Prior to the second leg of the San Francisco Giants\u2019 FanFest tour, outfielder Jung Hoo Lee described his brief detainment at the Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday evening as a \u201cmisunderstanding this one time\u201d and said he was glad everything had been sorted out.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, a bit hectic the last few days, but I\u2019m glad everything\u2019s worked out,\u201d Lee said through team interpreter Brian Kang.<\/p>\n
Lee said he had all the paperwork he typically brings when he flies into the country, adding that he spent a little over four hours at the airport. He declined to specify what paperwork he was missing.<\/p>\n
Justin Han, Lee\u2019s interpreter, also had \u201cpassport issues\u201d but will fly into the country next week. Lee said he did not think the current political climate had anything to do with his temporary detainmnent.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything specific that I\u2019m too worried about in that sense,\u201d Lee said. \u201cI\u2019m just glad it got resolved and I\u2019m back with my teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, 17 members of the Giants organization visited Lee in South Korea as part of a goodwill tour, a group that included president of baseball operations Buster Posey, general manager Zack Minasian, new manager Tony Vitello and shortstop Willy Adames.<\/p>\n
Lee said the trip is \u201csomething that I won\u2019t forget for the rest of my life,\u201d one of the highlights being when he took the contingent out for Korean BBQ. Lee also brought Adames and Vitello on a tour of Namdaemun Market while Posey and Minasian met with Heo Koo-Youn, the commissioner of the KBO.<\/p>\n
Additionally, the Giants put on a baseball clinic at LG Champion\u2019s Park for 30 local high school players. Lee and Shane Robinson, one of the new coaches under Vitello, coached outfield drills while Adames and Jae-Gyun Hwang, a former Giant, conducted infield drills.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty evident the support that the Giants have in my home country in South Korea,\u201d Lee said. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool to see the fans rallying around the team and getting excited about us over here in San Francisco. It\u2019s really cool to see the Giants investing and putting a bigger focus in my home country, and I\u2019m really excited to keep that momentum going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Said Vitello of the trip last Saturday: \u201cA lot of meals and breaking bread with everybody. For me, being in my first year, it was great to be around any of those people. Even Willy, who I\u2019d spent a lot of time with in person, it provided a better opportunity to get to know him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lee will soon return to Asia for the World Baseball Classic as one of the star players for South Korea, which has never won the tournament.<\/p>\n
South Korea is part of Pool C, which will play in Tokyo from March 5-10. Pool C also features Japan, the reigning champions, Australia, Czechia and Chinese Taipei. If South Korea goes on a run, there\u2019s a possibility that Lee faces teammate Logan Webb, who\u2019s part of the United States\u2019 star-studded rotation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a big honor and a privilege to represent my country at the WBC, and I\u2019m really excited to \u2026 have the opportunity to face off against Logan Webb, my teammate,\u201d said Lee, who played for South Korea in 2023. \u201cWe\u2019ll definitely have a lot of talks before then. It\u2019s on us to make sure we can face Logan eventually in that tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prior to the second leg of the San Francisco Giants\u2019 FanFest tour, outfielder Jung Hoo Lee described his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2309,5,2325,62046,19,2308,4,66,185,2311],"class_list":{"0":"post-537342","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ball-and-bat-games","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-baseball-teams","11":"tag-japan-national-baseball-team","12":"tag-major-league-baseball","13":"tag-major-league-baseball-teams","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-san-francisco-giants","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-team-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115954668437743356","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}