Takeout slides and The Walking Dead: A Jung Ho Kang update

BRADENTON, Fla. — Jung Ho Kang, whose season ended in mid-September due to a serious knee injury, has resumed all baseball activities in some fashion, he said Tuesday at Pirate City.

Kang is running, though not running the bases. He is hitting in the batting cage, taking grounders and on Monday started making throws across the diamond.

Chris Coghlan slid into Kang’s left leg, which was planted and stiff as Kang made a throw to first, on Sept. 17. The impact fractured the tibial plateau in Kang’s left knee and damaged his lateral meniscus. Kang had surgery that night to repair the damage.

The rods and plates from that surgery remain in Kang’s knee, and as long as they pose no problems, Kang said, the doctors have no intention of taking them out.

“Half and half,” Kang said through translator HK Kim. “It was bad, of course I felt bad about it. But on the other hand, I took it as a message to give it a break and get ready to go.”

Kang reiterated what he said in a statement after the injury: ”I don’t think it was intentional at all. The player, Coghlan, was just breaking up a double play.” He said he would support possible rule changes designed to eliminate violent collisions around second base. Jordy Mercer was injured in a similar fashion, and Chase Utley hurt Ruben Tejada with a late slide.

“It’s for the players,” he said. “It’s to protect the players.”

While recovering from the surgery, Kang watched The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad and Entourage. He did not make it back to Korea this offseason, instead coming down to Bradenton in December, but his parents visited him in Florida. His English is quite good: He understood some of our questions and answered in English, before hearing the translation.