Valdes Wins in Place of Chan Ho Park

In the end, Texas Rangers, the team hitting at the bottom in the American League West for three consecutive years, turned around and pulled out a 6-3 victory in the season opener against last year`s World Series Champion Anaheim Angels. Valdes, who took mound in the season opening game in place of Chan Ho Park, recorded the first win by giving out only three runs in five innings despite seven hits. Young quieted the crowd with a three-run shot over the center-field wall off Lackey to give Texas a 4-2 lead in the fourth inning. Then, Alex Rodriguez homered in 5th and Juan Gonzalez in 7th, making a winner for the Rangers.

In the meanwhile, happy news came to five South Korean Major Leaguers put in the season opening rosters. First, Park had a good time in L.A. with his family for the first time in one year. His manager Buck Showalter added the joy: he told Park that Park`s "battery-mate Chad Kreuter finally landed in the roster at the last moment.

Hee S. Choi of Chicago Cubs topped the list for most promising rookies of the year voted by experts for the first time as a Korean ML hitter. ESPN.com put up Choi as the most promising rookie in the National League, Hideki Matsui (New York Yankees) for the American League. Choi got the five votes, while Matsui won 14.

Jae Seo of New York Mets will probably pitch as start against Montreal Expos on April 6th. Seo was directed not to warm up in the bullpen for today`s game against Chicago Cubs. On the other hand, his "rival teammate" Mike Bacsik will pitch as a reliever.

Byung Hyun Kim will pitch against Rockies` pitcher Shwan Chacon on April 5th. Chacon, brushing off his poor last year`s performance of 5.60 ERA (5W11L), won four out of five games this spring, recording 1.64 ERA. Last time, which was also the first time, Kim pitched as a start against Rockies, but collapsed even before lapse of three innings, allowing two homers and 4 runs. This time, he may gain back his reputation.

Hwan-Soo Zang zangpabo@donga.com