Samsung Lions catcher Kang Min-ho in 2023

Kang Min-ho Put On the Catcher’s Mask With a Cracked Rib and Got His First Ring in 23 Years

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Featured photo: Samsung Lions catcher Kang Min-ho in 2023. Photo: Seohae1999, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Samsung Lions catcher Kang Min-ho, 41, put on the mask for the Korean Series with a cracked rib and a torn muscle in his side, and won the title for the first time, 8,085 days after his debut. The first thing he said to Woo Kyu-min of KT, the friend his own age he had fought for that ring, was: “Next year, it’s your turn.” I’ll be honest: when that final strikeout landed, I was so happy as a fan that I nearly cried.

The official KBO highlights of Game 5 have 322,713 views (checked November 9, 2026).

The last strikeout, and “I finally did it”

November 8, Samsung Lions Park in Daegu. Samsung beat KT, the regular-season No. 1, 12-1 in Game 5 of the Korean Series, winning four straight after dropping Game 1 to take the title. It’s Samsung’s first championship in 12 years, since 2014, and the ninth in club history (JTBC, Chosun Ilbo). The Korean Series is the World Series of the KBO, Korea’s pro baseball league.

When KT’s last batter, Jang Sung-woo, went down on strikes, the man who caught the ball was Kang Min-ho. He threw both arms up right where he stood, and after the celebration he shouted toward the stands, “I finally did it!” (Dong-A Ilbo). “I don’t remember the last moment,” he said later (SPOTV News). This fall has been kind to Korean sports fans: An Se-young, who has lost only once all year, also took the Korea Open crown.

The one thing a gold-medal catcher never had

Kang is the catcher who won gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and a seven-time Golden Glove winner at catcher, the best in Korea at his position (Dong-A Ilbo). The one thing he didn’t have was a Korean Series title. From his debut in a Lotte Giants uniform on September 19, 2004, to his first championship took 8,085 days: 2,662 games and 9,725 plate appearances, regular season and postseason combined. No one in Korean pro baseball history has waited longer into a career for a first Korean Series title (Dong-A Ilbo).

Most of that time, he wasn’t even close. For 20 years, from 2004 to 2023, he never once played in a Korean Series, and after moving to Samsung in 2018, the first Korean Series he finally reached, in 2024, ended in a 1-4 loss to KIA (SPOTV News). So right after the win, he said this: “It feels much better than the (Beijing) Olympic gold medal” (Dong-A Ilbo).

SBS Sports’ interview with Kang has 550,656 views (checked November 9, 2026).

The ball he caught with a cracked rib

Only on the night of the title did he reveal what he had been hiding. “I can say it now: I have a hairline fracture in my rib, and a torn muscle with some blood pooled in it.” He hurt his side swinging a bat in practice on the day of Game 3, and the tests after the game didn’t look good (SPOTV News). A proper swing was impossible.

He still didn’t sit out. Of the five games, the only one he didn’t start was Game 4, and even then he came in wearing the mask with one out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the fifth, telling 25-year-old pitcher Lee Jae-hee, who came in with him, “Trust your stuff and throw it down the middle” (Dong-A Ilbo). “My body hurts, but I can still throw the ball back, so I tried to do my best with what I could do,” he explained (SPOTV News).

Game 5 was the same. When he went out to the mound and starter Won Tae-in glanced toward the bullpen, Kang told him, “Hey, there’s no other pitcher. You have to do this. It’s okay if you get hit. Let’s not run away.” Won went five innings, allowed one run and was named the game’s MVP (SPOTV News, JTBC). “Min-ho hyung’s fighting spirit was our team’s driving force and momentum this fall,” Won said (Dong-A Ilbo). Series MVP went to captain Koo Ja-wook, who hit .500 (JTBC), but the dugout pointed to Kang Min-ho.

This fall, he said, he spent his days off walking alone with no destination, looking up at the sky. “I prayed while I walked. I hoped my prayers would reach the heavens” (SPOTV News).

Woo Kyu-min, the friend who missed the ring

From the start, this series was the story of two players born in 1985. KT pitcher Woo Kyu-min debuted with LG in 2003 and came to KT by way of Samsung, and in his 24th pro season he stood in a Korean Series for the first time. The two had been a battery, pitcher and catcher, back in their Samsung days (Ilgan Sports, Xports News).

In Game 4, after Woo got Kang, batting with his injured side, to fly out, he was the first to ask, “You okay?” His reason: “Competition is competition, but he looked like he was in really bad shape.” Watching his friend hang on for the sake of his defense more than his bat, Woo said, “He’s on the other team, but he’s amazing. I respect him” (Ilgan Sports).

When Game 5 ended, Woo stood in the dugout with Kim Hyun-soo and watched Samsung’s celebration for a long time. To Kang, who came over to greet him, he said, “Congratulations, really,” and Kang answered, “Next year, you do it, hyung” (Ilgan Sports, Xports News). Hyung is what a Korean man calls an older male friend, and it’s what Kang calls Woo. “As long as I can throw, I want to stand on the mound as much as I can,” Woo said (Xports News).

“Retirement really isn’t far off now, and I’m so happy I get to wear a ring after 23 years,” Kang said (SPOTV News). The man who waited 23 years for a ring spent his first moments with it cheering on next year for a friend who still doesn’t have one. I’m already waiting for next fall, and Woo Kyu-min’s turn.

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