“I don’t know what situation I’ll be in, but I’ll do my best in the role I’m in to get good results.”
What does the Taegeuk mark mean to Na Seong-beom (34, KIA Tigers), a strong hitter representing the KBO League?
Na Seong-beom joined the national team after 8 years by being named in the 30-man outfielder category of the final entry of the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC). Na Seong-beom’s last national team career was in the Premier League 12 in 2015, and it’s been quite a while.
Na Seong-beom said, “I think it will be fun and exciting rather than burdensome. I was selected for the national team after 8 years. I think I will be very nervous like the first players.
For a long time, Na Seong-beom has been one of the league’s leading hitters. He has a career batting average of 0.313 (1510 hits in 4822 at-bats), 233 home runs, 927 RBIs, and an OPS of 0.915 in 1225 games. He also won the Golden Glove in the outfield category with good results last year. 스포츠토토
He is such an excellent hitter, but it is not guaranteed that he will be a starting player in the national team. While Kim Hyeon-soo (35, LG Twins) is expected to be the main left fielder, it seems that the selection of Na Seong-beom and Park Hae-min (33, LG) will be decided by strengthening offense and defense in each game. If attacking is given priority, Na Seong-beom will be in right field and Lee Jung-hoo will be in center field. On the other hand, if defense is important, Lee Jung-hoo can play right fielder and Park Hae-min can play center fielder.
Na Seong-beom himself is well aware of this. During the interview, when asked about the WBC, he continued to answer cautiously, saying, “I don’t know if I will run or not. I will prepare well to compete.”
However, there was a moment when Na Seong-beom’s answer became clear. It was time for him to reveal his determination to join the national team. He said, “I don’t know what kind of situation I’ll be in, but I’ll do my best in the role I’m playing so that I can get good grades.”
Na Seong-beom is a natural starter in his team, but in the national team, he can serve as a backup, such as a pinch hitter and big defense. He is not used to it, and his ego may be somewhat hurt, but he showed a willingness to put everything down and help the national team somehow. It was a part where we could see what the national team meant to Na Seong-beom.
Na Seong-beom said, “(The national team) is an honorable position. It is a position that everyone wants to be selected, but there are many players who cannot go even if they want to. I also wanted to go every year, but it did not work. We have to make it happen,” he said forcefully. Even for the best hitters in the league, the Taegeuk mark still means more than you can imagine.
Na Seong-beom’s comments contrast with those of Choo Shin-soo (41, SSG Landers), who recently criticized the national team selection process. Recently, Choo Shin-soo appeared on ‘DKNET’, a Korean radio station in Dallas, Texas, USA and said, “I think I would have seen the future. It lowered the value of sacrifice for veterans.
On the contrary, Na Seong-beom emphasized and promised to sacrifice for the national team at this time. The meaning of the national team spirit and the Taegeuk mark that Na Seong-beom sincerely emphasized is giving a lot of resonance to the baseball world.
