Canterbury Baseball Club
by Sean Callahan 11 February 2009
Choong Yol Cho ("Eric" to most of us) has been named the 2009 Canterbury Baseball senior coach. Mr. Cho will lead the team in the 2009 Baseball New Zealand national championships, to be held 20-22 February at the Howick-Pakuranga grounds in Auckland. Mr. Cho will be assisted by David Ballinger.
Mr. Cho hails from Korea where he has been involved with baseball at a professional level for 27 years. He began his professional career with the inaugural season of the Korean Baseball Organisation (KBO) in 1982 as an infielder for the Haitai Tigers (now the Kia Tigers) based in Gwangju, South Korea. The Tigers went on to win nine of the first sixteen championships, including four in a row between 1986 and 1989. From 1990 to 1999, Mr. Cho was a player/coach, as the Tigers won four of their championships.
In 2000, the Samsung Lions brought Mr. Cho on as a coach in Daegu. The Lions went on to win the KBO championship in 2002.
Mr. Cho joined the coaching staff of the LG Twins in 2005, before retiring at the end of the 2006 season.
His retirement was short-lived, however, as the Hanwha Eagles, based in Daejeon City, persuaded him to come back for one final season in 2007. (A decision that quite possibly cost the 2007 Canterbury Seniors a national championship, when they ran out of pitching in the eighth inning of the final.)
In 2008, Mr. Cho relocated to Christchurch, New Zealand, where he has become the Canterbury Baseball Club senior coach while he perfects his golf game.
Mr Cho will try to help the Canterbury seniors shake off last-year's third-place finish, as well as two heartbreaking, last-inning losses in the finals of 2006 & 2007.
Canterbury face-off against the West City and Howick-Pakuranga clubs with doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday with a goal of making the final on Sunday afternoon. The team returns ten players from last year's team and four "rookies".
With the Canterbury team running a positive run differential in all three national championships so far, pitching will probably be the key again this year. Canterbury will be pinning its hopes on probable starting pitchers Sam Ballinger, Makoto Saito, Sean Callahan and Mr. Cho, himself. The bullpen will be anchored by Joshua Batchelor, Steve Phillips and Alex Dawson.
The offense will be lead by veterans Joshua Batchelor, Leigh Ryman, Steve Phillips and Scott Woyak, newcomer Mike Dowdall.
Mr. Cho hails from Korea where he has been involved with baseball at a professional level for 27 years. He began his professional career with the inaugural season of the Korean Baseball Organisation (KBO) in 1982 as an infielder for the Haitai Tigers (now the Kia Tigers) based in Gwangju, South Korea. The Tigers went on to win nine of the first sixteen championships, including four in a row between 1986 and 1989. From 1990 to 1999, Mr. Cho was a player/coach, as the Tigers won four of their championships.
In 2000, the Samsung Lions brought Mr. Cho on as a coach in Daegu. The Lions went on to win the KBO championship in 2002.
Mr. Cho joined the coaching staff of the LG Twins in 2005, before retiring at the end of the 2006 season.
His retirement was short-lived, however, as the Hanwha Eagles, based in Daejeon City, persuaded him to come back for one final season in 2007. (A decision that quite possibly cost the 2007 Canterbury Seniors a national championship, when they ran out of pitching in the eighth inning of the final.)
In 2008, Mr. Cho relocated to Christchurch, New Zealand, where he has become the Canterbury Baseball Club senior coach while he perfects his golf game.
Mr Cho will try to help the Canterbury seniors shake off last-year's third-place finish, as well as two heartbreaking, last-inning losses in the finals of 2006 & 2007.
Canterbury face-off against the West City and Howick-Pakuranga clubs with doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday with a goal of making the final on Sunday afternoon. The team returns ten players from last year's team and four "rookies".
With the Canterbury team running a positive run differential in all three national championships so far, pitching will probably be the key again this year. Canterbury will be pinning its hopes on probable starting pitchers Sam Ballinger, Makoto Saito, Sean Callahan and Mr. Cho, himself. The bullpen will be anchored by Joshua Batchelor, Steve Phillips and Alex Dawson.
The offense will be lead by veterans Joshua Batchelor, Leigh Ryman, Steve Phillips and Scott Woyak, newcomer Mike Dowdall.
