Draft Exemptions for Baseball Winners?

What do Choi Hee-seop (Los Angeles Dodgers), Kim Sun-woo (Colorado Rockies), Oh Seung-hwan (Samsung) and Lee Jin-yeong (SK) have in common? None of them have served their mandatory military service yet.

The World Baseball Classic (WBC) could solve that issue for them, however.

Last month, Korean Baseball Association chairman Shin Sang-woo announced that he would ask the government to exempt these players from military service if they manage to make the WBC final four.

Taiwan players are also hoping to be exempted from military service if they win in the WBC, and similar discussions are taking place there. Although such a measure might be difficult to implement for this year’s WBC games, there is a possibility that they could be legislated in 2009.

Taiwan has a similar military service requirement as South Korea but it is a few months shorter in duration. The exemption rules in both countries are also similar. The Taiwan government also exempts its athletes from military service duties for achievements such as winning medals in the Asian Games or Olympics.

Korea gives its athletes more leeway to avoid military service than Taiwan, however. Korean athletes who play in the U.S. major leagues or Japanese pro league are only required to attend a 12-day military training camp. In exchange, they are required to play for Korea in international sports events whenever asked.

These exemptions are part of the reason why athletes from both countries who play in foreign sports leagues flock to international sports events.

The Taiwan government issued Wang Chien-Ming, pitcher for the New York Yankees, a special exemption. And for younger baseball players from both countries, the WBC is an opportunity to become a national hero and also be exempted from military service, especially since baseball has been excluded from the list of Olympic sports.

uni@donga.com