“I don’t know of anyone who hasn’t stolen a base, but there’s that pleasure when you succeed. It’s addictive.” (Laughter)
Park Min-woo (30, NC Dinos), who once reached the 50-base high, declared a ‘resurrection of the great sword’. In particular, it can be said that it is unusual to reveal such a determination even after signing a large free agent contract.
Park Min-woo said in an interview with Star News at Changwon NC Park on the 11th, “I want to play again because I feel the fun and taste of stealing in the past through the 2021 and 2022 seasons.”
In fact, for Park Min-woo, the past two seasons could not be said to be good memories. Starting with the SNS controversy, injuries and various incidents occurred one after another. He also confessed, “I want to live a quiet life now.”
His performance was also only 0.261 batting average in 2021 and 0.267 in 2022. He achieved a batting average of 300 for six consecutive years (2015-2020), and in 2017, he recorded a whopping 0.363 and ranked third, adding to the regret. In the meantime, it was a number that did not reach the name value of Park Min-woo at all.
However, he did show some hope, and that was stealing bases. Min-woo Park recorded 12 stolen bases in 2021, when he played in 215 at-bats in only 50 games due to injury and disciplinary action for violating the Corona 19 quarantine rules. This was a record not much different from the number of stolen bases (13) achieved in 530 at-bats the previous year.
Following this, he also recorded 21 steals in 104 games in 2022, ranking 8th. It was the first time in six years since 2016 (20 stolen bases, 10th place) that Park Min-woo was in the top 10 in the stolen base category.
“In 2021, the pace was good until the season was out. If I had only played full-time, I would have played 20 unconditionally,” said Park Min-woo, who said, “Last year, I missed 40 games and played, but if I set my mind, I will be able to play more than 30 unconditionally.” thought,” he said.
Park Min-woo was a player who was close to ‘Daedo’ even in his early days as a professional player. In 2014, his first year full-time, he stole 50 bases and stole 46 bases the following year. In both seasons, he consistently showed top-level base running play in the league, although he was only in second place behind Kim Sang-soo (33) and Park Hae-min (33), respectively.
However, after stealing 20 bases in 2016, Park Min-woo has not recorded more than 20 stolen bases for a while. He didn’t have to steal the base, but he scored because there were plenty of hard hitters such as Na Seong-beom (34, now KIA), Park Seok-min (38), and Yang Eui-ui (36, now Doosan). The decrease in the number of matches due to residual injuries was also a factor.
Still, Park Min-woo confessed that he always had a desire for stealing bases. He said, “I had greed as a runner, but there were situations where I couldn’t run even if I wanted to, and there were many restrictions due to injuries.” He said, “Now I feel the fun of stealing the old bases again.”
Park Min-woo’s commitment also contributed to the change in team color. Over the past two years, players who can hit more than 20 homers, such as Na Seong-beom, Yang Eui-ji, and Aaron Altair (34), have left the team, and alternate hitters such as Park Gun-woo (33) and Son Ah-seop (35) have joined the team instead. Due to the decrease in the number of home runs, he has been aiming for goals and advances through baseball. Park Min-woo also said, “I think the role of running has become more important because the number of long hitters has decreased a lot this year.”
The recent trend in baseball is reducing attempts to steal bases due to the risk of injury and efficiency issues. The league-wide stolen bases, which were 1024 in 576 games in 2014, fell to 890 from 720 games last year. Here, ahead of this season, he signed a contract for 8 years (5+3 years) and up to 14 billion won. 먹튀검증
However, Park Min-woo rather chose the path to save the ‘wild nature’ of base base for the team. He expressed his wish, “I hope this year will be a year to test myself by stealing 2 to 30 bases.”