Philadelphia Phillies Noah Song is writing an amazing story.
American media Yahoo Sports said on the 1st (Korean time), “Noah Song is the player with the most interesting story in this year’s spring camp in Philadelphia. He didn’t pay attention to last year’s postseason. He watched one World Series game, but he didn’t root for any particular team. But as he recently shared the clubhouse in Clearwater, he re-watched some of Philadelphia’s incredible pennant races last year,” he said, introducing Noah Song, who came to Philadelphia.
Song, who throws a fastball that exceeds 150 km/h, is a Korean-American player who is known to Korean fans as he participated in the 2019 Premier12 US national team. Although his talent as a pitcher was highly regarded, he was limited to Boston’s fourth round (137th overall pick) selection in the 2019 draft due to a stipulation requiring five years of service after graduation while playing baseball at the U.S. Naval Academy.
Song, who was not selected in the rookie draft in high school, entered the Naval Academy with a scholarship at the recommendation of pitching coach Bobby Applegate at the US Naval Academy. But it was also a decision that prevented him from becoming a major league player.
Song, who posted an earned run average of 1.06 in 7 games (17 innings) in Single-A in his first year, put his professional baseball career on hold and began military service. Song, who served as a helicopter boarding agent in the Navy for three years, was accepted for a transfer to ‘selective reserve’, and an opportunity to challenge the major leagues again opened up. He was in the Navy Reserve for 12 years and was allowed to play baseball again, although he had to serve two weeks a year.
Original team Boston did not include Song on their 40-man roster to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. It was judged that there would be no team to nominate a song that had not played a real game since 2019. However, Philadelphia unexpectedly selected Song in the Rule 5 draft. Yahoo Sports said, “A player selected in the Rule 5 draft must spend the entire next season on the major league roster. Otherwise, the player returns to the original team. “It’s unprecedented for a team like Philadelphia to name a player with a three-year hiatus after pitching 17 innings in the pros,” he explained.
Even for Philadelphia, nominating Song was a gamble. Song said, “Philadelphia had very clear expectations. They didn’t know if I would come back. No one knew,” he said. Noah Song, who was scheduled to be deployed to Japan in January of this year, became a ‘selective reserve’ and went to major league spring camp for the first time at the age of 25. 스포츠토토
“Honestly, it feels like playing a completely different game,” said Song, who expressed his feelings after returning as a baseball player after a long absence. “Fortunately, soldiers are good at adapting to new situations. I can accept it regardless of whether I am a player who can throw as before or what the game is like now.”
“If it was physically possible to play both a soldier and a baseball player, I would do it,” Song said. Yahoo Sports said, “He showed affection for both soldiers and baseball players, but for now, he is focusing on baseball. Maybe it’s too late for him to do what he could have already done. But he doesn’t think so,” conveyed Song’s confidence.
Song said, “Since the day I was selected in the draft, I played baseball every day more than the day I could have played baseball.” did.