Jul 24th 2008 5:05PM by Matt Watson (author feed)
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Shin-Soo Choo has more on his mind than most 26-year-old big leaguers. As a native of South Korean, he’s obligated to spend two years serving in his home country’s military, and he must begin his service by 2010. From Paul Hoynes of the (via Walkoff Walk):
“I try not to think about it,” he said before the Indians’ 14-11 loss to the Angels on Wednesday.

[…] Choo says Korean athletes can get excused from military service if they do well in the Olympics.

“If you win any kind of medal in the Olympics, you might only have to serve four weeks,” said Choo.

Choo’s problem is South Korea won’t take baseball players for its Olympic team if they’re on the 25-man roster of a big-league club.

“The Indians couldn’t send me to the minors [to be on the Korean team] because I’m out of options,” said Choo, who added “There’s too much stress to worry about it now.”
Choo is obviously trying to downplay what it’s like having this hanging over his head, but I’m sure it has to be stressful. The irony is that no one actually pays attention to Olympic baseball, which, as things currently stand, is scheduled to be dropped from the Olympics after Beijing. If South Korea really wanted to reward athletes for bringing positive attention to their country, you’d think that Choo’s big league success would be considered.