Pro baseball union membership grows

The number of players who joined the Korean Professional Baseball Players Association has increased to 209 as of Monday, much more than half of the total registered players.

Twenty-seven Lotte Giants players decided to join the association, a sort of a labor union, during a wedding of its pitcher Park Suk-Jin on Saturday. Previously, only seven Lotte members had entered the association.

Forty players on the Hanwha Eagles also applied for membership of the association Sunday, withdrawing their precondition that ¡°behind-the-scene forces¡± should be eliminated.

The number of KPBPA was only 28 when its general assembly was held Dec. 18. But it snowballed to 209 by Sunday, accounting for 66.7 percent of the total 375 registered with the Korean Pro Baseball Organization.

By team, they are 43 from LG, 41 from Hanwha, 35 from Doosan, 34 from Lotte, 32 from SK and 24 from Haitai.

No members of the Hyundai Unicorns and Samsung Lions have jointed the association yet.