Opinion | How an adopted Korean ‘god’ has turned Major League Baseball on its collective ear
Slugger Eric Thames found more than his groove in Asia and, sadly, suspicion was sure to follow
Not much seems to happen in Changwon, South Korea. The country’s ninth largest city, it is roughly a quarter the size of nearby Busan. But unlike Busan it does not have a huge international film festival and has never hosted World Cup matches, the Asian Games or an Apec conference. It is, however, the first “planned city” in Korea and bills itself as an environmental capital.
Like the rest of the country, people in Changwon are obsessed these days with being squarely in the crosshairs of the game of nuclear chicken playing out between North Korea and the United States. There are, it seems, other pressing issues on their mind, most notably the exploits of their prodigal son in the US.
With a beard like Methuselah and a swing like Babe Ruth, Eric Thames is hard to miss. The laid back northern California native has taken Major League Baseball by storm this season. In his first 20 games with the Milwaukee Brewers, the first baseman hit 11 home runs and is on pace to hit 89 this year, which would easily smash Barry Bond’s single season record of 73.
All of this has been cause for great shock and disbelief in the baseball world and beyond but not in Changwon. As a member of NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organisation (KBO) in the past three years, Thames nickname was God.
While the handle may sound sacrilegious to some, in 329 games Thames hit 124 home runs, a divine ratio of one in every 2.5 games. Bear in mind that pitchers in the KBO used every assortment of trickery to thwart Thames and none of it worked.