National Sports Body Reduces Ban on High School Baseball Team for Trash Talk

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, July 20 (Yonhap) -- The top national sports organization on Monday reduced a six-month ban on a Seoul high school baseball team penalized for trash talk.

The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC) cut the ban on Pai Chai High School to one month following its disciplinary committee meeting earlier in the day.

The decision, effective immediately, allows Pai Chai to compete at a major national competition, the Bonghwang High School Baseball Tournament, starting Aug. 6.

The Korea Baseball Softball Association (KBSA) handed down the ban on the school's team on July 1 after its players derided their opponents from Gwangju Jeil High School during a late June tournament game in Seoul by yelling, "Let's go to Starbucks!" and "Tank Day!"

Their chants were linked to a controversial Starbucks Korea promotion on May 18, which drew strong criticism for allegedly mocking the 1980 Gwangju pro-democracy uprising on its 46th anniversary.

Pai Chai baseball players, their parents and the school's faculty members visited Gwangju Jeil on July 6 to apologize. Three days before that trip, Pai Chai's alumni association pleaded for leniency for the baseball team, a call later echoed by Gwangju Jeil's faculty and its alumni association.

Then on July 8, Pai Chai submitted its appeal to the KSOC, which reviews all the appeals of disciplinary decisions by national sports federations. Due to a backlog of other appeals still to be reviewed, it was not immediately clear then whether the KSOC would handle Pai Chai's case Monday or later, but it decided last Tuesday that the school's appeal would be reviewed this week.

Lee Young-jin, head of the KSOC's disciplinary committee, acknowledged Pai Chai athletes' "inappropriate behavior" warranted some degree of penalty, but added the committee considered the fact that those players apologized to their counterparts in person and Gwangju Jeil players also asked for leniency.

"Given the fact that student-athletes are still going through their learning process, we determined that the initial ruling of a six-month ban was excessive," Lee added.

The Bonghwang High School Baseball Tournament is the last national competition for the seniors before the annual Korea Baseball Organization draft. Missing out on the tournament would have been a substantial blow to those hoping to be selected by the professional clubs in the fall.

The KBSA put Pai Chai in the draw for the Bonghwang tournament, given the possibility that the ban on the school would be reduced and the team would be allowed to compete.

Pai Chai's first game will be Aug. 11, while Gwangju Jeil will begin its tournament on Aug. 9.

The two schools are on the opposite sides of the bracket and can only meet in the final.