“I traveled two days from the United States for this game.”

The Korea-Japan Dream Players Game, a dream match between baseball legends from South Korea and Japan, kicked off today at Escon Field in Hokkaido, Japan.

Led by head coach Kim In-sung, stars such as Lee Jong-beom, Koo Dae-sung, and Seo Jae-eung arrived in Hokkaido on the 21st for the game.

As the players entered Escon Field for acclimatization training, they were greeted by a familiar face.

It was Bong Joong-geun, the “Bong Yeol-sa. The first person to greet Kim was Bong, who was also busy greeting the other teammates, as they hadn’t seen each other in a while.

Bong Joong-geun was active in broadcasting as a commentator after his retirement, but in the summer of 2022, he suddenly left for the United States.

He is currently working as a coach at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, USA.

The IMG Academy is one of the world’s leading private institutions for sports talent development, with a yearly tuition of $100 million. The academy is home to top prospects in baseball, soccer, basketball, golf, tennis, and other sports.

“I flew all the way from the U.S. for two days for this game,” Bong Joong-geun told me after training.

“I’m the high school coach of the IMG Baseball Academy,” he said. We have a high school player on our team who can throw 157 kilometers per hour, and we are consistently producing players for the major leagues every year.” Today, 바카라사이트 Bong’s son also plays baseball at the IMG Academy.

How did he end up taking coaching lessons in a strange place?

“I submitted my resume by chance. They really appreciated the fact that I was an Olympic gold medalist,” he explains.

Bong graduated from Shinil High School and went straight to the American Major League Baseball, where he became a big league left-hander. He later returned to the LG Twins, where he was an all-around performer as a starter and closer.

He was a member of the gold medal winning team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and participated in two consecutive World Baseball Classic (WBC) tournaments in 2006 and 2009. He was nicknamed “Bong-yeol-sa” for his strong performances, especially against Japan.

In the 2009 World Baseball Classic, after losing the first Korea-Japan game, Kim In-ho decided to start Bong Joong-geun, who had a good end of the ball and major league experience, in the second Korea-Japan game. It worked. South Korea swept Japan in a 1-0 shutout. In the third game of the second round, South Korea started Bong Joong-geun again in a 4-1 victory over Japan. Bong was particularly effective in shutting down Ichiro, the mental anchor of the Japanese team and his idol from his days at Shin-Il High School. The image of Ichiro flinching and running back to first base when he made the blocking motion has become a favorite among baseball fans. The incident earned him the nicknames “Bong Doctors” and “Bong Yeol-sa. Bong Joong-geun started the fifth and final game against Japan and pitched four innings of one-run ball, but Lim Chang-yong gave up the game-winning hit to Ichiro in the 10th inning of extra innings, resulting in a 3-5 loss and a runner-up finish. Bong established himself as the undisputed Japanese killer and star of the tournament.

After this tournament, Bong will return to the United States to focus on his career.

When asked if he would play against Japan, even in a friendly match, he said, “If I go out, I’m screwed. I’ll prepare behind the scenes,” he replied cheerfully.