Crying on the team bus... Goodbye, 22-year-old Shinheung is trying to steal

Jul 07, 2025

Crying on the team bus... Goodbye, 22-year-old Shinheung is trying to steal
Jung Joon-jae interviewing at Changwon NC Park on the 6th. Photo = Reporter Na Yuri



"If I'm too conscious, I can't move my body well." The title is good, but I think it's good for me when the team does better."

SSG Landers Jung Joon-jae is currently competing with LG Twins' Park Hae-min for a stolen base title. As of the 7th, Jung Joon-jae made 24 stolen bases and Park Hae-min 25 stolen bases. Kim Joo-won of the NC Dinos, ranked third, also closely followed them with 22, while Jihoon Choi, a senior member of the team, also stole 21 bases.

Jung Joon-jae stole his 24th base of the season against Changwon NC on the 5th, and Park Hae-min stole his 25th base on the same day, maintaining one difference. With Jung Joon-jae, Jihoon Choi, and other SSG hitters actively playing, they are in second place overall with 80 stolen bases.




Jung Joon-jae said, `Honestly, you can't be oblivious. In the joint first place with Park Hae-min, I briefly became the sole first place, but from then on, I became conscious little by little. But as I was conscious, I couldn't move my body well. "I hope I get first place in stealing, but before that, the team needs to do well to be good for me as well. If I think about the team first, I think it'll work out well for me personally, so I'm still relaxed" he said.

Crying on the team bus... Goodbye, 22-year-old Shinheung is trying to steal
SSG-Hanwha match held at Hanwha Life Ball Park in Daejeon on the 18th. Jung Joon-jae is on base with a bunt hit in front of the pitcher in the top of the fourth inning. Daejeon = Reporter Jung Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2025..May 18/
Coach Cho Dong-hwa explained that Jung Joon-jae's best advantage is low sliding. Jung Joon-jae said "I'm not the type to start very well or read the number of opponents. Maybe it's because I'm still a little old, but that's a little difficult. I just listen to what the coach said and play based on the timing, but it's working out well," he added.

It's a time when I'm getting less and less tired. "It was more difficult for me than for me." is Jung Joon-jae. Coach Lee Sung-yong has been training since last year's closing camp to upgrade the three fielders, Ko Myung-joon, Jung Joon-jae and Park Ji-hwan, to a certain starting lineup this season. They also performed intense training and training well, raising expectations for the 2025 season.




However, Jung Joon-jae suffered an extreme batting slump at the beginning of the season. Until April, he had not exceeded his batting average of around 100%. In addition to hitting, it was affected by the overall slump as there were disappointing plays such as unexpected defensive errors and operational mistakes. 'You're doing a good jobThe first year of last year's professional career, which was only praised for ', and the second year, which faced the reality of sluggishness, were completely different.
Crying on the team bus... Goodbye, 22-year-old Shinheung is trying to steal
The match between SSG Landers and NC Dinos at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on the 13th. In the top of the fourth inning, second baseman Jung Joon-jae of SSG is blocking NC's Shin Jae-hwan's second base steal with two outs and a runner on first base. Incheon = Reporter Park Jae-man pjm@sportschosun.com /2025.05.13/
I feel trapped in a deep cave myself. Jung Joon-jae "There were too many mistakes. Maybe for a while, I thought it would get better if I kept training, but I couldn't solve it. It's natural to be criticized if you can't do it well, but it lasted too long, so it was hard mentally"Confidence began to fall and shrink gradually. It was harder because I couldn't do it every time I was in an important situation. I cried on the bus when I saw a video of actor Ko Chang-seok singing on social media."

Now I talk with a smile, but the road to becoming a real professional has been tougher than expected. Still, I couldn't give up. Jung Joon-jae repeatedly trained more consistently and harder. Fortunately, results began to show little by little from June. He is looking for a batting average of 293 in June from a monthly batting average of .27 in May, and a batting average of .500 in eight at-bats in three games in July. The appearance of 'Little Jung Geun-woo' shown last year has begun to appear again.

Crying on the team bus... Goodbye, 22-year-old Shinheung is trying to steal
The game between SSG and LG held at Jamsil Baseball Stadium on the 12th, and Jung Joon-jae, with one out and second base, is happy to hit in the top of the fourth inning. Jamsil= Reporter's wook@sportschosun.com/2025.06.12/
"No matter how hard I try, the first digit doesn't change. "No matter how hard I try, it doesn't change." He cried, but he did not forget his gratitude to coach Lee Sung-yong for believing in him without wavering. Jung Joon-jae said "Even though I couldn't do it, I only have to say thank you so much for continuing to let me go. The director always said, `Keep going with confidence,' so I also thought that restoring confidence was the top priority, and as I did that, I started to see the answer little by little"Thank you."




Now, after the All-Star break, we enter the second half of the race. It's time to make a last-minute spurt for the team's fall baseball, as well as the steal title. Jung Joon-jae said "The first priority is not to get hurt while managing your physical strength. And I want to continue to achieve my goal since the beginning of the season. It won't be easy, but if you aim for 50 steals and 30%, and look at it and try harder, I think you'll get good results."





This article was translated by Naver AI translator.