When South Korean baseball player Choo Shin-soo ended his 16-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career to start playing in his native country in 2021, he was appalled by the notably poor conditions of stadiums in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO). For instance, Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, the league's largest ballpark and the mecca of baseball in the country, didn't have enough space for visiting players to get dressed. Most of them had to change into their uniforms in the team hotel before boarding the bus to the stadium or change inside the bus before games. The visiting clubhouse was so small that players often had to leave their bags in the tunnel behind the dugout. The visiting team only had three shower stalls, and players often chose to go back to their hotels in dirty uniforms to shower and change after games. Using his platform and clout as a highly respected former big leaguer, Choo frequently criticized the state of such facilities through the media. Compared with MLB stadiums, some KBO parks were quite decrepit, without the historic charm of Wrigley Field in Chicago or Fenway Park in Boston. Choo's words carried significant weight. The Seoul metropolitan government, which operates Jamsil, expanded the visiting clubhouse before the 2022 season, adding locker stalls and showers and building new places for physical therapy and coaches' meetings. Seoul officials acknowledged at the time that Choo's criticism had prompted changes. Choo's own home stadium, Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon, just west of Seoul, also underwent a major makeover in March 2022. Choo, who recently announced his plans to retire after the 2024 season, initially wanted to call it quits after his first season in the KBO in 2021. But his desire to see the continued evolution in the KBO was among the reasons that Choo decided to stick around for a few more years. At his press conference Wednesday, however, Choo insisted the South Korean league still has a long ways to go -- not just in terms of improving physical faci lities but adopting a different mindset. "The idea that the road team should always get the short end of the stick is outdated," Choo told reporters at Incheon SSG Landers Field. "I think both the home and the road team should be on a level playing field when they prepare for games." Choo cited examples in MLB, where the home team can grant the visiting team an additional time slot for early practice as long as a request is filed one day ahead of time. In the KBO, on the other hand, practice times are fixed: for a 6:30 p.m. game on a weeknight, the home team starts batting practice at about 3 p.m. and wraps up around 4:30 p.m. Anyone who wants to take extra swings or groundballs can take the field before that. The road team, however, always takes the field after the home team, leaving visiting players with only a little over an hour to work on their game. Choo said teams should take a long-term view when it comes to rearranging practice schedules. "I think extra hours would allow bench guys to stay sharp and hone their skills. This is a tough sport, and there is precious little time to practice," Choo said. "If those backup guys get better, they will work their way into starting lineups and add depth to their clubs. And ultimately, that helps Korean baseball as a whole. I think we all want to see the national team perform well internationally. That starts with giving bench players a chance to get into starting lineups." Source: Yonhap News Agency