The professional baseball OB association, the Ilgu Association (Chairman Kim Kwang-soo), fully supported the expense of the Mongolian Baseball Association to hold a baseball tournament.
Since 2012, this association has been working towards the internationalization of baseball by providing baseball bats to underdeveloped baseball countries such as Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Pakistan, and Cambodia. This is because it has been judged that one of the reasons why baseball cannot survive in both the Olympics and the Asian Games is the small number of countries that play baseball. Additionally, Korean baseball, having climbed to advanced baseball status with the support of countries like the United States in the past, is now at a time to offer such help to global baseball.
Since 2012, it has been consistently supporting domestic relevant organizations such as the Korea Baseball Softball Association, the Little Baseball Association, the Youth Baseball Federation, and the Disabled Baseball Association, working to expand the base of Korean baseball.
This association began actively supporting the Mongolian Baseball Association in 2017. It provided uniforms to the Mongolian national team, and members such as Auditor Lee Kyung-pil have led baseball training sessions to promote baseball. In 2024, it supported pitching machines and fungo machines, while Director Cho Gye-hyeon and Auditor Lee Kyung-pil led a successful youth baseball class.
Due to the association's consistent efforts, the Mongolian Olympic Committee awarded it the Olympic Glory Medal. The Olympic Glory Medal is a second-level award given by the Mongolian Olympic Committee to organizations or individuals who have contributed to the development of sports in Mongolia.
The Mongolian youth baseball tournament held on June 25 had about 300 participants from across Mongolia. In this tournament, Kim Hyeong-dae, chairman of the association's sponsorship committee, provided 300 boxes of vitamins to help manage the athletes' nutrition, and Doosan Bears and LG Twins donated practice balls for the third consecutive year.
Chairman Kim Kwang-soo said, "Through continuous support for baseball underdeveloped countries, the status of Korean baseball will rise," adding, "It will be a more meaningful tournament with NEWTREE and the LG and Doosan teams joining us."
Baseball is becoming a neglected sport in international competitions, repeatedly being expelled and revived depending on the host country in the Olympics. There have been discussions for several years that it could also be expelled from the Asian Games. As the association was founded with the intent of "returning the love received from baseball to society," it plans to continue its efforts to expand the base of Korean baseball and promote the internationalization of baseball.
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