Baseball fans were disappointed when it became known that Seohyun Kim, a rookie pitcher for the professional baseball Hanwha Eagles, was disciplined for inappropriate social media postings. On February 8 (Korean time), the Hanwha team, which is training in Arizona, USA, announced that it had excluded Kim Seo-hyun from group training for three days and imposed a fine according to its internal rules for posting inappropriate articles such as disrespect for fans through social media.
Recently, online, centered on baseball-related communities, articles that seem to pour out complaints about Hanwha coaches and uniform numbers have spread on social media that is presumed to belong to Kim Seo-hyun. In the end, the Hanwha club launched a fact-finding investigation, and after confirming that the related articles came from Kim Seo-hyun’s sub-account, they were punished. Among baseball fans, there is a reaction to criticize Kim Seo-hyun.
Kim Seo-hyun, a graduate of Seoul High School, played an active role as a youth national representative and is a special rookie who joined Hanwha with the honor of being named first overall in the 2023 KBO Rookie Draft held last year. In addition, Kim Seo-hyun appeared on JTBC’s <Strongest Baseball>, a baseball entertainment show, and left a strong impression by greatly raising awareness with a pitch that overwhelms retired professional legend seniors. Kim Seo-hyun is attracting attention as a right-handed fire bowler who uses fastballs with an official maximum speed of 159 km. Hanwha gave a deposit of up to 500 million won, revealing high expectations for Kim Seo-hyun’s potential.
However, Seohyun Kim left a strong ‘first impression’ in a negative sense in front of the fans by having a big ‘accident’ before even making her official debut on the stage of the first team. This year, the team atmosphere of the Hanwha team, which was eagerly preparing for the season to escape from the last place, was poured with cold water. Hanwha head coach Carlos Subero said, “I want to tell you that there is no player greater than the team. A young player should learn from this mistake and realize something.” What should be the meaning of the consequences of the actions committed by a promising professional baseball player who
should have learned lessons from the cases of teachers on the other hand by seniors , and the responsibility that follows.
First of all, there is no excuse for the fact that Kim Seo-hyun made a mistake. However, from the perspective of the person involved, SNS is a private space for individuals, and it is not even intended to be shown to others. The fact that Seohyun Kim is still only a 19-year-old player. It is a point that can be taken into account to some extent, such as the fact that it can happen to anyone to feel personal dissatisfaction in the process of adjusting to their first job as an adult.
In a word, the problem only got bigger when an immature young player complained privately on social media for a while, and it was disclosed without permission. That’s why the Hanwha team also ended the case with a 3-day suspension of training and a light punishment of the level of a serious warning.
However, what is really important is that this incident should serve as an opportunity for Seohyun Kim to seriously look back on her ‘social responsibility as a prominent professional baseball player’. There is room for disagreement as to whether professional baseball players can be classified as public figures, but it is clear that they are ‘social celebrities’ who receive public attention and have a great influence, so it is also possible that they are considered close to public figures to some extent. It’s true. This is why professional sports players, especially stars with a high level of attention, are required to act and act accordingly and strive for responsibility in consideration of their social influence.
Kim Won-seok, Kim Seo-hyun’s senior at Hanwha, received applause from many fans for his touching life reversal story that went through a former fostering player and re-entry to Hanwha, but he was kicked out overnight due to a social media scandal in 2017. At the time, it was revealed that Kim Won-seok made remarks on his personal SNS that demeaned not only the club, but also Chungcheong Province, a region related to Hanwha, fans, cheerleaders, and even politicians, and was ejected from the club and completely disappeared from the baseball world. 토토사이트
Like Kim Seo-hyun, he is definitely responsible for distributing personally sent and received messages on an online bulletin board where an unspecified number of people can see them without consent, but most public opinion focused criticism on Kim Won-seok, who initially provided the cause with inappropriate remarks.
Also in 2020, it was revealed that Shin Dong-soo, who was a rookie infielder for the Samsung Lions, continuously posted private posts on social media containing last words demeaning the club and baseball officials, as well as the region, the disabled, and minors. In addition, there are many cases that have been on the cutting board big and small due to social media or privacy issues, even before Kim Seo-hyun.
Of course, in the case of Kim Seo-hyun, it is difficult to compare on the same line with Kim Won-seok and Shin Dong-soo, etc. However, given that today’s fans value ‘personality and manners’ as much as the skills of professional sports players, it is disappointing that they have not learned a lesson from the examples of anti-ban teachers of their seniors.
A professional baseball player is a job that always attracts public attention. As a human being, there can be inconveniences and dissatisfaction at times, but restraining one’s emotions and being careful in expressing them is a virtue of self-management as a professional. Today, celebrities’ SNS is not considered only as a personal space. Even if it is a personal article, once it is exposed to the world in some way, it is a harsh reality that ‘the responsibility for the expression and sincerity contained in it becomes the responsibility of the person concerned’.
Perhaps Kim Seo-hyun needs to use this incident as an opportunity to bring blessings. If it were not for this happening, Seohyun Kim would have repeatedly made similar mistakes through social media. In addition, if you repeat the same mistake without thinking about the problem, the level will gradually rise and the possibility of committing a bigger mistake will increase. Then, it was already too late when he realized that he had reached an irreversible situation like Kim Won-seok and Shin Dong-soo.
At least this time, Kim Seo-hyun should consider it fortunate that the fact was revealed early, and that she was able to stop with a moment of reflection after being scolded once. At the same time, he is no longer an amateur, but an adult professional baseball player who is in the spotlight of the public. And it should be an opportunity to realize the infinite responsibility and sense of crisis that a professional player who disappoints fans can collapse at any time in a day. For Kim Seo-hyun now, learning a mature personality is more important than baseball skills.
