Australian coach reveals mixed emotions
Ask former Australian pitcher Chris Oxspring how much he’d missed South Korea, where he spent five seasons playing and three seasons coaching, and he barely has to think about the answer.
“A lot,” Oxspring said with a laugh during an interview with Yonhap News Agency on Tuesday.
Oxspring is back in South Korea as a coach for Australia at the Premier12, a World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) tournament also serving as an Olympic qualifying tournament for the Americas and Asia/Oceania region. And Australia will take on South Korea later Wednesday at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul to open Group C action.
But as much as he loves being back in his old stomping ground, Oxspring now has to help his native country beat South Korea to have a chance to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“Mixed emotions, I guess,” Oxspring said of his feelings about taking on South Korea. “But it’s a job, and you have to do it. And I enjoy coaching.”
Oxspring, 42, made his major league debut with the San Diego Padres in 2005 and went on to play in three different countries afterward: Japan, South Korea and Australia, with Triple-A stints sprinkled in between.
The right-hander first arrived in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) with the Seoul-based LG Twins in 2007 and pitched for them until 2008.
Then after a few years between Australia and the U.S. minor leagues, Oxspring returned to the KBO in 2013 by signing with the Lotte Giants in Busan, 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul, and had his best South Korean season then, with a 13-7 record and a 3.29 ERA.
His final KBO season came in 2015 with the expansion club KT Wiz in Suwon, 45 kilometers south of the capital. He then served as a pitching coach for the Giants from 2016 to 2018.
In all, Oxspring compiled a 49-40 record with a 3.90 ERA in 136 KBO games.
Though it’s been four years since Oxspring last pitched in the KBO, there are still hitters on the South Korean national team that the Australian faced. So if Australian pitchers want to find out more about these hitters, they know where to go.