High school baseball team to appeal ban over trash talk
Baseball players from Paichai High School pay their respects to victims of the May 18 pro-democracy uprising at the May 18th National Cemetery in the southwestern city of Gwangju, Monday. Yonhap
A Seoul high school baseball team recently banned for trash talking decided to appeal the disciplinary decision on Wednesday.
The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said Paichai High School will appeal the six-month suspension handed down by the Korea Baseball Softball Association (KBSA) last week.
The school had seven days in which to file its appeal and Wednesday is the deadline. Appeals against decisions by national sports governing bodies will be handled by the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee, the top national sports organization.
Paichai was suspended after some of its players derided their opponents from Gwangju Jeil High School during a late June tournament game in Seoul, yelling "Let's go to Starbucks!" and "Tank Day!"
Their chants were linked to a controversial Starbucks Korea promotion on May 18, the anniversary of the 1980 Gwangju pro-democracy uprising, which drew strong criticism for allegedly mocking the movement.
The campaign offered discounted "Tank" tumbler sets under the slogan "Put it on the table with a sound of 'Tak!,'" with "tank" evoking memories of the military crackdown during the uprising and "tak" drawing further criticism for its association with student activist Park Jong-cheol, whose 1987 death under police torture became a symbol of Korea's democratization movement.
The incident took place during the Cheongryonggi National High School Baseball Championship, and the ban took effect immediately, with Paichai's remaining games forfeited.
Unless overturned, the suspension will also keep Paichai out of next month's Bonghwang High School Baseball Tournament, another major competition. The team's absence could be a big blow to Paichai seniors' chances of getting selected at the upcoming draft for the Korea Baseball Organization.
Paichai baseball players and their parents visited Gwangju Jeil in the southwestern city of Gwangju on Monday to apologize in person. Students from both schools visited the May 18th National Cemetery to pay respects to those killed during the pro-democracy uprising.
Paichai's alumni association pleaded for leniency for the baseball team last week, a call echoed by Gwangju Jeil's faculty and its alumni association on Tuesday.