KIA Tigers pitcher Park Chan-ho attended the 2023 Golden Glove Awards held at COEX Auditorium in Gangnam-gu, Seoul on Sunday. He was a shortstop candidate who was considered the biggest battleground, but Park did not expect to win. His competitor was Oh Ji-hwan, the captain of LG Twins.
Oh Ji-hwan actually won the Golden Glove. He received 154 votes out of 291 valid votes, ranking first with 52.9 percent of the vote. Park received 120 votes and 41.2 percent of the vote. He was 34 votes behind Park in second place.
He thought he would finish second in the vote, but why did Park appear at the ceremony? The reason was to congratulate Oh Ji-hwan, who was curious about the ceremony and competed in good faith.
“At first, I didn’t plan on coming to the award ceremony. I came in a hurry,” Park told reporters before the ceremony. “Actually, I wanted to see the award ceremony at least once. I don’t think I will get it. But I came here because I thought it would be a good idea for a competitor to attend the ceremony.”
In fact, Park performed his best this year. He had three homers, 52 RBIs and 73 runs in 130 games. He ranked 13th in the batting average (0.301) and 3rd in the stolen bases (30). He pitched 1,042 ⅔ in defensive innings, firmly maintaining Kia’s centerline. Notably, his batting ability grew rapidly, spearheading Kia’s offense. 메이저 토토사이트
Park, who was performing at his best, was hamstrung by his injury. Park himself is also hugely disappointed. “My biggest strength was that I was not injured enough to be told, ‘Are you hurt?’ But I got hurt because baseball was doing well. That was the most regrettable thing. I also thought about how much better my performance would have been if I had not been hurt. I felt most regrettable about my injury this year,” he said.
He also paid tribute to Oh. Park said, “It’s so nice just to be mentioned with Oh. I’ve been talking about Oh and myself for months now. I feel like I’m one step closer to the best shortstop Oh Ji-hwan. I’m so happy just to be mentioned with him.”
Park also expressed his determination to win the first Golden Gloves award next season. “I think it will be helpful to feel the atmosphere and appearance of the award ceremony later on. I should come as a winner someday,” Park said, vowing to achieve good results in 2024.
Meanwhile, Oh expressed his gratitude to Park. “Park Chan-ho is a player who competed with me. I think I am showing great performance just by attending the award ceremony. I will attend the award ceremony next year even if I don’t get one,” Oh said with a smile.