“I Will Reward the Fans with Better Games“

Park Chan-Ho`s annual salary was no more than 15,000 dollar when he arrived in Texas as a minor Leaguer in April 1994. But he seized the throne for the pitcher of highest salary in Texas Rangers in 2002, 8 years after then, receiving 14.2 million dollar for average annual salary as a super Major Leaguer.

Park Chan-Ho still has another goal to become NO. 1 with his team. He has been `No. 2` until last year. When in Dodgers, Park was satisfied with the 2nd starting pitcher after Kevin Brown, and was No. 1 in personal records of winnings, strikeouts, etc. That is the reason why Major-league experts are dubious about the ability of Park Chan-Ho. And he has never even dreamed of the World Series Championship due to the weakness of his team.

Season 2002 is a testing board for him to jump into the rank of super pitcher from A class. He changed his uniform and league to American League. Fortunately Texas needed real ace. Park Chan-Ho must show his ability as an ace at the opening game against Oakland Athletics on April 5th, when he is expected to be a starting pitcher.

The Texas devoted all its energies to reinforce pitching strength, the weakest point of the team this year. The starting and set up line including Park Chan-Ho is far better than last year. Texas is matching for the Post Season with its mighty hitting power and mound.

It depends on Park Chan-Ho himself whether he can catch two hares of personal records and team records at a time. 20 more winnings in the season will realize his ambitious dream of 100 wins since his debut to the Major League. Park Chan-Ho expressed his ambition for new year saying, "First of all I`ll do my best to present the World Series Championship rings to my team and 20 wins is the number that I should count someday."

Sang-Soo Kim ssoo@donga.com