Professional baseball player Park Hae-min of the LG Twins led the victory with his outstanding defensive play and even mentioned the word "retirement" during a post-game interview. While his defense is the best in the league, he expressed a sense of crisis due to his extreme struggles at the plate this season.

LG won 2-1 against Hanwha on the 27th at Jamsil Stadium. Park Hae-min showcased three crucial defensive plays, demonstrating winning baseball through defense.

In the second inning, after one out, Park Hae-min ran to catch a line drive double from Lee Jin-young just in front of the fence. It was possible due to his speed and accurate judgment of the ball. Pitcher Lee Im-chan-kyu raised his arms on the mound to deliver a round of applause to Park Hae-min.

In the third inning, the lead-off hitter Choi Jae-hun's line drive hit was caught with a sliding catch while rushing forward. In the eighth inning, with LG leading 2-1 and one out, Park Hae-min caught a hit from Florial at the warning track in front of the center fence, receiving applause from LG fans.

Park Hae-min contributed to the victory solely through his defense. Manager Youm Kyoung-youb noted after the game, "The decisive role in today’s victory was Park Hae-min's excellent defense, and I want to commend all the players for showing concentration around him."

Regarding his defensive skills, Park Hae-min said, "For the incoming balls, I rely on the paper provided by the data team. Looking at defensive situations, pitchers with good control, like Chan-kyu and Jin-seong, are able to throw exactly where I want them to. Therefore, trusting the paper by the count and believing in the pitchers' control can increase my chances."

He also explained, "Catching Florial's hit in the eighth inning was because I was signaling for a fastball outside on a 3-ball, 1-strike count. As he is a hitter capable of hitting home runs, I positioned myself a bit deeper to make the catch."

The super catch that stopped Lee Jin-young's double in the third inning was due to his training, as he said, "Since he is a pull hitter, I did some image training on where the ball would come and thought about which side would be more probable while in the outfield, so I think that led to such defense."

While all outfielders defend by looking at the papers provided by the performance analysis team, not everyone defends like Park Hae-min. It's a matter of individual ability and experience.

Park Hae-min mentioned, "Just because I practice hitting every day doesn’t mean I can hit like Lee Jung-hoo. First of all, I have to say that my perspective on baseball focuses on defense. That’s why every time I do an interview, I mention that if I can’t play defense now, I have to lose my spot, and to put it extremely, I might even face retirement."

Park Hae-min is struggling this season with a batting average of .225 (36 hits in 160 at-bats). He has a batting average of just .125 over the last 10 games. He was a slow starter during his time with Samsung, but after signing with LG as a free agent in 2022, he lost that slow start. He recorded a batting average close to .290 every season, but last year it dropped to .263. While his defense is the best in the league, his declining hitting has left even the great Park Hae-min feeling a sense of crisis.

The recent joint role of starting second baseman Shin Min-jae as a center fielder also plays a part. To prepare for Park Hae-min’s injury and slump, they are testing Shin Min-jae, who has offensive capabilities, as a center fielder.

Manager Youm Kyoung-youb explained why Shin Min-jae started in center field against SSG on the 25th by saying, "Hae-min has had the most innings played, so we want to rest him and see how Min-jae does in center field as a test. We have to consider that Hae-min might get injured or might not hit for a long time, so it's a precautionary measure."

Few players can match Park Hae-min's defensive know-how. When well-hit balls are hit towards the left and center, he initially runs without seeing the ball, only listening to the sound of the ball before checking its position in the middle and making the catch. This is the result of countless practices before he became a regular player during his time with Samsung.

Park Hae-min explained, "You must not have fear. You have to experience many misses during practice. The more you practice running without looking, the less error-prone you become. Since the quality, angle, and speed of the balls are all different, you need to develop a sense through a lot of practice and experience."

Park Hae-min remarked, "I think what matters most is how well you can run without looking at well-hit balls. I think if I had been watching the ball while chasing Florial's and Lee Jin-young's hits, it would have been hard to catch them."

He is making significant efforts to overcome his batting slump. Park Hae-min stated, "Anyway, I can't just play defense. Since I have to have at-bats at least three or four times, I might not get any balls hit towards me during defense in a game, which is actually random. Therefore, I have to recover some competitiveness at the plate as well." He added, "I plan to come out a bit earlier in the morning to work on hitting and, having finished a week of away games, I will get out early for a week of home games, practice more, and increase my training volume. I’m watching a lot of video and with the coaches helping me, I think I should improve."

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