Other critics say that the takedowns can be too punitive. Case in point: the pitcher, An Woo-jin.
Mr. An’s troubles began in 2017, when a TV network reported that he had assaulted younger players on his high school team.
The police determined that Mr. An, then 17, had hit three younger students in the head with a baseball, a cellphone and a belt buckle, and a fourth student on the shin with a bat, according to police records provided by his lawyer. After the students decided not to file charges, saying that Mr. An’s behavior had not been severe, prosecutors dropped the case.
The allegations against Mr. An, a 6-foot-3 right-hander who threw 99 mile-per-hour fastballs, did not stop him from going professional the same year. The Kiwoom Heroes signed him for 600 million won, or about $470,000 . No new accusations of bullying have emerged.
But the claims continue to shadow his career.
In 2017, the Korea Baseball Softball Association, which governs its national teams, barred him from the Olympics and the Asian Games. In January, the Korea Baseball Organization, which selects the team for the World Baseball Classic, said he would not take part in the tournament, which starts Tuesday.
The team was selected with an eye toward “the symbolic meaning, responsibility and price that comes with representing the country,” the organization’s spokesperson, Lee Kyong-ho, said in an interview. “Is it right to select players based only on their skills ?”
Fueling public anger is a perception that the penalties Mr. An’s high school imposed — five hours of volunteer work and a written apology — were too light. But Mr. An’s lawyer, Baek Sung-moon, said in an interview that the decision to ban him from international tournaments had apparently been based on an impression that his bullying was harsher than reported.