SEOUL– KT Wiz slugger Kang Baek-ho spent most of the regular season in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) atop several hitting categories, but ultimately didn’t end up winning any. Most notably, he was flirting with the elusive .400 batting average in midseason, but finished third in the race at .347.
But now that his Wiz have taken a 1-0 lead over the Doosan Bears in pursuit of their first Korean Series title, Kang said Monday he couldn’t care less about his personal glory. At the tender age of 22, Kang has already embraced the “team first, me last” mantra to a t.
“I was going after those individual titles for the first time in my career, and I was obviously disappointed to come up emptyhanded,” Kang said prior to Game 2 of the series at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. The Wiz won the first game 4-2 on Sunday.
“I can always put up big numbers for myself, but winning a championship takes a total team effort,” Kang said. “It will mean much more to me to win a title with my teammates.”
In addition to batting average, Kang ranked second in hits (179), second in RBIs (102), third in doubles (40), second in on-base (.450) and third in on-base plus slugging percentage (.971).
And in his Korean Series debut Sunday, Kang batted 3-for-3 with an RBI, a run and a walk.
“I’ve been preparing for this series so that I could make adjustments to different situations,” Kang said. “My primary goal here is to get on base.”
Kang said getting the first win out of the way in the opening game will do wonders for the Wiz’s collective confidence.
“Everyone swung the bat with confidence in the first game, and I think we’ll be able to relax a little more in the second game,” Kang said. “But we may not have a big enough sample size to really discuss who’s hot or not. You may get a few hits one day and not get any the next day.”
The same Bears knocked the Wiz out of their first postseason in the penultimate round, beating them in four games in the best-of-five series. Kang said the bitter pill from that elimination has only helped his Wiz in the long term.
“Last year, we were all gripping our bats tight because most of us were playing in our first postseason,” Kang said. “But we’ve since played some big games and I don’t think we’re as intimidated this time.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency