The 'mercenaries'

Faced with cultural challenges, foreign baseball players make most of KBO

Cory Aldridge, who hit 20 home runs and drove in 73 RBIs for the Nexen Heroes in 2011, is trying to make a return to the KBO.

Matt Randel was a star player for the Doosan Bears in the mid-2000s and contributed to the team’s Korean Series appearances in 2005, 2007 and 2008.

Lotte Giants starter Shane Youman recently became the center of controversy when Hanwha Eagles’ Kim Tae-kyun quipped he couldn’t hit the pitcher from Louisiana “because his face was so black and his teeth look so white.”

Ryan Sadowski, formerly a front-line starter for the Lotte Giants, was signed by the San Francisco Giants last year.

By Kim Young-jin

American baseball player Cory Aldridge left the Nexen Heroes in 2011 due to an injury, but Korea never quite left his heart.

After departing the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), Aldridge, whose career has included stints with two major league teams, was picked up by the Los Angeles Angels. Now he is in New Jersey, trying to make a return to the KBO.

“It would be a blessing to return there to Korea,” he said in an e-mail. “The fans are the best in the world.”

Aldridge’s situation reflects the tribulations of professional baseball players on the cusp of U.S. Major League Baseball (MLB), whose job security is often tenuous. For a handful of them, the KBO offers an alternative that is competitive in level of play and salary.

Foreign players agree that conditions in the league are generally favorable ― as long as they can navigate some tricky cultural differences.

Their situation came into the spotlight last month when Hanwha Eagles slugger Kim Tae-kyun made a racist-tinged remark toward Lotte Giants pitcher Shane Youman, an African-American. Lotte’s lack of response raised questions over how teams view these athletes, who are commonly referred to as “yongbyeong,” which translates to “mercenaries.”

While many such players said their experience in Korea was positive, observers note that there is more the league can do to ensure that they are treated in the same manner as domestic players.

High expectations, rewards

KBO teams, which are allowed to have two foreign players each, pour resources into scouting and paying overseas players, mostly veterans who have already seen success in the major or minor leagues. Players who don’t perform are quickly released; those with staying power are integral to their teams.

Expectations are high.

“They expect you never to fail, never be tired, never be hurt, and if you do get hurt you better play the same as if you were healthy,” said Aldridge. “It’s not pressure but it is unrealistic.”

Those who survive are given a chance to hone their skills in a league known for its high level of play. The reputation has been bolstered by the advent of the World Baseball Classic, where the Korean national team performed well in 2006 and 2009.

“I found the KBO to be a great place to develop my talent,” said Ryan Sadowski, a former pitcher for the Lotte Giants who was signed by the San Francisco Giants last year.

Foreign players face a salary cap of $300,000, with teams only permitted to sign them to one-year deals. For subsequent years, the salary cannot be raised by more than 25 percent. However, it is widely believed that teams work around the cap and pay the players more, in some cases, double the amount or more.

Cultural differences

When Matt Randel pitched in Japan, the conditions were less than ideal. Living in a dormitory with no translator, he was forced to learn Japanese on the fly, and sometimes overheard people in the organization talking negatively about foreign players.

When he joined the Doosan Bears in 2005, he found that the situation was more comfortable.

“The first month or so was a bit difficult. After that I started to get people’s names and I proved myself as a decent guy. Once they figured out my personality, it felt really good,” he recalled.

Randel’s experience is common among foreign players who manage to stay in Korea for an extended period of time. The KBO, he said, is a more laid back than Japan though salaries are generally higher there.

To help players navigate Korean society, teams provide them with a translator, who assists not only in communication but also with tasks such as signing up for a mobile phone account or getting around when visiting another city.

Still, the players say the onus is on them to connect with teammates and overcome cultural and language barriers.

“Learning to understand and speak the language helped me become a part of the team a bit more than most foreigners in Korea,” Sadowski said.

Randel, who was cut from the team 2009 after an injury, said that conditions for foreign and Korean players were different.

“There were a lot of things I was kept out of. A lot of them were positive things, where I felt bad, like I was being treated better,” he said, citing night practices that he was not required to attend.

“On the road, I had a room to myself. We’d go to a ‘kimchi jjigae’ (kimchi stew) place after a game in Daegu and there would be one table with pizza on it. As a whole, the discrimination was more in a positive way to me.”

He added that in the past, some foreign players took Korean baseball as a “demotion and put on an air of ‘I’m better than everyone else’” but that this doesn’t happen these days due to its rising stature.

Some foreigners, however, are taken aback by Korea’s Confucian traditions, which stress hierarchy and seniority in the locker room.

Some note that to an extent, the social structure can help with team cohesion. But there are cases where seniority is abused.

One former player, who declined to be named, said that younger players are sometimes beaten up in the shower by veterans for “mental” errors such as not completing team tasks. “I always had a hard time with that,” he said, adding that in such moments, a veteran would tell him to leave.

Corporal punishment has long plagued Korean sports and is not new to the KBO. In one high profile case from 2002, Kia Tigers manager Kim Sung-han struck a player multiple times on the head with a bat, injuring him despite the victim of the attack wearing a helmet.

Race

Youman became the center of controversy when Kim Tae-kyun told an internet radio show that he couldn’t hit the pitcher from Louisiana “because his face was so black and his teeth look so white.”

Amid a virulent reaction from fans, who called the remark racist, Kim issued a quick apology and claimed that his comments were taken out of context. Youman later said he did not receive a direct apology from Kim and that Lotte did little to address the matter.

Aside from the incident, Youman said he hasn’t faced many racist challenges, although he believes many Koreans may have limited experience interacting with African-Americans.

“I was constantly stared at, some people distanced themselves from me, and some even rubbed on my skin I guess to see if it was real, haha,” he said in an email. “Nowadays, it’s not much of a problem because people know me.”

Aldridge added, “Being African-American I would be questioned a lot about my character as it relates to what (people) had seen on television. I spent a lot of time explaining that stereotypes and what you see on TV are just that ­ stereotypes.”

Some observers, however, say race and nationality factor into many facets of the league.

In one case, Nexen Heroes pitcher Brandon Knight in 2012, despite a stellar season, came in second to Samsung's Jang Won-sam in the voting for the annual Golden Glove award. The decision raised eyebrows because Knight had a significantly lower earned run average while pitching more innings than Jang.

“Nobody will come out and say it, but basically...the Korean writers voted for their own,” said Dan Kurtz, an American who operates mykbo.net, a site dedicated to English-language content on the league.

Fans have also commented on online message boards that more Korean batters take exception to being hit by a foreign pitcher, even if it was clearly unintentional.

Many say it would greatly benefit the KBO to address race issues and continue to help foreign players adapt ­ㅡ a move that could help burnish the country’s standing as a top baseball destination.

On balance, however, Aldridge said his experience in Korea was positive.

“I think your experience in Korea can be happy if you are willing to open your mind to accept that there are other cultures and Korean culture, people and life can be and is beautiful.”