‘It Is High, It Is Far, It Is Gone — All the Way to South Korea’

SEOUL — ‘It is high, it is far, it is gone — all the way to Seoul, Korea.” Forgive my borrowing the trademark call of John Sterling of the Yankees, but Major League Baseball is arriving in South Korea for the first time in the form of the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres, to the delight of some of the world’s most fanatic baseball fans. After two exhibition games apiece this weekend, they will open their season against each other Wednesday and Thursday — all in the 16,744-seat, temperature-controlled Gocheok Sky Dome at Seoul. Important though those season openers may be to the Dodgers and Padres, Koreans will be going nuts over every pitch and every play.They will also do so as they cheer their home-grown teams against the big-time guys from across the Pacific. South Korean fans are expected to fill the stadium to bursting beginning with the exhibition opener between the Dodgers and the Sky Dome’s Kiwoom Heroes — named for the financial firm that owns them. Local fans, who typically cheer and groan with every pitch, will be consumed with excitement over a contest that’s more than a little uneven-sided.The Dodgers did finish first in the National League West last year, with 100 wins against 62 losses, while the woebegone Heroes were last in the 10-team Korean Baseball Organization with a record of 53 wins, 83 losses, and three ties played to the KBO maximum 12 innings. The Dodgers may face tougher competition against Team Korea, the KBO’s best players, on Monday.Also on Monday, a day after facing Team Korea, the Padres test their power against the LG Twins, which finished first in the KBO last year. For the Dodgers and Padres, it’s the opening games Wednesday and Thursday that matter most even if Korean fans see them more as a chance to study famous players close-up without taking sides. The player under the most scrutiny undoubtedly will be Shohei Ohtani, who’s just beginning the first season of a record-setting $700 million, 10-year contract with the Dodgers after having starred both on the mound and at the plate for the Los Angeles Angels. He not only led the American League with 44 home runs last year as a designated hitter but racked up a 10-5 record as a pitcher until elbow surgery in September may have ended his pitching career.The Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani and his wife, Mamiko Tanaka, arrive at Incheon International Airport, March 15, 2024, at Incheon, South Korea, ahead of the team’s series against the Padres. AP/Lee Jin-manAll eyes were on Mr. Ohtani as he was cheered by a crowd that had waited for hours for him to come through Incheon International Airport, with his wife, disclosed for the first time to be Mamiko Tanaka, a former player with the Fujitsu Red Wave of the Japan Women’s Basketball League. Several hundred people, including a horde of cameramen, surged to glimpse Mr. Ohtani. A clutch of fans hefted signs saying “GOATANI” — an acronym for “Greatest of All-Time Ohtani” — as they cheered him and the rest of the Dodger contingent, which arrived about 12 hours after the Padres. They also cheered another highly paid Japanese player, pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who signed on with the Dodgers for 12 years at $325 million. Mr. Yamamoto makes his debut in Thursday’s game under if anything more scrutiny than Mr. Ohtani after an inauspicious spring training record in which he had an earned run average of 8.38 in 9.2 innings over three games. All eyes will also be on a third Japanese pitcher, the Padres’ Yu Darvish, who has a career record of 103-85 with four different MLB teams and will pitch for the Padres in Wednesday’s opener.Korean fans, even if not caught up in major league rivalries and standings, may be rooting for the Padres if only because they have two Koreans playing for them. One, a relief pitcher, Woo-suk Go, migrated from the LG Twins, where he accrued 139 saves in seven years and may have the chance to make his major league debut in his native land. The other, Ha-seong Kim, at shortstop, second base, and third, has been one of the Padres’ solidest, most versatile players. His appearance Sunday at the SkyDome will be a homecoming. He played for the Heroes before opting for the big time across the Pacific. Korean fans also won’t have forgotten Chan-ho Park, the pitcher who made his major league debut with the Dodgers in 1994 as the first Korean ever to play in the big leagues. After 17 years, including nine with the Dodgers, he retired with a record of 124 wins and 98 losses. He’ll toss the ceremonial first pitch in the season opener between the Dodgers and the Padres.

‘It Is High, It Is Far, It Is Gone — All the Way to South Korea’

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