Independent baseball club helps players get second chance in KBO League

Yu Ji-chang, a center fielder of the independent baseball club Yeoncheon Miracle, is poised to hit a pitch at Yeoncheon Baseball Park on Monday in the namesake border county near North Korea. / Korea Times

By Kang Hyun-kyung

YEONCHEON — Yu Ji-chang, 28, settled down in the northeastern border county of Yeoncheon near North Korea last year to join the independent baseball team Yeoncheon Miracle.

The club has helped aspiring Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) League players, who either failed to make the cut in the drafts by 10 KBO clubs or were let go from those teams, get a second chance in the major league.

The baseball team is the last resort for the aspiring KBO players.

Yu and 21 other miracle seekers were sweating to make their dream come true at Yeoncheon Baseball Park nestled under Mount Godae on Monday.

Yu, a centerfielder who was let go by the NC Dinos years ago, has been practicing harder since winter for his upcoming tryout for a KBO team, which he chose not to name for fear of possible fallout on his test.

During the week-long test starting on April 11, coaching staff and scouts of the team will check thoroughly his ability to run, throw, field, pitch, and hit with power to figure out if he is the one they're looking for.

Yu knows how hard it is to pass the test. He was invited to a couple of tryouts last year but failed to make the cut. He was rejected, partly because of his physical condition — he is 172 centimeters tall and weighs 72 kilograms. This seemed to make the KBO scouts feel he was far from the typical body structure of a slugger. However, there are several great KBO stars who became assets to their teams despite their relatively unfavorable physical condition.

Yu thinks his age isn't helpful, either. "They're looking for younger guys having better physical condition than me," he said. "But I keep working hard to make my dream come true because this is my last chance to re-enter the KBO League. It's going to be tougher for me to get an opportunity to play in the major league if I'm getting older."

The Miracle, which was launched in 2015, is the nation's second independent baseball team, following the Goyang Wonders. The Wonders were dissolved in 2015, three years after they were founded.

The Miracle team is independent because it has no affiliation with the KBO or the minor Futures Leagues and is not subject to territorial protection.

Each player of the independent baseball team pays a 600,000 won membership fee every month for food and housing. To finance his career there, Yu works as a bartender at a cocktail bar in Seoul during the weekend. Like him, about half of the miracle seekers there do part-time jobs during the weekend.

The players play 50 practice games annually against minor league teams and universities to improve their skills. So far, five Miracle players have successfully joined KBO clubs. The Hanwha Eagles' outfielder Kim Won-seok, a rising star of the 2017 KBO League, is one of the miracle makers. He practiced in the Miracle for several months before he joined the Eagles in 2016.

Kim's early success in the KBO League has become an inspiration for the Miracle players. Jang Si-ha, a shortstop of the team, said he was encouraged to practice harder after watching the Eagles' Opening Games against last year's champions the Doosan Bears.

Asked if he had any specific goals, Jang, a former Kia Tigers player, said he'd like to win the Golden Glove Award. "I want to play again in any professional baseball club and would like to win the award," he said.

Yu and Jang are two main sources of pride for manager Kim In-sik, a former coach of the LG Twins.

"Ji-chang is short but he is a persistent and tenacious player. If accepted by any baseball club, some day he will be a player as great as the Eagles' outfielder Lee Yong-kyu," he said. "I've been in baseball for several decades and I don't see any differences between the two players and those who are now playing in the KBO League in terms of their skills and performances. They are great players."

Hopes are high among Miracle players as there's some positive news for them. An independent league will be launched later this month following the creation of another independent baseball club — the Journeyman Baseball Team. The two teams will clash on April 24 during the opening games at Mokdong Ballpark in Seoul and are scheduled to have 48 games every Monday this year.

"Scouts from the KBO clubs will be there for the games to search for baseball talent," said manager Kim. "This is great news because our players will be able to get a second chance in the KBO League if they are discovered by scouts."

However, it still remains uncertain whether the independent league will succeed or not. Kim said the league has a long way to go when it comes to success. Funding is one of the hurdles standing in its way.

Independent league

"Our players are in their 20s and some of them are in their early 30s," he said. "Some of them are feeling the pinch for financial troubles and quit because they were unable to pay the membership fee. As manager, it's really difficult to see the departure of a talented player."

The main funding for the Miracle team comes from the Yeoncheon County government. Since 2015 when the two sides signed a sponsorship agreement, the county has provided 2 billion won every year for the operation of the baseball team.

The team has since used Miracle — the slogan of the county— as its official title. The county adopted it in the hopes that some of its 45,000 residents could work together to spur together miracle-like growth and development there.

The Miracle team also has individual donors and some corporate donors who contribute financial support or donate their products, such as baseball bats and hamburgers.

"We're really thankful for their generous support," said manager Kim, a founding member and a former infielder of the MBC Blue Dragons which later became the LG Twins. "But we still need more financial support because operating a 22-member baseball team requires much more financial resources than we have now. My humble wish is we can secure funding sufficient enough to cover our players' incomes so that they no longer need to pay their training fees here."

The Miracle team has a bank account to receive donations from individual and corporate donors.

IBK Bank account: 233-101099-01-021 (Yeoncheon Miracle baseball team)

Site Map E-paper Subscribe Register LogIn
Site Map E-paper Subscribe Register LogIn