In the top of the eighth inning of the bronze medal game against the Dominican Republic at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, down 6-10, Kang Baek-ho was seen chewing gum in the dugout with two outs and a runner on first.
KBS commentator Park Chan-ho said, "I caught a glimpse of Kang Baek-ho, but no. Even if we lose, we shouldn't show that side of ourselves. You have to keep fighting like crazy and go all the way," he said.
The team, which was aiming to repeat the glory of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, returned home empty-handed. Much of the blame fell on Kang Baek-ho for the gum controversy. He has since come clean about the gum controversy.
He said, "It's true that I showed a side of myself that I shouldn't have shown at the time. It was a behavior that deserved to be criticized. I should have acted more carefully, but I was complacent," he said. "I was a little bit frustrated and disappointed, so that's why the bruising came out. Of course, I didn't do it throughout the entire match, but I apologize without any excuse." 
Kang Baek-ho also said, "I think I need to accept all the criticism from the fans and show a lot of sincere behavior in the future. I will try to become a player who is recognized by the fans as a person rather than a baseball player," he promised.
Kang, who was named to the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games team, struggled mightily in the group stage, going 1-for-11 with one home run, one run scored and two RBIs. He went 0-for-4 with a walk against Hong Kong on the first day.
Against Chinese Taipei on Feb. 2, he went 0-for-4 despite reaching base four times. Against Thailand on Wednesday, Kang Baek-ho, who moved from the fourth to the sixth spot in the batting order, singled to right field with runners on second and third in the fourth inning.
South Korea went on to beat Thailand 17-0 in the fifth inning.
Kang Baek-ho's fixer-upper instincts were on full display against China, who he must beat to advance to the final on Saturday.
He got things off to a good start with a clean hit to right field in his first at-bat of the game, and two batters later in the third inning, he hit a huge shot over the right field fence. 토토사이트
"Baek-ho Kang is back," commentator Park Chan-ho said with a wide grin as Masu-geul broke his long silence with a home run.
South Korea went on to beat China 8-1 in a two-hit shutout to advance to the final.
They will face Chinese Taipei for the championship on May 7.
"There weren't too many games where we scored a lot of goals early on, so today's commentary was the most relaxed I've been in a long time," Park said.
Meanwhile, Kang Baek-ho spoke to the media after the game and said, "It was an important game today and an important game tomorrow, but it was a satisfying home run because I feel like I'm in better shape. I'm happier that it helped my country win than my first home run."
He continued, "I had some good at-bats in the previous game, but the results were not good. Today, I felt better and I'm looking forward to tomorrow's game."
"Their pitchers are good, but our players have improved a lot, so we should be able to take advantage of them," he said. "If we score first, our pitchers will be able to protect us, so we will focus on batting first," said Kang Baek-ho, who emphasized the importance of scoring first.