He Goes a Long Way to Get a Good Deal : Baseball: Long Beach State pitcher Daniel Choi signs with Samsung of Korean league.

Daniel Choi was confident his performance on the mound for Long Beach State last season would result in a contract offer from a major league organization.

And after he finished 17-2 with a 2.57 earned-run average, the Oakland Athletics selected the sophomore in the 14th round of last summer’s amateur draft.

Choi, however, was not enticed by the A’s offer. He made plans to return to school and help Long Beach return to the College World Series.

But today Choi is preparing for a professional career that will begin half a world away.

The Samsung Lions of the Korean Baseball Organization made the Korean-born Choi an offer he could not refuse. South Korean newspapers, with figures supplied by the Lions and the salary-conscious league, reported that Choi signed for a $200,000 bonus and $60,000 a year for an undisclosed amount of time. That’s the official company line. But some college and professional baseball sources say the package is worth significantly more.

“Let’s just say I think it was a very fair deal,” said Choi, a 6-foot-1, 185-pound right-hander who had 116 strikeouts in 147 1/3 innings last season.

Choi, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from Fairfax High, is currently in Hawaii, where he is participating with American, Japanese and Korean minor leaguers in the inaugural Hawaiian Winter League. Choi will report to South Korea on Jan. 15 for the start of spring training.

The courting of Choi by the Lions actually began during the 1993 College World Series, where Choi helped Long Beach come within one game of playing for its first national title.

Choi pitched 7 1/3 innings but lost his first World Series start against Louisiana State. He came back and beat Texas A&M;, and would have been on the mound for the national championship game if Long Beach had not lost to LSU in the bracket final.

“I found out after my first start in Omaha that there was a guy from Korea there scouting me,” Choi said. “But I didn’t want to talk to him because we were concentrating on winning the national championship.”

After the series, the Lions made Choi an offer that would have required him to join the organization during the middle of the recently completed season. But Choi said he wanted to rest his arm and continue working toward his degree at Long Beach.

In September, Choi and his father, Moo, were invited to Taegu, South Korea, for more talks. “They gave my father a figure and he asked me if it was in the ballpark,” Choi said. “I told them I still thought I had a pretty fair chance of playing professionally in the United States.

“A week passed, and I’m thinking about school, when all of a sudden, they came in with an offer I just couldn’t pass up.”

Choi said the toughest part of his decision was leaving Long Beach behind. With Choi and senior Mike Fontana anchoring the staff, the 49ers would have been a favorite to return to the World Series for the fourth time in six seasons under Coach Dave Snow.

As Choi prepares for the 156-game Korean schedule, he said he still maintains dreams of pitching in the major leagues in the United States.

He hopes to avoid a baseball fate similar to Derek Tatsuno’s. Tatsuno, a former University of Hawaii left-hander who was the last Asian-American pitcher to dominate at the Division I level, bypassed an offer from the San Diego Padres in 1979 and signed a $750,000 contract with a Japanese minor league team. He returned to the States in 1982, but never rose higher than Double-A.

“When I went to Korea last summer, I kind of found my roots again,” Choi said. “There are some Korean guys that played Division III ball here, so it’s not like I’m the only guy who has experience in the United States.

“I just look at it as a great opportunity. My parents have bought a house there and they are looking forward to going to my games and retiring quietly and happily.

“But this isn’t where I expect my career to end. I consider it more of a beginning.”