6-4-2 — an Angels/Dodgers double play blog: The Deaths You Don't Read About

Proceeds from the ads below will be donated to the Bob Wuesthoff scholarship fund.

Sunday, February 08, 2004

The Deaths You Don't Read About

Baseball, the sages tell us, is a boy's game. I wouldn't know from direct experience, but it has the smell of truth. I had no athletic bent as a child, which has carried over to my adulthood; my increasingly oblate spheroid shape attests vividly to it. But -- yes, a boy's game. The players let you know this by occaisionally acting childishly -- Kevin Brown, for instance, assaulting unarmed plumbing, or Gary Sheffield storming up to his room if he doesn't get Kevin Brown's contract and NOW. But sometimes -- and in the modern game, it doesn't happen much -- sometimes something reminds you about the childlike part of the game, something like Gibby's '88 miracle.

And sometimes, something reminds you of the commonplace tragedy of those whose dreams don't come true.

Seung Yeop Lee is, as his website will tell you, the "Home Run King of Asia". Last year, he broke the Korean single-season record with 56 HRs, hitting 324 in his career. Late last year, stories started to surface about Lee's availability, testing the waters in the US majors. The 27 year old first baseman got courtesy tours of (then-) Edison Field and Dodger Stadium. Likewise with the Mariners. No deal was struck and no formal negotiations were ever mentioned in the press.

At the time I thought he would have been a risky signing. I still think that. His home park, Taegu Stadium, has right and left field fences 312 feet from the plate, and centerfield at 384. Short fences will pad numbers something fierce.

Lee returned home without a contract from the U.S. majors.

He took a job in the Japanese leagues, playing for the Chiba Lotte Marines, though he knew the Japanese would look down at a Korean player. The press conference announcing his signing was not a moment of celebration; instead, it was very nearly an admission of defeat.

A lot of similar stories take place behind closed doors all over the minor leagues. This one was merely recorded for posterity.

// posted by Rob @ 7:36 PM link // 0 comments