The Korea Herald

Pitchers having painful spring

Mar 19, 2014

TAMPA, Florida (AP) ― Jarrod Parker, Kris Medlen and Luke Hochevar are out for the season, Patrick Corbin and Brandon Beachy might join them in the operating room. All over spring training, there’s been an outbreak of wrecked elbows and pained pitchers. Next stop, those dreaded words: Tommy John surgery. “It doesn’t surprise me at all,” Tommy John himself said Tuesday. “Tommy John surgery will...
Rivalry gets early kick start in 2014 MLB season

Mar 19, 2014

SYDNEY (AP) ― Suspensions to eight players and a controversial NL West-clinching swimming pool incident last season helped expand a growing rivalry between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks. But Dodgers manager Don Mattingly says he doesn’t expect any serious animosity to carry over from last year when the teams meet to open the major league season Saturday and Sunday at the Sydne...
Diamondbacks and Dodgers arrive Down Under

Mar 18, 2014

SYDNEY (AP) ― The Arizona Diamondbacks and Los Angeles Dodgers arrived to a very low-key welcome in Australia on Tuesday for their Major League Baseball season-opening series this weekend after 15-hour flights from the U.S. west coast. The Diamondbacks arrived first at Sydney airport about 6 a.m. local time Tuesday, followed about four hours later by the Dodgers. “It’s great to be here,” said D...
Dodgers, D-Backs off to Australia

Mar 17, 2014

Two clubs set to open 2014 MLB season
Yoon shines in Orioles debut

Mar 16, 2014

SARASOTA, Florida (AP) ― South Korean right-hander Yoon Suk-min threw one shutout inning in his debut with the Baltimore Orioles, who got a home run from Chris Davis in a 2-1 victory over a New York Yankees’ split-squad Saturday. The 27-year-old Yoon didn’t exactly face a Murderer’s Row of Yankees, who sent most of their stars to Panama for an exhibition game. Yoon entered in the seventh with t...
New face emerges as unlikely hero for Nexen in preseason

Mar 14, 2014

A virtually unknown outfielder has emerged as an unlikely hero for the Nexen Heroes so far this preseason in the Korea Baseball Organization. Kang Ji-kwang, a 23-year-old pitcher-turned-outfielder, has taken the league by storm, barely a week into the preseason. On Thursday, the right-handed batter belted two home runs and drove in three runs as the Heroes defeated the SK Wyverns 6-0. Both of th...
Underachieving righty to start first game at Kia’s ballpark

Mar 13, 2014

An underachieving right-hander was tabbed Thursday to start the first official game at the new stadium for the Kia Tigers in the top domestic baseball league. The Korea Baseball Organization club said Song Eun-beom will start the preseason game against the Doosan Bears on Saturday at the new Gwangju-Kia Champions Field. The ballpark is named after the Tigers’ home city of Gwangju, about 330 kil...
Samsung Lions eye fourth consecutive title: manager

Mar 5, 2014

The Samsung Lions have won the past three championships in the top domestic baseball league, and the goal this year is to extend the impressive streak, the team’s manager said Wednesday. After the Lions wrapped up their 50-day spring training in Guam and then in Okinawa this week, Ryu Joong-il made it clear that he won’t settle for anything less than another title. “Our objective this year is o...
Busan to build baseball Hall of Fame

Mar 4, 2014

Busan inked an agreement with the national governing body of professional baseball Tuesday to build the sport’s first official Hall of Fame in the country. Busan, the country’s second-largest city about 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul, reached a deal with the Korea Baseball Organization to build the Hall of Fame in its county of Kijang by 2016. Building the commemorative hall is part of the K...
Rangers lineup has global flair

Feb 27, 2014

SURPRISE, Arizona (AP) ― When Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington fills out his lineup card on opening day, he will likely write down the names of players from seven different countries, plus Puerto Rico. Baseball is clearly universal at Texas. “When we’re out there on the field, we’re all from the same country. We all represent the Texas Rangers,” said Elvis Andrus, the shortstop from Venezue...
Prosecution raids KBO over corruption allegations

Feb 27, 2014

Prosecutors on Thursday raided the head office of the nation’s professional baseball governing body as part of their investigation into allegations that several employees embezzled its funds. The employees of the Korea Baseball Organization, including a former secretary general whose identity has been withheld, are under suspicion of siphoning off the government funds worth 713 million won ($667...
Average salary of S. Korean baseballers tops W100m mark

Feb 26, 2014

The average annual salary of South Korean professional baseball players has surpassed the 100 million won mark in 2014 for the first time in history, the baseball governing body said Wednesday. According to the report released by the Korea Baseball Organization, a total of 477 South Korean players, excluding rookies and foreign players, will receive a record high of 106.4 million won ($99,198) o...
MLB bans most home collisions

Feb 25, 2014

NEW YORK (AP) ― Rather than ban home plate collisions outright, Major League Baseball and its players adopted a rule limiting them this season. In what both sides said was a one-year experiment, the rule allows collisions if the catcher has the ball and is blocking the runner’s direct path to home plate, and if the catcher goes into the basepath to field a throw to the plate. “It’s not a radica...
MLB managers set to try out replay in spring training

Feb 23, 2014

KISSIMMEE, Florida (AP) ― Major league teams will each have at least five games this spring where managers can challenge plays as part of the major expansion of instant replay which begins this season. Atlanta manager Fredi Gonzalez is looking forward to getting acquainted with it. “Those five games that we have the actual television, I’m challenging everything just to get a feel for it,” he sa...
Ryu aware of sophomore slump talk

Feb 19, 2014

GLENDALE, Arizona (AP) ― Ryu Hyun-jin begins his second season with the Los Angeles Dodgers confronted by a question that is inevitable for any pitcher coming off a good rookie year. As in, can the left-hander avoid the so-called sophomore slump? Excuse Ryu if he doesn’t sound too worried. Slumps are possible anywhere. “There is a sophomore slump in Korea, too,” Ryu said Tuesday through an int...