Average baseball salary rises to 86.9 million won

SEOUL, Feb. 8 (Yonhap) -- The average annual salary for South Korean professional
baseball players has reached 86.9 million won (US$74,000), while 110 players
receive over 100 million won per year, a report released by the country's
baseball governing body said Monday.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) said a total of 396 South Korean players,
with the exception of 62 rookies and 16 foreign players, will receive 86.9
million won on average for the 2010 season, up by 3.2 percent from 84.2 million
won last year.
Rookie players will get the minimum salary of 24 million won, while foreigners
will draw an annual salary of up to $300,000.
The study also showed that 110 athletes, or 23 percent of the total 474 KBO
players including rookies and foreigners, topped the country's landmark
100-million-won figure. Last year, 101 athletes surpassed the mark.
Infielder Kim Dong-joo of Seoul-based Doosan Bears will earn 700 million won this
year, the highest in the KBO, followed by shortstop Park Jin-man of Samsung Lions
and pitcher Son Min-han of Lotte Giants, both earning 600 million won, said the
survey.
Incheon-based SK Wyverns, the runner-up of the 2009 Korean Series, pays an
average of 114 million won to its players, while Seoul-based LG Twins, who
finished seventh in the eight-club KBO, pays 103.3 million won on average.
The report also showed that the average age for all registered players is 27.5
years, with an average height of 182.9 centimeters and weighing an average 85
kilograms.
Samsung's Yang Joon-hyuk, 41, is the oldest active player in the league and
Doosan's Kim Joon-ho, 19, is the youngest.
The tallest player is pitcher Jang Min-ik from Doosan at 207cm, while infielder
Kim Sun-bin of Kia Tigers is only 165cm in height.
Kim is also the lightest man in the KBO, weighing some 45 kilograms less than the
two heaviest players -- infielder Choi Joon-seok of Doosan and pitcher Park
Seong-ho of Hanhwa Eagles, both of whom weigh in at 115kg.
brk@yna.co.kr
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