Since January 2023, good news has been flying in from Vietnam and Laos every day. From the 24th to the 26th of next month, the ‘DGB Indochina Peninsula International Convention’ will be held in Laos. For the first baseball international tournament to be held in Laos, the government actively helps and to ensure that there are no disruptions to the game, Kampai, the president of the association, comes out to the baseball field almost every day to inspect the training of the players and the field.
At the end of July last year, the ‘1st National Cup Baseball Tournament’ was held for the first time in Ho Chi Minh City. Eight teams from all over Vietnam participated in this competition. Director Park Hyo-cheol observed all the players throughout the game and selected the first 40 Vietnamese national baseball team members.
Head coach Park Hyo-cheol, general manager Lee Jang-hyung, and two Vietnamese national coaches, Dung and Phu, boarded a plane from Hanoi and went down to Phu Chi Minh on the 14th to select players for the national team selection. On the evening of the 14th, I boarded a plane and came up again in Hanoi on the 15th to select the Vietnamese national baseball team. On the 16th, he headed to Da Nang and then went back to work with a tight schedule.
At the end of July last year, only 18 of the 40 members of the Sangbigun selected at the first national baseball tournament organized by the Vietnam Baseball Association will be selected for the first official baseball team to participate in the Laos and Southeast Asian baseball tournaments. It is regrettable that it is not possible to gather players in one place due to budget problems, but if there are no teeth, there is no choice but to cope with it with gums.
Above all, this time, with coach Park Hyo-cheol, the first Vietnamese baseball coach, and two Vietnamese coaches, Dung and Phu, they work through all the unreasonable schedules and select good players. As mentioned earlier, coach Park Hyo-cheol had already selected 40 players from the Vietnamese national baseball team at the National Cup at the end of July last year.
According to the story of coach Park Hyo-cheol and Lee Jang-hyung, the head of the support team, it is because Mr. Phan, president of the Vietnam Baseball Association, sent official letters to Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, and Da Nang, or because of the pride that Vietnamese baseball players can become the first national players to represent the country. It is said that they saw a drastic change in their eyes and behavior.
Even at the ‘1st National Cup Baseball Tournament’ held at the end of July last year, Vietnamese baseball players did not treat coach Park Hyo-cheol or Lee Jang-hyeong as politely as they do now. It’s different this time. It is said that the behavior of the players has changed 180 degrees after hearing the news that the players will be selected for the national team for the first time in the Vietnam Baseball Association.
On the evening of the 14th, I received a phone call from the representative of Laos, Jane Innae. I could tell at once that it was the excited voice of CEO Janee, who could be heard from afar. “Today we played against a baseball team from South Korea, and a player from Laos hit a home run for the first time in an official stadium,” he said excitedly.
It was in January 2020 that the first official baseball field was created in Laos. It is the first time on the 14th that Laos players have hit a home run in an official stadium since the baseball field was built. He also hit a home run with a wooden bat, not an aluminum bat. This is why CEO Janenae was so excited that she first contacted me with this good news. I wrote a home run ball, a bat, and the name of the player and sent it to me.
Even when I went alone to supply baseball for the first time in Laos on November 12, 2014, I honestly never expected it to be like this. 10 years have passed before I knew it, and like today, I heard this happy news in Laos and Vietnam.
I am well aware of the pity and sympathy of those around me that it is close to impossible to supply baseball to Laos and Vietnam. Sisyphus, who pushes a heavy rock to the top of the mountain and feels the loss of knowing that the rock rolls down again, but also constantly rolls up the rock, and I, who spread baseball in Laos and Vietnam, feel similar. 먹튀검증
What matters is the will. The propagation of baseball involves constantly watering and planting seeds in barren land where water quickly evaporates when water is poured on dry land, and it is also like hitting a rock with an egg. However, the dry land will someday contain fine water and create the conditions for life to sprout, and invisible but very small scratches will be made on the rocks. Until the end of my life, I will gladly go to the trouble of pouring water on that barren land. And I will sow the seeds in the land. I believe that the seed will break through the hard ground and will sprout and bear fruit.
I quietly review the past time alone. If these processes come to me again, will I be able to spread baseball with all my heart as I do now? Up until now, I had the mindset of ‘I’ll never be able to do this’. However, my answer now is that I will confess, “Even if it is difficult, I will go this way.” Because this is a ‘work entrusted to me’.
What everyone wants to do, everyone can do. However, I believe that it is a choice without regrets if I accomplish something that everyone wants to do, something I want to try but I feel I must do, or something that is valuable but not easily done by anyone.
I have experienced countless times in my life that ‘impossible is not a fact but an opinion’. I have seen many times in my life that many people in the world often give up before they even start because they hit a wall that is too high and do not even try. No matter how hard and difficult things are, if you take one step first, it will only take time, ‘Never ever give up’ In the end, you will experience reaching the goal we thought of.