TOKYO -- Hyun Jin Ryu was just 21 years old and he was pitching in one of the biggest games in the world. It was the gold medal game at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and Korea was playing Cuba, one of the all-time greats of international baseball. Korea had missed out on the 2004 games and now were just one win away from being the first undefeated team since Cuba had pulled it off 12 years earlier.
Though young, Ryu had already established himself as a pitching star in the KBO. Coming out of high school, he went 18-6 with a 2.23 ERA as a 19-year-old in 2006, becoming the first player in KBO history to win Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season. The next two years were similar to the first, with Ryu becoming a superstar in the league, but this wasn't the KBO. This was the Olympics, with his country's name written across his chest.
If Ryu was nervous, he didn't show it. Facing a lineup that featured future big leaguers Yuli Gurriel and Aroldis Chapman, along with all-time World Baseball Classic home run champion Alfredo Despaigne, Ryu dominated. He pitched 8 1/3 innings, giving up two runs, before Chong Tae-hyon got Gurriel to ground into an Olympics-ending double-play.
"I stood in the field tonight and just had one goal in my mind, that was to win the gold medal," Ryu said at the time. "I wanted to perform well throughout the game, but at the end of the ninth inning, I felt a little bit nervous."
The tournament was nearly 20 years ago now, so memories may be fuzzy, but Ryu remembers the simple part clearly.
"I was really young back then, so all I remember, actually, is just looking at the catcher's mitt, and then just trying to locate it in there," Ryu told MLB.com through interpreter Eugene Koo.
The next year, Ryu joined Korea's World Baseball Classic team. He appeared in five games, including coming on in relief in the championship against Japan, which Korea lost in an extra-innings heartbreaker.
"We played a really tough group stage," Ryu remembers. "There were a good competitive group and national teams over there."
They may have lost, but Ryu has "good memories because I remember we were going back to San Diego and we played pretty well."
Korea may have lost but the team had nearly won a world championship in back-to-back years.
Since then, however, things have not been the same. While Ryu's career took off -- he came to the Major Leagues in 2013 and was an All-Star and two-time Cy Young finalist. He won 78 big league games -- second most for a Korean-born player behind Chan Ho Park -- before returning to Korea in 2024.
Meanwhile, Korea's national team has struggled, failing to get out of the group stage of the World Baseball Classic since that 2009 championship game. 2023 was a particularly low point, with the team losing to Australia and nearly being mercy ruled by Japan, 13-4.
Now, for the first time since that 2009 tournament, Ryu is back on the team, helping lead a young pitching staff and a powerful lineup that is having fun and looking to be on the charter flight headed to the quarterfinals in Miami. But Ryu isn't here in a ceremonial role or as a coach who may get to toss a few innings: He's here because he's still one of the country's very best.
"I'd like to explain how the Korean Baseball Federation selected these players," national team manager Ji-Hyun Ryu said. "It's not about their age or how much experience they have or what kind of leadership they have. Those are not the factors that we took into consideration. We just want to make sure that we have all these great players with good track records. We have to select 15 pitchers on our squad, but we selected the best competitors in our game. That's why we selected Hyun Jin Ryu, who was one of those pitchers."
His manager may not care about his leadership skills, but on a team with many young pitchers, Ryu embraces the role.
"As a young guy back then, I remember a lot of good veterans were there for me. So, I try to do the same thing. We have a much younger pitching staff compared to years ago with the national team. I just try to be there. I think one thing I want to do for them is not only care about my baseball here now, but try to think for the young kids, so they can grow. Just being there really, but I'm also getting a lot of energy and things to learn from those young kids, as well."
One of them is fireballing 19-year-old Woo Joo Jeong, who posted a 2.85 ERA and struck out 13.8 batters per nine as a rookie in the KBO last year.
"Because he already has a really good stuff, I tell him to just put it in the zone and throw strikes, because even if it's right down the middle, chances are that hitters are not going to hit it over the fence every time. I just tell him to be confident with himself. He just goes with it. I mean, he's a really talented pitcher for me."
Korea has only played one game so far, but the lineup has been humming in the exhibition contests and in an 11-4 victory against Czechia with a mix of big leaguers, Korean stars and U.S. players all coming together to try and put Korea back on top. While the team is having fun -- pantomiming airplanes and lifting inflatable M's to stand for Miami -- they're all focused on the main goal.
"I just feel like with the national team, everyone is very serious about how we handle ourselves here," Ryu said. "I think it's more of coming into that mind-set and just pitching for your nation, really, and having that heart so just trying to stay within yourself."
While the hitters may have their own celebration, Ryu and the pitchers aren't planning on doing anything different. They all want the same thing: Being on that airplane out of Tokyo.
"We try to have fun with the hitters, but we don't have anything we're preparing for ourselves. When we're in the dugout, though, and when they're doing it, we just try to join in."