Heo Koo-youn

By Kim Bo-eun

Former baseball player Heo Koo-youn, 61, will found a baseball team for children of interracial families in Korea, Monday.

The team will be called Heo Koo-youn Rainbow Little.

The initiation ceremony will be held at the National Baseball Center in Goyang, north of Seoul.

The junior team will be comprised of about 20 children from interracial and underprivileged families residing in Goyang.

Heo, currently the head of the Baseball Development Executive Committee affiliated with the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), will be the general manager of the team.

“The team is designed to help resolve the problems troubling interracial families through sports,” Heo said in a phone interview with The Korea Times Friday.

“Rather than focusing on training, we want them to be able to enjoy baseball, by playing and going to games,” he added.

The team will start training next month through October on every second and fourth Saturday at the KINTEX Baseball Stadium in Ilsan, Goyang.

Heo was a player on the baseball team of the now-defunct Hanil Bank until 1976. He is now a commentator on MBC Sports Plus as well as the chairman of the Korea Baseball Association and the Technical Committee of the Baseball Federation of Asia.