(LEAD) baseball-coronavirus
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| ▲ These file photos show four members of the NC Dinos baseball club who violated social distancing rules at the team road hotel on July 5, 2021. From left: Park Sok-min, Kwon Hui-dong, Lee Myung-ki and Park Min-woo. (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ In this file photo from April 2, 2021, a health worker disinfects the railing at the first base dugout at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. (Yonhap) |
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| ▲ This photo taken July 14, 2021, shows Changwon NC Park, home of the Korea Baseball Organization club NC Dinos, located in Changwon, 400 kilometers southeast of Seoul. (Yonhap) |
(LEAD) baseball-coronavirus
(LEAD) 4 baseball players banned for rest of 2021 over social distancing violation
(ATTN: ADDS details in paras 9-11)
By Yoo Jee-ho
SEOUL, July 16 (Yonhap) -- Four players from the defending South Korean baseball champions NC Dinos were banned for the rest of the 2021 season Friday for violating social distancing rules.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) handed down 72-game bans on Park Sok-min, Park Min-woo, Kwon Hui-dong and Lee Myung-ki after its disciplinary meeting held earlier in the day.
The Dinos have 70 games left on the 144-game season, meaning the quartet will be ineligible for the remainder of this year and then two more games next year.
The four players were fined 10 million won (US$8,770) each. The Dinos were ordered to pay a fine of 100 million won for their lack of oversight.
The disciplinary proceedings opened two days after the four players were found to have met with two outside guests for beers in a room at their road hotel in Seoul on July 5. Their meeting started late that night and stretched into the early hours the next day.
On Wednesday, amid rumors that some Dinos players had breached distancing rules, Park Sok-min, the senior member of the group at 36, admitted to the illegal gathering of six people. Private meetings of more than four people were being banned in Seoul at the time.
Park Min-woo also apologized for his actions and withdrew himself from the Olympic team.
The KBO said the players caused "injury to dignity" by breaching social distancing rules during the pandemic.
Moments after the bans were announced, Dinos' CEO Hwang Soon-hyun resigned from his post.
The club's owner, NCSOFT CEO Kim Taek-jin, apologized to baseball fans and the rest of the KBO for causing trouble.
"As the owner of the club, I will take responsibility for this incident and take whatever steps necessary to regain trust (of our fans)," Kim said in a statement. "The buck stops with me. All club officials and players involved in the case will be held accountable."
Local health authorities have accused the four players of obstructing preliminary contact tracing, charging they didn't mention the hotel room drinking session when pressed for their whereabouts.
Of the six people at the meeting, only Park Min-woo, who had been fully vaccinated as an Olympic athlete, escaped COVID-19 infection. The five others all tested positive.
The three cases on the Dinos, plus two others on the Doosan Bears, forced the KBO to press pause on the regular season Monday. All games scheduled for this week have been pushed back to later in the season, and the league had long planned to go on an Olympic break from next Monday to Aug. 9.
Even before the players' admission to their misconduct, the Dinos had been under fire for pushing hard for the suspension of the season. Given the relatively small number of COVID-19 cases, the Dinos could have called up minor league players to replace ailing KBO veterans and keep the season going.
The Dinos also kept mum on players' suspected breach of social distancing rules, in the face of rampant rumors and media reports.
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