Kang Min-ho wins All-Star MVP

Lotte Giants catcher Kang Min-ho kisses a trophy besides a Kia Motor K5 sedan after he won the MVP prize during the Korea Baseball Organization's (KBO) All-Star game at the Suwon KT Wiz Park in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Saturday. / Yonhap

By Baek Byung-yeul

With 18,000 baseball fans packing the Suwon KT Wiz Park, the Lotte Giants catcher Kang Min-ho became the most valuable player (MVP) of the Korea Baseball Organization's (KBO) All-Star game, Saturday.

Kang started the game as a catcher of Dream All-Star, comprised of the Samsung Lions, SK Wyverns, Doosan Bears, KT Wiz and the Giants, and went 2-for-3 with 2 RBIs (run batted in) and 1 run. He hit home runs in the top of the 2nd inning against the NC Dinos pitcher Eric Hacker against the Nanum All-Star team consisting of the Nexen Heroes, LG Twins, Kia Tigers, Hanwha Eagles and the Dinos.

Kang was supposed to get only one at-bat as he was suffering from thigh injury but batted two more times until being replaced with the Bears catcher Yang Eui-ji in the bottom of the sixth inning.

With Kang helping his team to a 6-3 victory, Kang topped at the MVP voting, receiving 26 from 43 baseball reporters. The Bears pitcher Yoo Hee-kwan was followed with 11 votes. This was Kang's first All-Star MVP title. With Kang being awarded, the Giants earned high marks for producing 15 MVPs in the KBO's 34-year-old history. As prize money, Kang received a Kia Motor's K5 midsize sedan.

"I just put my significance participation of the All-Star game, but decided to be at the batter's box two more times as the manager Ryu Jung-il encouraged me to grab a MVP title after hitting a home run," Kang told reporters after the game. "I will present the sedan to my mother as she lately sold her car."

A day earlier, Hwang Jae-gyun of the Giants won the home run derby beating Eric Thames of the Dinos by a large margin in the final match up.

The third baseman, who advanced to the final with 10 homers, hit 11 while Thames remained only 2 home runs. This was the 27-year-old slugger's first win in the derby. Hwang, who already garnered 22 homeruns in the first half, received 5 million won and four musical tickets.

Prior to the All-Star game on Saturday, the United States Ambassador to Korea Mark Lippert was named as an honorary ambassador for the KBO. At a ceremony, the U.S. envoy, known as an avid baseball fan, presented a baseball autographed by members of the San Francisco Giants and the Kansas City Royals, the two contestants of last year's World Series, to the KBO Commissioner Koo Bon-neung.

Second-half predictions get tougher

With the All-Star break having just passed, 10 clubs in the KBO will play from as few as 57 games to as many as 63 in the second-half of the season from Tuesday.

While the reigning champion Lions finished atop the first half with 49 wins and 34 losses for the four consecutive seasons, no one is sure who will smile in the end as the Daegu-based team lead the race by a game over the second-place Bears and by 1.5 games over the third ranked Dinos.

Fierce competitions to hold fourth and fifth spot will be expected as well.

The fifth-place Eagles is 1.5 games behind the fourth-place Heroes and the Wyverns is right behind the Eagles by a margin of one game.

Previously, the top four of the nine clubs made it into the postseason to battle for the Korean Series title, but with the Wiz as the league's 10th club, top five teams will make it into the playoffs from this season.

Though the sixth ranked Tigers, the seventh ranked Giants and the eighth ranked Twins have a faint chance to raise their rank, the same happening for the Wiz is unlikely as they are 10 games behind the ninth ranked Twins.

The Lions' manager Ryu Jung-il said his team will run ahead from the beginning of the second-half. "Every game for the rest of the season will be decisive for us. We will put our utmost effort from Tuesday," Ryu told reporters after defeating the Heroes in their home stadium in Pohang Baseball Stadium, Thursday.

He attributed their strong performance in the first half to imported pitcher Alfredo Figaro and rookie first baseman Koo Ja-wook.

"Figaro did play a large part in the team, throwing more than six innings in every game he started in the first half. Koo also proved that his performance has been getting better."

When predicting rest of the season, Ryu said the KT Wiz will likely be the greatest variable in the race.

"Every club should be aware of the KT Wiz. They were weak in the early part of the season, but they get better as the season moves on. They are threat to every other club," he said.

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