The manager of the Korea Haechi, a team joining the Kansai Independent Baseball League this upcoming season, said Friday he came to Japan to lead the team to the title.
"I'm here to guide the team to the league title. We'll play our best no matter who our opponents are," Park Chul Woo said of his team formed by South Korean players at a news conference in Osaka.
The addition of the Korea Haechi has brought the number of teams in the cash-strapped league back to four for its second season.
The 2009 champion Osaka Gold Villicanes left in October to join the new Japan-Future League after being forced to cut each player's monthly salary in half.
"The purpose of this club's establishment was to give young players a chance to play," Korea Haechi representative Kim Jin Hee said.
The Kansai Independent League opens the 2010 season on March 28, with the Korea Haechi playing the Kobe 9 Cruise, the club teenage female knuckleballer Eri Yoshida played for last year.