By Kang Shin-who, Ahn Jin-Ju
Staff Reporter, Intern
It is getting hotter and the sizzling weather alerts most sports players’ wives. Many of them strive to help their husbands maintain stamina with special foods and medicine that, many Koreans believe, work well.
However, this is just superstition to Karen and her husband, Daniel Rios who boasts the most powerful stamina among baseball players in the Korea Baseball Organization.
``He is not superstitious at all. There is a specific selection of food he eats on the days that he pitches. He also takes 10 different kinds of vitamins,’’ Mrs. Rios told The Korea Times when asked the secret behind her husband’s ceaseless power.
Rios, a foreign pitcher of the Doosan Bears, was the best inning eater last year with 223 innings. Also, he is the only player who pitched over 200 innings for three consecutive years.
Karen, with her daughter Gabrielle and son Mathew, attended Jamsil Baseball Stadium last Friday to support her husband.
Unlike many Korean wives, Daniel’s wife stressed that sports players should not depend on their wives to take care of them. ``Daniel takes care of his body. I think that should not be a wife’s responsibility. I think they are grown men and they should take care of their own health,’’ Karen said.
Instead, she was proud of her husband’s thorough self-control in maintaining his strong physique. ``Daniel is very smart. He does not drink up to three days leading up to a game. If he is sick, he will not play. He takes care of himself better than I do,’’ she said.
The couple came to Korea after Daniel signed with Kia Tigers in 2002. Living in Gwangju for two and a half years, the family moved to Seoul as Daniel was traded to the Bears in 2005.
Karen thinks the manager of his former team over supervised him and as a result, wasn’t able to achieve his full potential. ``He was playing just as good over there. But Doosan allows him to do what he does best, which is play. Over there they would get ahead early in the game, they are very strategic, then they would take him out. I think he is a good pitcher wherever he goes,’’ she said. ``I think managers are very essential to a team but when they exercise too much control, I think the team isn’t allowed to play as a team, and that’s when they lose,’’ she added.
Interestingly, Daniel won the game against his former team 7-3 on the day. Lastly, Karen said her family wants to stay in Korea as long as the team allows him to play.
``I think every year we stay here, our life gets easier and easier. This is our second home. I love it here,’’ she said.