Category: Sports

Police are tracking down the sender of an email threatening a bomb terror attack at Seoul’s Gocheok Sky Dome, where a U.S. Major League Baseball (MLB) opening game is scheduled to take place Wednesday.

Police said they received a report from an employee at South Korea’s Consulate General in Vancouver of Canada at around 6 a.m. about the email threatening to detonate a bomb during the match between the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers to hurt superstar Shohei Ohtani and others.

The email was written in English and the writer claimed to be a Japanese lawyer, and officials are trying to check whether it was sent from Japan.

Police suspect the email could be from the same individual behind a series of email and fax bomb threats from Japan last year. The sender at the time also claimed to be a Japanese lawyer, and showed similarities in format and content to the bomb threat Wednesday, officials said.

Police are tracking down the sender and plan to deploy 30 commandos and 120 personnel to search th
e stadium. But no dangerous or suspicious situation has been found yet.

Wednesday’s game will open the 2024 MLB season. It is the very first MLB game in South Korea.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

From mascots and cheerleaders to designated walkup songs, players from the two Major League Baseball (MLB) clubs in action for a historic game in Seoul got the full local flavor Wednesday.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres went up against each other in the first game of the Seoul Series at Gocheok Sky Dome on Wednesday evening. It was the very first MLB regular season game in South Korea.

Fans packing the 16,000-seat dome gave both teams the full South Korean cheering treatment, as the Dodgers took the game 5-2.

Games in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) are defined by constant cheering from stages set up in the stands on the first base and third base sides, with players getting their walkup songs played through the speakers for each plate appearance.

The Dodgers and the Padres got a little taste of that during their two exhibition games on Sunday and Monday. And cheering reached another level Wednesday for the regular season opener.

With the Dodgers using the first base dugout, a Dod
ger cheering section took its place to the right of the team. Even the mascot for the KBO club Kiwoom Heroes, who use Gocheok as their home park in the KBO, showed up for the occasion, surrounded by South Korean cheerleaders decked out in Dodgers t-shirts.

The Padres section, featuring cheerleaders wearing Padres t-shirts, was set up on the third base side.

The cheermasters for the two sides changed lyrics to KBO players’ walkup songs for this night, inserting names of the MLB players in action instead.

Kim Ha-seong, the Padres’ South Korean star who began his professional career in the KBO, got to hear his old KBO song whenever he stepped into the box.

In the top of the third, when Dodgers’ No. 5 hitter Max Muncy stepped in with the bases loaded, fans chanted “Mal-lu-home-run!” as in “grand slam!”

When the Padres opened the scoring with a Xander Bogaerts single in the bottom third, the words “Padres Score” flashed in the scoreboard in both Korean and English.

Cheerleaders also performed to K-pop hits o
n the stage between innings.

Games operations crew worked special effects with the new lighting system during pitching changes.

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said he enjoyed “the energy, the enthusiasm from the Korean fans.”

“Max (Muncy), the third baseman, and the first baseman (Freddie Freeman), I think they’re not used to all that noise on every pitch but it’s fantastic,” Roberts said. “It’s certainly different from the States. But it’s been a great experience.”

Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow, who said Tuesday he wanted the Dodgers to adopt the Korean style of cheering in Los Angeles, said his Wednesday outing was “definitely unique,” with constant chanting and music.

“I like that. It’s like white noise, but it was a loud, cool atmosphere,” he said. “And you can kind of tell everyone’s locked into the game. No one’s on their phone and looking around. Everyone’s really locked in.”

Source: Yonhap News Agency

The Los Angeles Dodgers put on a late rally to beat the San Diego Padres 5-2 to open the 2024 Major League Baseball (MLB) regular season in Seoul on Wednesday.

The Dodgers scored four times in the top eighth to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 5-2 lead at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, and the bullpen slammed the door shut over the final two innings for the come-from-behind victory.

This was the very first MLB regular season game in South Korea.

The Padres batted last in this game. The Dodgers will be the home team for Game 2 on Thursday.

Kim Ha-seong, the South Korean shortstop for the Padres, went 0-for-3 with a walk.

Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese sensation making his Dodgers regular season debut, batted 2-for-5 with an RBI and a steal.

The Padres scored the first run of the 2024 MLB season in the bottom of the third. Tyler Wade drew a leadoff walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch by starter Tyler Glasnow. He then moved to third on Jackson Merrill’s flyout, before Xander Bogaerts drove him home with a singl
e to center.

The Dodgers responded right away in the top fourth. Teoscar Hernandez reached on an error by third baseman Manny Machado, taking second base when the throw skipped past first baseman Freddie Freeman.

James Outman moved Hernandez to third base with a groundout, and then Jason Heyward brought home the tying run with a sacrifice fly to right field.

The Padres reclaimed their lead with a run in the bottom fourth, though they could have had so much more after loading the bases with nobody out.

Glasnow walked the first two batters of the inning and an infield single loaded the bases for Luis Campusano, who could only cash in a run with a 6-4-3 double play.

The Dodgers squandered a chance to pull even in the top fifth, when Max Muncy struck out with runners at the corners.

But the Dodgers grabbed the lead with a four-spot in the top of the eighth.

They loaded the bases with a couple of walks and a single. Kike Hernandez then brought home the tying run with a sacrifice fly to left.

The Dodgers ca
ught a break when Gavin Lux’s grounder went through the webbing of first baseman Jake Cronenworth’s glove, allowing Teoscar Hernandez to score the go-ahead run to make it 3-2 Dodgers.

The Dodgers added a couple more runs as Mookie Betts delivered an RBI single to left, and Ohtani followed up with a single of his own to put the Dodgers up 5-2.

The Padres managed just four hits and their pitchers were called for four pitch clock violations.

After starter Tyler Glasnow went through five innings and allowed two runs, four Dodgers relievers slammed the door shut on the Padres. Daniel Hudson, on the comeback trail at age 37 after spending the last year rehabbing from knee surgery, was credited with a win thanks to a scoreless inning of work. Evan Phillips grabbed the save with a perfect ninth inning.

Padres starter Yu Darvish only lasted 3 2/3 innings while allowing a run on two hits and three walks. He needed 72 pitches to retire 11 batters.

Jhony Brito was charged with the loss after the shaky eighth inning.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

From one former big league star to another, South Korean baseball icon Park Chan-ho threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Gold Glove-winning shortstop Kim Ha-seong to mark the beginning of a historic Major League Baseball (MLB) game in Seoul on Wednesday.

Park was a no-brainer choice for the honor, as his two former teams, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres, squared off to open the 2024 MLB regular season at Gocheok Sky Dome.

This is the first MLB regular season game to take place in South Korea.

Park became the first South Korean to play in an MLB game when he made his debut with the Dodgers in 1994. He went on to spend eight seasons in Los Angeles before going on to play for several other franchises, including the Padres from 2005 to 2006.

He retired with 124 career big league wins, more than any other Asian-born pitcher in MLB history.

After walking up to the mound to a thunderous ovation from fans packing the domed stadium, Park took off his suit jacket and put on a half-and-half jer
sey, showing the letters “PADgers,” combining the letters of the two teams’ nicknames. Park wore his signature No. 61 on the back.

Kim, the Padres’ South Korean shortstop, crouched behind the plate to do the catching. Kim won the National League Gold Glove at the utility position last year. He is the first Asian-born infielder with a Gold Glove.

Park and Kim embraced each other. Park then sprinted toward the Dodgers dugout on the first base side to meet with Dodgers manager and his former San Diego teammate, Dave Roberts.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

As a lifelong baseball fan, Philip Goldberg, the United States ambassador to South Korea, thinks it is “fantastic” that Major League Baseball (MLB) has decided to bring its regular season games to Seoul this week.

The Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres will open the 2024 regular season Wednesday as part of the two-game Seoul Series, a historic occasion that Goldberg was able to attend.

“I think it’s fantastic,” Goldberg told Yonhap News Agency before the game at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. He has been to several Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) games and an All-Star Game, but watching an MLB game in person in Seoul is on a different level.

“To have Major League Baseball here, have two West Coast teams, part of the Pacific Rim with a Korean player, Japanese players is really special,” Goldberg said, referring to the Padres’ South Korean player Kim Ha-seong, and Japanese stars for both clubs, including the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani. “And it highlights something that our countries have in common: the
love of baseball. As the ambassador to Korea, that’s especially important to me to have this common interest in baseball that just expands out our relationship that is so strong in so many areas.”

Goldberg said baseball can help further strengthen the South Korea-U.S. alliance thanks to its unifying force.

“It’s a people-to-people kind of alliance,” he said. “I’m sure when they travel to California, they will go to games or to other parts of the United States. I know my American friends, when they come to Korea, several of them have asked me to come to KBO games. So in that sense it’s just a shared interest, a shared love. But what sports does is it’s unifying. It just means that people have a great love for sports.”

With many American fans in the stands for the monumental game, Goldberg said he hoped they would learn about the unique cheering culture of Korean baseball fans.

“It’s fun. It’s different,” Goldberg said. “The atmosphere is different but the fundamentals are the same and the game is the same.
And I think there’s something we can learn.”

As much as he enjoys KBO games, Goldberg said he has “stayed away from trying to pick a team” in the KBO because he felt it was “a diplomatic thing to do.”

His loyalty remains with his hometown team, the Boston Red Sox.

Goldberg is such a devoted fan that he is able to recite key moments of the team’s history with stunning ease. It also happens that Dave Roberts, current manager of the Dodgers, was an integral part of the 2004 World Series-winning Red Sox squad.

It was Roberts’ steal of second base in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the American League Championship Series against the New York Yankees that sparked an improbable Boston rally. They came back from a 3-0 series deficit to claim that series in seven games, and then swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. It was their first title in 86 years.

“Dave Roberts is a hero in Boston,” Goldberg gushed.

Asked if he’d had a chance to meet Roberts, Goldberg said, “I haven’t. Some of the Dodgers’ peopl
e said maybe I’ll meet him but we’ll see.”

Source: Yonhap News Agency

Nearly five years after throwing his final pitch for the Los Angeles Dodgers, South Korean pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin reunited with his ex-manager Dave Roberts on Wednesday.

Roberts and his Dodgers are in South Korea this week to play the San Diego Padres in the historic Major League Baseball (MLB) Seoul Series. The first game of the two-game set, scheduled for Wednesday evening at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, is the very first MLB regular season game in South Korea.

Over the weekend, Roberts had said he would love to reconnect with Ryu while he was in South Korea. Ryu, who pitched for the Dodgers from 2013 to 2019, is back in South Korea with the Hanwha Eagles in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO).

The KBO’s exhibition season wrapped up Tuesday, giving Ryu some downtime to visit with Roberts and his former team in Seoul.

“It’s great to have this opportunity to watch MLB games in Korea,” Ryu told reporters. “I am going to try to enjoy the experience.”

Ryu brought a box of pastries for Roberts, who grabbed on
e right out of the box and took a bite, before giving Ryu a thumbs-up sign.

Roberts jokingly told Ryu to start warming up and take a few swings in the cage.

Ryu had his best MLB season in 2019 as a Dodger, leading baseball with a 2.32 ERA and finishing second in the National League (NL) Cy Young Award voting. Ryu was the NL starter for the All-Star Game that year.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

South Korean football player Lee Kang-in apologized for his role in a locker room row during a recent tournament Wednesday, saying he had let so many fans down with his action and he will try to grow from the experience.

Lee, midfielder for Paris Saint-Germain, addressed the South Korean media for the first time Wednesday since getting into a scuffle with national team captain Son Heung-min during the Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup in Qatar. Lee and some younger members of the team left team dinner early to play table tennis, but Son wanted the occasion to be an opportunity for team bonding before playing Jordan in the semifinals.

When Lee refused Son’s order to rejoin the team, the two got into a shoving match, leading to a dislocated finger for Son.

When the incident was revealed after South Korea’s loss to Jordan, Lee took a beating in public for defying Son, a beloved captain and one of South Korea’s most popular athletes. Lee later visited Son in London to apologize to him in person.

Then he
stood in front of cameras Wednesday at Seoul World Cup Stadium, after being named to the national team for home-and-away World Cup qualifying matches against Thailand. The first match is 8 p.m. Thursday in Seoul.

“I received so much love and support from fans during the Asian Cup, but I did not reward my fans and I disappointed them,” Lee said. “I wanted to come here to apologize to them from the bottom of my heart.”

Lee thanked Hwang Sun-hong, caretaker boss for the national team, for selecting him for the World Cup qualifiers, and said he will try to learn from his mistakes.

“Criticism from everyone will help me down the road,” Lee said. “I will try hard to become a better person and a better football player, someone who can help the team and set good examples.”

Lee did not take questions from media.

The Korea Football Association said Lee had prepared his own words for the occasion.

Earlier in the day, Son said at the prematch press conference that Lee had offered “a heartfelt apology” to his teammat
es during Tuesday’s dinner and that they had fully accepted it.

“It takes courage to apologize, and Kang-in stood in front of everyone to do it sincerely,” Son said. “I think it allowed everyone to really come close. The vibe in the room is not too bad.”

Son said he was ready to move on.

“I think you won’t have to write about my finger anymore,” Son said. He then deadpanned, “My coach at Tottenham (Ange Postecoglou) said since I am a football player, I’d be okay without a finger.”

Source: Yonhap News Agency

San Diego Padres manager Mike Shildt said Wednesday he believes minor league-bound South Korean pitcher Go Woo-suk will help the big league club at some point in 2024.

The Padres are scheduled to play the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday evening at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul to begin the 2024 Major League Baseball (MLB) regular season. It will also be the very first MLB game to take place in South Korea.

Go, however, will not have a chance to pitch in front of his hometown fans, as the Padres optioned him to Triple-A El Paso hours before the 7:05 p.m. game. The Padres brought a 31-man traveling roster to Seoul but cut five players before the game.

Shildt said it was “a tough decision, clearly” to inform Go that he wouldn’t be with the big league team this week.

“He took it very professionally,” Shildt said at his pregame press conference. “Ultimately, it came down to a couple of things. We’ve got some depth in our bullpen. That was a big part of the decision. And him getting a little bit of a later start
to his offseason, relative to being able to go pitch in the regular season over here, just didn’t allow him to get built up maybe as quickly as some of the other guys in the camp.”

Go signed his two-year deal with the Padres in January. But he’d pitched into mid-November, as his former Korea Baseball Organization team, LG Twins, won the Korean Series title.

Shildt said Go had been honest about his short offseason when speaking with him and the Padres’ general manager, A.J. Preller.

Demotion on Wednesday also doesn’t mean the Padres are losing faith in Go, Shildt said.

“We are confident that he’s going to help us at some point in the season,” the manager said. “He has made really nice adjustments as the spring has gone not only with the new baseball, the competition, the culture, everything. He has done a really nice job.”

As for his message to the pitcher, Shildt said, “Just continue to progress, continue to work on the shape of your pitches, continue to work on getting your command and your pitches work
ing together. Do that and you’ll be back.”

Shildt, who had previously managed the St. Louis Cardinals, will make his Padres managerial debut in Seoul later Wednesday.

“This is the stuff dreams are made of, right? You grow up and never imagine this being an opportunity for you,” Shildt said. “And I’m really excited about it and I’m really grateful as I’ve said multiple times and will continue to say about my opportunity to manage this club.”

Source: Yonhap News Agency

When former South Korean baseball MVP Lee Jung-hoo signed with the San Francisco Giants in December, he became the second player from the country to join the National League West team.

The first was Hwang Jae-gyun, who had an 18-game cup of coffee by the bay in 2017. Hwang is back in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), now plying his trade with the KT Wiz.

Even though Hwang, 36, only had a short stint, he would seem to be the ideal person to impart some wisdom or advice to Lee, 11 years Hwang’s junior.

Hwang, though, begged to differ.

“Who am I to give Jung-hoo any advice? He’s going to pass me in games played in no time,” Hwang said Wednesday with a smile at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, after coming home from spring training in Japan.

“He only needs a couple of home runs and he will have more big league homers than I did,” Hwang went on. “I really don’t have anything to tell him.”

Hwang had one home run, five RBIs and a .154 batting average in those 18 games. Lee, who signed for si
x years at US$113 million, has already been anointed as the Giants’ starting center fielder and leadoff man. He has hit safely in all five spring training games so far, and homered in his first game, too.

But Hwang said he’s proud of one record he holds that Lee will never be able to break.

Hwang went deep in his very first major league game on June 28, 2017. At 29 and 335 days, Hwang became the oldest Giant ever to homer in his first big league game.

“I bet no one will ever break that record,” Hwang cracked.

As Lee, the 2022 KBO MVP, left home, the Korean league welcomed back its 2006 MVP in Ryu Hyun-jin, left-hander for the Hanwha Eagles. Ryu first pitched for the Eagles from 2006 to 2012 and then spent the next 11 years in the majors before reuniting with the old team last month.

Ryu and Hwang were drafted together in 2005, and they are among the few players still active from that class.

“He’s such a great pitcher, but he’s a completely different pitcher now than when I last faced him here some 10 ye
ars ago,” Hwang said. “We are both older now, and I have to regard him as a brand new pitcher.”

The two went head-to-head once in the majors, on July 30, 2017. Hwang went 0-for-2 with a strikeout against Ryu, who was then pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

The return of former major league All-Star Ryu Hyun-jin has dominated preseason chatter in South Korean baseball this spring, and even his preseason pitching schedule for the Hanwha Eagles has been closely monitored.

The exhibition portion of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) season begins Saturday, and Ryu is expected to start twice to ramp up for his Opening Day assignment on March 23. The first of those outings will come next Tuesday against the Kia Tigers.

To which Tigers manager Lee Bum-ho said: bring it on.

“I think it’s great that we’ll get to see him in the preseason,” Lee told reporters Wednesday at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, after returning from spring training in Japan. “I think it will be a good experience for our team to face him.”

Ryu first pitched for the Eagles from 2006 to 2012, and was teammates with Lee from 2006 to 2009. Few active players in the KBO today have gone up against the left-hander. Lee said he will try to give as many batters as possible a chance to
hit against Ryu next week.

“We expect him to throw 60 to 70 pitches,” Lee said. “I want to put together our best lineup possible. It will allow our top guys to get at least one at-bat against him.”

Since Ryu left for Major League Baseball after the 2012 season, the Eagles have made the postseason only once and finished in last place five times. Lee said Ryu will instantly make the Eagles good enough to fight for one of five postseason berths.

“I am sure many other teams will be extra prepared against that team,” Lee said. “But at the same time, we’re not just playing the Hanwha Eagles this year. We have eight other teams to worry about. And we don’t even know how many times we’ll take on Hyun-jin this year. So we shouldn’t just focus on that one team.”

Source: Yonhap News Agency