St. Louis Cardinals played in Korea in 1958

Oh Seung-hwan of the St. Louis Cardinals pitches in the ninth inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Monday. / AFP-Yonhap

This is a batting order of the St. Louis Cardinals for a friendly match against the Korean All-Star team at the Dongdaemun Stadium in Seoul on Oct. 21, 1958. / Courtesy of Thomas St. John

By Patrick Bourgo

In this Major League Baseball (MLB) season, Oh Seung-hwan became the first Korean to play for the St. Louis Cardinals. But long before Oh became a dominant bullpen arm for the Cards, in fact long before he was born and before any Koreans played stateside, St. Louis got its first taste of Korean baseball.

In October 1958, the St. Louis Cardinals came to Korea for a goodwill tour at the invitation of the Hankook Ilbo, sister paper of The Korea Times. The contest was also sponsored by the Korean Amateur Baseball Association.

The Cardinals’ opponent was a team referred to as the Seoul All-Stars, or Korean All-Stars. This group was made up of players selected from the baseball teams of the Army, Navy, Air Force and the Korea Forwarding Company, which was a team that played in the Corporate League, a precursor to the pro league that started in 1982. Some of the players on the Korean side also represented their country in the national team that played in the first Asia Baseball Championship in the Philippines in 1954, and subsequent international competitions.

The game was played on Tuesday, October 21, 1958, at Dongdaemun Stadium (also called Seoul Stadium), with more than 30,000 spectators turning out for the contest, including Korean President Syngman Rhee, who threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

Hall of Famer Stan Musial was the most famous player on the Cardinals team that made the trip. The Cardinals played several games in Asia during this tour, most of which were in Japan. Other notable names that joined Stan the Man included Ken Boyer, Wally Moon, Don Blasingame and Ruben Amaro (father of current first base coach for the Boston Red Sox).

Starting pitching duties for the Korean team rested with Kim Yang-joong, while Jim Brosnan took the hill for the Cardinals.

Kim had a shaky start, surrendering three straight hits. The first two were singles by Alex Grammas and Lee Tate, and then a run-scoring double by Musial that brought Grammas home. However, despite this hot start, the Cardinals were only able to manage two hits over the next five innings. It was not until the eighth inning that the Cards got on the board again, with one run on two hits. They scored one more run in the ninth, for a total of three runs.

For the Korean team, they had to wait until the third inning for their first hit, when Kim Hi-yong started off the inning with a single off Brosnan. The Korean team was unable to capitalize though, with the next batter flying out and Hur Jon-gyu grounding into an inning ending 4-6-3 double play. Again in the fourth inning, the Korean team began the inning with a leadoff single, only to see their hopes fade immediately when the next batter grounded into a double play. The Korean team managed just one more hit in the sixth inning, and these three singles accounted for the extent of their offensive output.

There were no home runs or triples in the game. The Korean All-Stars struck out seven times and the Cardinals four times.

Despite the loss, the Korean side fared much better than in a previous game in 1922 against a collection of major leaguers brought over by Herb Hunter, when they were pummeled 3-21.

According to some articles about the game from the time, many on the American side were very much impressed with the play and ability of the Korean team. Starting pitcher Kim was singled out on a few occasions for the strength of his pitching. The Korean team was much better than most expected.

It could not have been known to the Americans, but the Korean All-Star team was comprised of players with international experience and who were, or would go on to become, stars of the Corporate and Bank leagues. Some of the more recognizable names on the All-Star team included outfielders Park Hyun-shik and Jang Tae-yeong, catcher Kim Yeong-jo and starting pitcher Kim.

While this game took place about 10 years before a Korean player was born who would make his way to the U.S. to play in the minors (Lee Won-kuk) and even longer before Koreans started playing in the majors, it is an early indication of the talent that has been seen in global tournaments for more than half a century and that has gone on to play in the MLB.

Patrick Bourgo is a Seoul-based Korean baseball historian and founder of the Korea Chapter of SABR. He can be reached at pbourgo@gmail.com.