Park Hyo-joon of the Oakland Athletics minor league team lost in the first trial to cancel the order to return his passport. Now that he has been accused of violating the military service law, his dream of re-entering the Major League could disappear at this rate.
According to Yonhap News, the 12th Division of Administrative Affairs of the Seoul Administrative Court (Judge Kang Jae-won) ruled against the plaintiff in May in a lawsuit filed by Park Hyo-joon to cancel the order to return the passport. As a result, the second trial is reportedly underway.
Infielder Park Hyo-joon, who has played in the U.S. Minor League since 2015, finally debuted in the Major League through the New York Yankees in July 2021 and played until 2022. However, he failed to advance to the Major League again last year and this year, and stayed in the Minor League.
Park Hyo-joon was allowed to travel abroad until March 2023 under the Military Service Act and played in the United States, but the Seoul Regional Military Manpower Administration accused him of violating the Military Service Act since March last year, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs served Park Hyo-joon with a notice of order to return his passport on April 25, 2023.
After objecting to the suit, Park filed a lawsuit, and the first trial lost in March this year. If Park loses in the second trial, she will have to give up her dream of re-entering the Major League and return to Korea to serve in the military. In fact, her dream of entering the Major League is going nowhere.
Park Hyo-joon, who played a total of 68 games in the major leagues in 2021 and 2022, had a batting average of 0.201 on-base percentage of 0.296, five home runs, 20 RBIs, 23 runs and two steals. He played 115 games in the minor league Triple-A this season, and had a batting average of 0.254 on-base percentage of 0.374, nine home runs and 15 steals, showing good on-base percentage but disappointing performance in batting average and long balls. 안전놀이터