Kim Rae Won Is Back After 4 Years — And He’s Playing a Baseball Underdog Who Takes on a “Poisoned Chalice” in SBS Drama “Full Count”

K-drama fans have been waiting patiently, and the wait is finally over. Kim Rae Won is making his long-anticipated small-screen comeback in Full Count, a gritty SBS sports drama about the cutthroat world of professional baseball — where the real game isn’t played on the field, but in the shadows of power and politics.

Full Count: Key Details

What Is “Full Count” About?

Full Count is a sports drama that depicts the fierce battle for survival among those who risk everything in a cutthroat baseball world filled with schemes and power struggles — all in pursuit of the coveted position of professional baseball manager.

Think less home runs, more boardroom wars. The drama uses baseball — a sport built entirely on strategy, patience, and reading your opponent — as a perfect metaphor for the psychological warfare that plays out when ambition and power collide. A “full count” in baseball means three balls and two strikes: one more pitch decides everything. That tension is baked right into the title.

Kim Rae Won as Hwang Jin Ho — The Ultimate Outsider

This is the role fans have been craving from Kim Rae Won for years.

He plays Hwang Jin Ho, the acting manager of the popular baseball team the Stars, a side on the verge of being eliminated from postseason contention. A former catcher turned battery coach, Hwang Jin Ho is an ill-fated baseball figure who spent most of his playing days as a backup. He has lived as a persistent outsider within the Stars’ exclusionary culture, which fiercely prioritises “pure-blooded” insiders. He then accepts the acting manager role — a position widely regarded as a poisoned chalice — and finds himself thrown into the whirlwind of a lifetime.

There is something deeply compelling about an underdog who has been overlooked his whole career, finally being handed the one shot that could define everything — or destroy him. Kim Rae Won’s ability to portray quiet suffering and simmering resolve makes him ideal for this role.

For the latest K-drama casting news and sports drama updates, check out Technosports.

Park Hoon as the Rival — The Battle for the Top Job

Park Hoon plays Jo Dong Hee, a pitching coach widely regarded as the leading candidate for the manager’s position. The two characters will clash in an intense battle of strategy and wits as they each fight their way to the top job.

This rivalry is the heartbeat of the show. On one side you have Hwang Jin Ho — an outsider grasping at a rare opportunity. On the other, Jo Dong Hee — the establishment favourite who has earned his place through the system. Their confrontation promises the kind of slow-burn tension that Korean dramas do better than almost anyone.

Why “Full Count” Could Be the Sports Drama of 2027

Korean sports dramas have a strong pedigree — titles like Stove League and Dream have shown that the genre thrives when it focuses on the human drama behind the sport, rather than the sport itself. Full Count already has that DNA written all over it.

Add Kim Rae Won’s first TV appearance in four years, a layered underdog storyline, and the political intrigue of a team on the brink — and you have the ingredients for something genuinely special. Keep this firmly on your 2027 watchlist.

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