San Diego Padres infielder Kim Ha-seong is one of the most popular baseball players in South Korea. He starred in the Korea Baseball Organization for seven seasons and has been in MLB for the past three. He is also one of the top players for the South Korean national team. Kim is making a name for himself in MLB, hitting 17 homers and winning a Gold Glove for his play in the field in 2023.
Kim is baseball royalty in South Korea and the de facto headliner of the MLB festivities in the nation this week.
At least he would be if not for Shohei Ohtani.
The Los Angeles Dodgers star touched down in Seoul to a welcome worthy of one of South Korea’s famous K-pop acts, with fans taking over Incheon International Airport on Friday to get a glimpse of him.
Ohtani and the Dodgers will open the MLB season against Kim and the Padres in the Seoul Series at Gocheok Sky Dome on Wednesday and Thursday.
There will be plenty of stars on both sides for the first regular-season MLB games in South Korea, but none — aside from Kim in his home country — whose fame compares with Ohtani, who seems almost as beloved in Seoul as he is in Japan.
“I think Ohtani is potentially the most popular Japanese athlete in Korea ever ... on par with Yuzuru Hanyu,” Yoo Jee-ho, a sports writer with South Korea’s Yonhap News, told The Japan Times on Monday. “I think there's a mutual respect between Ohtani and the Korean fan base. Korean baseball fans appreciate and respect Ohtani for the great ball player that he is, and they're able to look past his nationality.
“And Ohtani has been respectful toward Korean baseball as well. He has said all the right things about enjoying his trip to Korea and feeling grateful for the fans' support here. Remember Ichiro's comment a few years back during the WBC, when he said something like he'll make sure Korea will think they won't be able to beat Japan for 30 years, or something of that nature ... Ohtani hasn't said any of that about Korea.
“And I think it's really about younger Korean baseball fans no longer getting caught up in the whole Korea-Japan history and just enjoying watching this generational baseball talent. This is a great player and he just happens to be from Japan. But who cares, right?”
Many fans at the airport wore Ohtani’s No. 17 uniform, and Japanese reporters on the ground in Seoul broadcast interviews with Korean fans who expressed joy at the chance to see Ohtani play up close.
“Japan and South Korea have always had a great rivalry in sports,” Ohtani said at a news conference in Seoul on Saturday. “I’ve watched the games between Japan and Korea since I was a child. I’ve always respected Team Korea and the South Korean players. I’m looking forward to playing in South Korea and am grateful to be greeted like that at the airport.”
Ohtani will take his first steps with the Dodgers in the South Korean capital. The 29-year-old signed a record-shattering $700 million contract with the team in December after six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels.
He was the centerpiece of the Dodgers’ $1 billion offseason, which saw the team add pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow, who will start in the opener, and outfielder Teoscar Hernandez, among others.
They join former MVPs Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman on a team that begins the season with World Series aspirations.
"I appreciate all the attention,” Ohtani said while seated with Betts and Freeman at Saturday’s packed news conference. “Attention is always great, being a baseball player and being able to play with these great guys next to me, I'm just really excited. I'm excited to be part of the team and prove to everyone that I'm actually a Dodger now."
The Padres, meanwhile, will be trying to turn the page on a disappointing 2023 campaign that launched with high hopes and landed with a thud.
Veteran pitcher Yu Darvish will attempt to help the club get 2024 off to a winning start when he toes the rubber in the opener.
“Just playing in South Korea alone is a big deal,” Darvish told reporters before leaving the U.S. “On top of that, we’re facing a really good team that made some very good additions in the offseason, and I’m looking forward to going against them.”
With Darvish slated to start on opening day, he may get the chance to face Ohtani for the first time. The two former Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters superstars, who teamed up to help Japan win the World Baseball Classic last spring, have not met in the majors. There could be more matchups on the horizon with both now playing in the NL West.
“I’ve played with Shohei a lot and we are great friends,” Darvish said at a news conference Monday. “But we’re professionals.”
Even amid the reception for Ohtani, Kim received a hero’s welcome in South Korea. He is so beloved in the nation that, according to MLB.com reporter Park Do-hyoung in an article published Monday, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol attended a baseball clinic that the Padres hosted to help welcome Kim back to the country.
Kim, though, will have to share the spotlight with Ohtani if the scene at the airport was any indication.
The attention on Ohtani is even greater since he is being accompanied by his wife, Mamiko, after initially keeping her identity secret when he made his surprise marriage announcement on Feb. 29.
“I answered a lot of those questions before,” Ohtani said when asked about his wife. “So I don’t really want to get into details here. “But it is her first time coming with me to a game like this, so I think it’s going to be a really great memory for both of us.”
The massive reception for the Japanese superstar was a glimpse into the Dodgers’ new reality now that the face of MLB is part of their team.
“It’s been a lot,” Betts said during the news conference. “It’s been a lot. It’s kind of what comes when you get somebody like (Ohtani) and when you get somebody like (Freeman). Playing with them, it’s fun. Seeing all this, it’s cool, it’s super cool.”
Despite being limited to hitting in 2024 — following elbow surgery in September that will keep him off the mound — all eyes remain on Ohtani, who is hoping to reach the MLB postseason for the first time in his career.
Ohtani faced live pitching for the first time since the surgery on Feb. 19. He then went 11-for-22 with a pair of home runs in eight spring training games before traveling to South Korea.
The 2021 and 2023 American League MVP will bat third in the Dodgers’ MVP trio behind leadoff man Betts, the 2018 AL MVP, and Freeman, the 2020 National League MVP.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is viewing the trip as a way to bring the team’s new players into the fold as they embark on one of the most highly anticipated seasons in franchise history.
“The teams that seem to be in it every year, there is a bond that I think is created that withstands ups and downs,” he said at a news conference Saturday. “I think us being able to take this trip together allows for Teoscar to get more assimilated, Tyler to get more assimilated, and obviously Shohei and Yamamoto. I think this is going to be good for our guys.
“You can’t win the World Series in March. But I do think guys create a bond, and also a way to play baseball. We gotta pitch well and we really gotta keep our defense tight and then on the offensive side, there’s obviously a lot of talent. Our guys have got to realize their abilities and play to their talents.”
The Padres will be one of the clubs trying to knock LA off its pedestal in the NL West.
Manny Machado, Fernando Tatis Jr. and Xander Bogaerts will help power the offense alongside Kim.
The team strengthened its pitching rotation by trading for Dylan Cease on Wednesday. Cease will not pitch in the regular-season games in South Korea but figures to be a key piece of the rotation alongside Darvish and Joe Musgrove, who will start the second game in Seoul. San Diego also signed reliever Yuki Matsui, who is in his first MLB season, in the offseason,
The clubs will return to the U.S. and resume spring training after the series before returning to regular-season play with MLB’s other teams on March 28.
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