Bloops: Shin-Soo Choo may have to leave MLB for military
Posted by Andy on September 8, 2010
Interesting stuff from CNN.com reporting that Shin-Soo Choo will be obligated to report to the Korean military within a year unless, perhaps, he helps Korea win the gold medal in the Asian games to be played in November.
September 8th, 2010 at 10:52 am
Two quick follow-up thoughts:
1) Wow Choo has put together 3 really good years in his last 3 seasons. Losing him would really suck for Cleveland especially since he doesn't become a free agent until 2014.
2) Great name chain: Shin-Soo Choo Choo Coleman!
September 8th, 2010 at 11:43 am
Wow, that stinks. Anytime you lose a 20 HR and 20 SB guy you'll be hurting a bit. Not sure who would replace him.
September 8th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
I hope they do win a medal. Shin-Soo Choo is one of my favorite players and really, is already the most successful South Korean position player in MLB history.
September 8th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
He could always claim to be gay. The South Korean military does not allow homosexuals to serve, dishonorably discharging them on the grounds that they have a "personality disorder."
September 8th, 2010 at 1:56 pm
Couldn't he just get American citizenship and then not have to report? I can't see that being very hard I think the Indians would even help him
September 8th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
I think its a bit much to ask someone to renounce his or her citizenship to their homeland.
September 8th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
You also gotta remember how badly Korea needs soldiers. It isn't like the required military service was a huge suprise.
Good luck, though I wouldn't expect any extraordinary measures to avoid service.
September 8th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
duff, yes, it is much easier to renounce your sexual orientation.
September 8th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Either one is ridiculous. If he changes his citizenship, I suspect he still wouldn't ever be allowed back into Korea, which is way too much to give up. A gay man in MLB pretending to be straight has to be incredibly difficult--no doubt harder than a straight man pretending to be gay--but the latter would be a pretty big ordeal nonetheless, I imagine.
September 8th, 2010 at 3:13 pm
I was kinda kidding about the claiming to be gay thing, by the way.
September 8th, 2010 at 3:37 pm
Wait, how would winning a gold medal get him out of service? You mean that the system doesn't treat everyone fairly? Gasp!
Also, I'd like to state that my first thought was "Ted Williams lost time to Korea, too!"
September 8th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
As an Indians fan I watch a lot of their games on MLBTV which allows me to chose which announcing team I want to listen too (never have to hear the white sox announcers again!). This was an issue that first came up last season and was a major topic of discussion during spring training. I hadn't heard it mentioned in months so I just assumed they'd found a solution. Losing him would be a major loss for most teams, but the Indians won't be competitive next year anyway so it's more a financial loss than anything else. Besides knowing Dolan, he'll probably trade Choo this winter for a mediocre AA pitcher and a bag of peanuts.
September 8th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
One year of military service is not as bad as you guys are making it sound. From the number and experience of WWII should give us some insight about what will happen to both cleveland and shoo. It will be just a lost year or two. Usually, korea can dismiss it as a familial support issue. most countries do release young men who are responsible for their families support and it not an issue of draft dodging. In return the korean government may just want something in return.
September 8th, 2010 at 4:50 pm
Choo can get a green card very easily if he wanted to do so. It's just that the backlash in Korea will be too strong for his preference. Yes, he could pretend to be gay, but he's married with children. That's not going to fly. Heck, even if it worked, Korea is kind of backwards with regards to its view of homosexuals, so he'd face some serious backlash all the same. Conclusion: Korea sucks ass. At least he won't be sent to the mines for losing...
September 8th, 2010 at 5:55 pm
Seems to me that a favorite player of mine, Ted Williams, missed a couple of seasons because of military service in -- you got it -- Korea. It seems to me that perhaps Choo is just doing as much for his country as Americans have already done for them.
September 8th, 2010 at 6:30 pm
One final thought.
If Choo does report for military service, I hope that the Indians have the decency to not screw him out of any of his salary if he misses playing time. To me, serving his country would make Choo an All-Star of the best sort!
September 8th, 2010 at 7:40 pm
I doubt that Choo will end up leaving to go serve for his country. Like it was previously said, he can acquire his green card. Paul Hoynes, Terry Pluto, and the rest of the Plain Dealer have been commenting on this for quite some time.
If he were to lose, it would be devastating for the Indians. As a fan, it would be tough to bear. Our team is currently absolutely awful. Once Carlos Santana went down with a season ending injury, Choo has been our only above average player. I saw the comment that the Indians were going to lose anyways, but this would damage the Indians catastrophically. All the prospects we received for Cliff and Sabathia have been terrible. The best we can hope is Michael Brantley becomes a solid fourth outfielder, Jason Donald can be a stopgap for future middle infielders, LaPorta can be average at first, and Carrasco can be a third of fourth starter. If Dolan encourages Shapiro and Antonetti to trade Choo, I don't know how much more faith I can put into this regime.
September 8th, 2010 at 8:52 pm
@Bob, 14
Choo's from South Korea, not North Korea. In South Korea, they only send losers to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
September 8th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
Frank,
I respect your patriotism. However, do not yet compare what Choo may have to do with Williams' military service time. Williams succesfully made an effort to avoid military service during WWII by getting his Selective Service status changed; something thousands of soon-to-be-dead young Americans who were not national celebrities were unable to do. It was only after pressure from the media and financial sponsors that Ted decided to enlist on his own. He never left U.S. soil during his active duty for WWII. Almost 10 years later he was recalled as an Inactive Reservist to participate in the "UN Police Action" in Korea, which, intelligently enough, he was not happy about.
Your statement about what "Americans have already done for [Koreans]" is a national embarrassment. The US itself created the division between North and South Korea and militarily occupied the South since the end of WWII. We (i.e. the people that run our government) then used the Korean peninsula to test our military resources against the expansion of Soviet influence. The US was NEVER at War in Korea--yet 2 million Korean civilians died. The division we created remains today. What have we done for Korea, Frank?
September 8th, 2010 at 9:52 pm
C'mon, TC, your version of history isn't necessarily the right one. For the sake of the blog, I'll only challenge your remarks on Ted Williams.
Ted was III-A because he was his family's sole support and followed the advice of his attorney. It was reasonable and within the law, and he was one of many, many ballplayers who received that legitimate exemption. He could have avoided the military, but he did enlist, and he didn't try to just play ball for some morale team. He trained to become a combat pilot, and that is not something that many people can do or that happens overnight. He then served with distinction in Korea when, again, he could have resisted or finagled lighter duty. I mean, c'mon. The guy was a goddamn MARINE COMBAT PILOT. How can somebody top that? Can we please refrain from questioning his service?
September 9th, 2010 at 12:42 am
So if he helps South Korea win a gold medal (has to be gold?) he gets an exemption? If they're willing to do that, I'm surprised they also don't give an exemption to any baseball player who makes it to the major leagues.
September 9th, 2010 at 12:58 am
I remember in 1998 Chan Ho Park was in the same situation.
He was the first Korean born player in history to make it to the Major Leagues.
It didn't carry any weight.
The Korean government notified him that his team must win the Gold Medal in the Asian Games or he was subject to be inducted into the Korean Army.
Luck was on his side and when 1998 season ended, he did indeed lead Korea to the Gold Medal in the 1998 Asian Games.
The government then notified him that he was relieved of his service.
Then in 1999 I was watching a game on TV and the Dodgers were playing the Cardinals.
Chan Ho Park gave up a grand slam homer to Fernando Tatis.
As the inning progressed amazingly the Cardinals kept getting men on base and scoring and I looked ahead and figured there was a good possibility that Tatis could get another chance to hit a second grand slam.
Not only that but Chan Ho was still on the mound. But not to worry I figured the Dodgers would certainly pull Chan Ho before it came to that situation. But then there it was and Dodger Davey Johnson was not coming to the mound.
Well the rest is history.
Fernando Tatis is the only MLB player to hit 2 grand slams in an inning but he did it against the same pitcher. Chan Ho Park...
Box of the game on 4/23/1999 from BB-Ref.com:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/LAN/LAN199904230.shtml
I believe there will be other batters who will hit 2 Grand Slams in the same inning of a game but I think Chan Ho Park will be the only pitcher to ever give up the 2 slams to the same batter in 1 inning.
Then again, if it happened 1 time I guess it could happen again if a team is out of pitchers, etc. but this happened in the 3rd inning, Chan Ho was winning 2-0 going into the top of the 3rd.
Oh, and yes they finally pulled him right after the 2nd GS by Tatis. Carlos Perez relieved and got J.D. Drew to pop up to 3rd.
September 9th, 2010 at 9:24 am
Yeah--if it's OK with everybody, I'd like to cut the discussions of war and politics here unless they are specifically baseball-related.
September 9th, 2010 at 10:38 am
This is about Choo, not about Chan Ho Park.
Why do yo write about that?
In Korea, Male must go to military,and so do Choo.
If Korea team get a Gold medal,he should not to go to military, but if korea loes at competition, Choo must choose.
September 9th, 2010 at 10:39 am
That's it. I am closing comments on this post.
The issues of past wars, politics, deaths among military and civilians, are all interesting, but not for discussion on this blog.
I think bringing up Park is OK, just insomuch as he went through the exact same thing that Choo is going through now.