Israeli catcher Ryan Ravanway (36), who bullied the Korean baseball team twice, retired after 10 seasons of major league career.
On the 23rd (hereinafter Korean time), Laban Way announced his retirement from active duty through the US’The Athletic’. He looked back on his 15-year professional career, including 10 major league seasons, through his own writing.
Ravanway, who debuted with the Boston Red Sox in 2011, played for the Baltimore Orioles, Atlanta Braves, Oakland Athletics, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds, Miami Marlins, and Cleveland Indians (currently the Guardians), batting 165 games in 10 major league seasons until 2021 2.17 with 97 hits, 9 homers, and 50 RBIs for an OPS of .617. In Boston in 2012, 46 games were the most in a season, and most of the period was spent as a minor leaguer.
However, as a Jewish-American, he left a strong impression twice in Korea in international competitions as a member of Israel. In 2017, he won the World Baseball Classic (WBC) Group A group MVP award held at the Gocheok Dome in Seoul. In his first match against Korea, he started as the starting catcher and led an extra-time victory (2-1) with 1 hit and 1 walk in 3 at-bats. Then, in the opening round of the Tokyo Olympics in August 2021, he hit multiple home runs with a two-run four to Choi Won-jun in the 6th inning and a solo shot to Oh Seung-hwan in the 9th inning. At that time, Korea won 6-5 with Yang Eui-ji’s push-off ball at the end of the 10th inning.
Ravanway, who ended his playing career with the recently ended WBC Israel team, said, “I can’t enter the Hall of Fame. There is no retirement tour, but I want to say a few words on the quiet way home after cleaning up the locker room.”
He said, “The past 15 years of being a professional baseball player have been the glory of my life. He also wore the jerseys of eight big league teams and 18 other teams. Most of them were minor teams, and there was also this WBC Israel team. I don’t know if other people will say that there were more bad things than good things, but I don’t regret a single day.”
“I wasn’t a great athlete, but what I was able to do for a long time was the people I met along the way who helped me believe that ‘I can get better’. “(Receiving his first big league call-up) I cried like a child on the August 18, 2011 flight from Pawtucket to Kansas City. Everything I worked for has finally come true. However, eight days later, he was demoted back to the minors for the first time. I achieved my dream, but I felt like I was taken away,” recalling painful memories.
It was the first trial in Labanway’s twists and turns baseball life. He said, “The number of times I was demoted to the minors, traded, or released 26 times. But I was good at not quitting. After being released from Atlanta in 2016, he had his worst year as he went down to Toronto Double-A, but in March 2017 he competed in the WBC and realized how much fun baseball can be. Everyone played baseball purely to win without worrying about minor relegation or contracts. He said that the WBC held in Korea in 2017 was a big turning point in his baseball life.
Ravanway said, “Even now, I still like baseball.메이저놀이터 Now is the time to quit baseball and move on to the next activity,” he said. “I want to leave a message before leaving. You don’t have to be the biggest or the strongest or the fastest to achieve your dreams. If you believe that you can succeed and take the first step in that direction, you can do more than you ever thought possible. If you don’t believe in yourself, you will need someone to believe in you, just like the coaches who believed in me. I will become that kind of person starting with me.”