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Kang Jung-ho ‘misses Korean late night meals`

Posted July. 25, 2015 07:10,   

한국어

Living in a foreign land for a long time, one naturally comes to miss foods of his or her hometown. The same holds true for Kang Jung-ho (28) of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the U.S. Major League Baseball.

“I don’t have strong homesickness, but I deeply miss late-night meals that I used to order in Korea," Kang said. "I miss jokbal (steamed pig’s feet) and bossam (boiled pork with salty sauce and kimchi wrapped in vegetables), which we could easily order like pizza.” He made the remarks when he gave an in-depth interview through "Man Who Answers" on CBS Sports, a U.S. sports channel.

When asked about "Homerun Balls," cookies his fan in Korea sent him, Kang said, “The fan, who would send me Homerun Ball cookies whenever I hit a homer, sent me various cookies in a box by currier service this time. I joked to my teammate Neil Walker that if he gets a Homerun Ball, he will hit a homer. In fact, he ate a Homerun Ball and hit a homer.”

When asked whether he will teach "homer ceremony" of throwing the bat, which batters in the Korean baseball perform, Kang said smiling, “If there is a batter who is brave enough to get hit with bean ball (from a pitcher), I will teach him. I am not throwing the bat after coming to the U.S.” On his military service, Kang said, “I was exempt from compulsory military service for winning the gold medal at the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010 together with Choo Shin-soo,” adding, “Before winning the final game against Taiwan, I repeatedly dreamt joining the military due to heavy burden.”

Meanwhile, he started the shortstop and fifth batter at a home game against the Washington Nationals on Friday, and garnered multi hits in five consecutive games (more than two hits per game), and thus helped his team win the game 7-3. Kang elevated his seasonal batting average to 0.285 by garnering two hits including two doubles, one earned run and one run from five times at bat.

Kang has been displaying solid batting performance to record a batting average of 0.355 in 18 games this month. In Korean league, Kang was also a man of hot summer who posted a higher batting average (0.345) in summer than his overall batting average (0.2988).



kjs0123@donga.com