Former baseball star Yang Joon-hyuk revealed the heartbreaking family history and sheer determination for success hidden behind his legendary “Yang-shin” title.
In the May 10 episode of KBS’s variety show ‘The Boss’s Ears are Donkey Ears’, Yang Joon-hyuk spent a meaningful time visiting the baseball team at his alma mater, Uiseong High School. While treating his juniors to meat, he looked back on the extreme poverty he faced while chasing his dream of becoming a baseball player and his mother’s devoted love.
He told the juniors, “My family’s financial situation was so difficult in the past that they wanted me to quit baseball.” Because his passion for the game was so intense, he pleaded with his parents, saying, “I’ll even beg for money, just please let me play baseball,” refusing to give up on his dream. Moved by her son’s desperation, his mother dedicated herself to supporting him, taking on any job from housecleaning to selling pickled radish at the market. Yang Joon-hyuk shared, “Seeing my mother suffer made me push myself to the absolute limit in baseball,” leaving viewers deeply moved.
Since retiring in 2010, Yang Joon-hyuk has transitioned into a passionate entrepreneur for his second act in life. He currently operates four businesses, including a yellowtail fish farm spanning about 3,000 pyeong, a cafe, a sashimi restaurant, and a fishing spot. He showcased his success as a businessman, revealing on the show that his annual revenue is around 3 billion won.
However, despite investing tens of millions of won boldly into his businesses, he showed a more realistic side as a husband when it came to his daughter’s education. During the broadcast, when his wife Park Hyun-sun expressed her wish to send their 15-month-old daughter, Lee Jae, to an academy, Yang Joon-hyuk expressed concern, asking, “Isn’t the academy fee too expensive?” Park Hyun-sun then mentioned that Yang Joon-hyuk recently spent 30 million won on an engine pump for his business, voicing her disappointment by asking, “You don’t spare money for the yellowtail fish, but you find the daughter’s education costs a waste?”
A flustered Yang Joon-hyuk explained, “It’s not that it’s a waste, but education is something a couple should discuss together.” As the cast members in the studio empathized with his wife’s position, Yang Joon-hyuk broke into a sweat, adding, “It’s difficult to explain every single business investment.” Yang Joon-hyuk married jazz singer Park Hyun-sun, who is 19 years his junior, in 2021 and became a late-blooming father at the age of 55 in December 2024.
