Ju Kwon (also known as Joo Kwan, born May 31, 1995) is a Chinese-born Korean

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

who plays with the

KT Wiz The KT Wiz (; stylized as kt wiz) are a South Korean professional baseball team based in Suwon. They are a member of the KBO League. Their home stadium is Suwon Baseball Stadium in Suwon. History On 11 January 2013, the Korea Baseball Organ ...

in the

KBO League The KBO League () is a professional baseball league in South Korea. The league comprises ten teams. The KBO League was founded with six franchises in 1982 and is the most popular sports league in South Korea. The Kia Tigers are the most success ...

. Ju was born in the Jilin province to a Chinese father and a Korean mother in 1995. Ju became a South Korean citizen in 2007 and played youth baseball in South Korea. On May 27, 2016, he recorded nine scoreless innings, four hits, and four strikeouts against Nexen, recording his first complete victory in his debut. Ju represented

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

at the

2017 World Baseball Classic The 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international professional baseball competition, composed of 16 competing nations, held from March 6 to 22, 2017. It was the fourth iteration of the World Baseball Classic. The first-round hosts wer ...

. He faced criticism from fans for his decision which he said hurt him deeply. Ju announced prior to the

2023 World Baseball Classic The 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international professional baseball tournament and the fifth iteration of the World Baseball Classic. It began on March 8, 2023, and ran until March 21. It was originally scheduled to take place in ...

that, while he would play for China, he would not pitch against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

if the two teams faced each other. He further said that he would have preferred to play for South Korea if he had been selected.

References

External links

1995 births Living people Chinese baseball players South Korean baseball players Chinese emigrants to South Korea Chinese sportspeople of Korean descent 2017 World Baseball Classic players 2023 World Baseball Classic players Baseball pitchers KT Wiz players Naturalized citizens of South Korea People who lost Chinese citizenship

Kwon Kwon also written as Gwon ( ) is a Korean family name. Some sources list as many as 56 clans, but most of them were merged with the Andong Gwon clan under the Sijeung-gong faction soon after the establishment of the Goryeo Kingdom. Andong Kwo ...

KBO League pitchers {{PRChina-baseball-bio-stub