South Korean baseball pitcher Park Chan-ho, a former Major League Baseball All-Star who recently signed with a South Korean team, is the living proof that you can come home again.

On Friday, Park donned his new Hanwha Eagles uniform in Daejeon, some 150 kilometers south of Seoul, as the Korea Baseball Organization club held a New Year’s meeting with all players and team executives on hand.

For the first time since signing a one-year deal with the Eagles on Dec. 20, Park, wearing his patented No. 61 on the back of his uniform, stepped onto the field at Hanbat Baseball Stadium.

A native of Gongju, South Chungcheong Province, just north of Daejeon, Park last appeared at this ballpark in 1991 as a local high school senior. And as he entered Hanbat, the 38-year-old seemed to radiate excitement.

“It feels like I am finally home again,” Park told reporters.

“Now that I am in my uniform at the ballpark, I finally feel like part of the team.”

Late last year, the KBO allowed a special rule change so that Park, released from the Orix Buffaloes in Japan after a disappointing season, could join the KBO right away. Otherwise, Park, who’d never pitched in the KBO before, would have had to enter a rookie draft this August and, if selected, wait until 2013 to play.

The Eagles had the prior rights to negotiate with Park based on the proximity of Daejeon and Park’s hometown. He signed for a minimum salary of 24 million won ($20,680) and asked the Eagles to donate the 600 million they had set aside for him to help develop local amateur baseball.

Park recalled that he was also pursued by the Eagles in high school. He chose to go to college and pitched for Hanyang University in Seoul. In 1994, he signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, becoming the first South Korean to reach the majors.

Having spent 17 seasons in the majors with seven different teams, and one season in Japan, Park said he has a lot of adjustments to make.

“I am Korean, but I have spent so much time overseas,” Park said. “Playing in a different environment will have some pros and cons. But, I think this will be a special season when younger players and I will get to help out each other.”

Park won 124 games in the majors, the most by an Asian pitcher in league history. From 1997 to 2001, he averaged 15 wins a season, including a career-high 18 in 2000, and earned his lone All-Star selection in 2001.

The veteran said younger players, however, should not feel intimidated by his presence and his career resume, adding that he is simply a teammate for them and they can ask him anything.

“Whether I end up winning one game, five games or 10, the important thing is to stay healthy and pitch the way I am capable of pitching,” he said. “But when I struggle, then young players can still learn from that.”

Park said the 2010 season with Orix was a great learning experience for him. Injuries limited him to only seven games, and none after June, and Park went 1-5 with a 4.29 earned run average. He spent the majority of the season in the minors, but Park said all was not lost there since he had time to make technical adjustments.

In addition to Park, the Eagles also signed slugger Kim Tae-kyun, who is returning to Hanwha after two seasons with the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan. The offseason moves make the Eagles, which finished dead last in two of the past three years, a sleeper for 2012.

Expectations will be higher than in recent seasons, but Park said it will be important “to have fun” and not stress over results. 

(Yonhap News)