NC Park Seok-min officially announces retirement “I will be a respected person”
In 1697 career games, batted .287 with 268 home runs and 1041 RBIs
NC Dinos veteran infielder Park Seok-min (38) has officially announced his retirement.
“Park Seok-min recently informed the club of his intention to end his 20-year professional baseball career,” the club said on Tuesday.
After graduating from Daegu High School and joining the Samsung Lions with the first pick in the 2004 rookie draft, Park signed a four-year, $9.6 billion free agent contract with NC after the 2015 season. He became a free agent again after the 2020 season and re-signed with the team for 2+1 years for a maximum of 3.4 billion won.
Park, who once played third base for the KBO and represented Korea in the 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC), has a career batting average of .287 with 269 home runs and 1041 RBIs over his 20-year career.
He is a two-time Golden Glove winner (2014-2015) and helped Samsung win the first-ever combined four-peat from 2011 to 2014.
He holds the KBO record for most RBIs in a single game (9), and in the 2020 season, he led NC to its first ever unified championship as a starter.
He has won six Korean Series titles and was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the 2016 playoffs.
Off the field, he donated 600 million won to local elementary, middle, and high school baseball players and the Youth Baseball Foundation, and raised 200 million won for the families of the Yangsan rope crash victims and the Gangwon-do wildfires.
After the 2020 season, he was awarded the “Golden Glove of Love” by the Social Welfare Foundation, which recognizes baseball players with the highest level of social contribution.
Park’s career went downhill in 2021. He struggled with slumps and injuries, and in 2021, he was suspended for violating quarantine rules.
After earning a salary of 700 million won last year, Park signed for 50 million won this year, hoping to revive his career, but hamstring and left big toe injuries limited him to 30 appearances in the first team. He hasn’t played in the first team since July and eventually decided to retire.
“I am grateful to everyone who helped me play professional baseball for 20 years,” Park said through the club. “To the NC and Samsung fans, to the fans who loved me as a baseball player, I can’t show you the player Park Seok-min wearing the No. 18 jersey, but I will do my best to be respected as a person Park Seok-min,” he said.
“I would like to thank my parents for all the support they have given me to play baseball. I would like to tell my beloved wife and two sons, Jun-hyun and Seo-joon, that I love them for enduring the hard times and supporting me as a professional baseball player’s wife.”
In light of his teammates’ fierce competition in the standings and postseason play, Park will discuss his future plans, including a retirement ceremony, with the club at a later date. 슬롯사이트
