asian Games held on the 7th and won the gold medal.
With this, Korea took the top spot for the fourth time in a row, following Guangzhou in 2010, Incheon in 2014, and Jakarta-Palembang in 2018.
The start was not easy. This is because the national team players were selected with an age limit in mind with the goal of generational change. As the Asian Games were postponed by a year, players aged 25 and under 4 years were selected.
The pain continued until the end, but the result was a happy ending. Korea, which had been defeated 0-4 in the group stage, finally took revenge in the finals and finally came out on top. As a result, as many as 19 people received military service benefits and laid the foundation for a generational change in Korean baseball.
The national team players, who returned home on the 8th, are now returning to their respective teams. Those who played as a team point their swords at each other again.
Currently, the KBO League is fiercely competing for rankings until the end of the season. Since they are essential players for each team, they chose to play instead of taking a break.
On the other hand, there are players whose teams have fallen out of the ranking competition but whose individual titles are at stake. This is Hanwha Noh Si-hwan.
Noh Si-hwan played a big role in this tournament with a batting average of 0.438 (7 hits in 16 at-bats) and 6 RBIs in 6 games. Although he did not have a home run, he came back showing off his slugging power with two doubles.
Now, Noh Si-hwan moves directly to Changwon and joins the team. Hanwha has 5 games remaining. You must perform well in the remaining games to win the individual title.
Noh Si-hwan ranks first in the home run category with 31 home runs. While he was away for a while, second place Jeong Choi (SSG) followed closely with 29. The owner of the home run king is currently in the fog. Attention is focused on whether Noh Si-hwan can maintain his No. 1 spot and become the home run king for the first time in his career.
There is another great record that can be written about Nosi Hwan-gi. That’s 30 home runs and 100 RBI. He hit 1 home run and 2 RBI against Kiwoom on the 22nd of last month, the day before the national team was called up. So he achieved up to 99 RBI. Now he only needs to hit 1 RBI to reach the milestone.
The reason why it is a great record is because he is the all-time record of 30 home runs and 100 RBIs by anyone under the age of 23. Until now, only three players have set this record. Binggrae Jang Jong-hoon (1991, 3 home runs, 114 RBI), Hyundai Park Jae-hong (1996, 30 home runs, 108 RBI), and ‘national hitter’ Lee Seung-yeop (current Doosan manager). Lee Seung-yeop recorded the record for three consecutive years from 1997 to 1999. Now, Noh Si-hwan is on the cusp of a great record, following his predecessors.