Column: For Korea’s baseball champions, it’s time for spring training. In Irvine
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Baseball comes back to life every year on the back fields, during those peaceful mornings between the time pitchers and catchers report and the time exhibition games begin.
The rhythms of these practice fields are comforting and familiar: pitchers cover first base, infielders take ground balls, hitters take swings off an actual pitcher after a winter of working out in the batting cage. No stadiums. No crowds.
Baseball has come back to life in Irvine, where the reigning champions are training for the new season. Not the Dodgers, of course. They’ll report to spring training in Arizona on Feb. 11.
These are the Kia Tigers, the champions of the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO). They opened training camp last week at the Great Park in Irvine — not at the stadium there, where USC plays its home games, but on Field 8 and Field 9 of a baseball and softball complex primarily used by youth teams.
Thanks to on-campus construction, the Trojans play most of their home games in Orange County, an hour from campus — two hours, with traffic.
The bright red banner adjacent to the first base dugout on Field 8 displays the team slogan in white letters: “One Heart, One Team.”
None of the 10 KBO teams trains in South Korea this year: three opened training camp in Arizona, one in Florida, three in Australia, one in Japan, one in Taiwan, and the Tigers in Irvine. In three weeks, the Tigers will join five other KBO teams in Okinawa, Japan, to complete spring training and play exhibition games.
The Tigers opened training camp in Tucson two years ago and in Melbourne last year.
In selecting a training site this year, spokesman Sangwoo Park said, the Tigers prioritized a safe environment, field availability and a Korean community. Irvine is home to more than 20,000 Korean Americans — more than any United States city outside Los Angeles and New York, according to census data compiled by the Korean American Grassroots Conference — and Korean food is widely available.
“Everything is expensive here, especially food,” Park said. “But the weather is good.”
Mornings on the back fields can be the best time to interact with a player, either at Camelback Ranch with the Dodgers or here with the Tigers. Workouts are free, here or there.
Two Tigers fan friends decided to meet here. Hyemm Kim came from Vancouver, hoping for a picture with her favorite pitcher. Seokyeong Yoo came from Korea, hoping for a picture with her favorite catcher. In both cases, mission accomplished.
As Pat and Colleen Wisdom watched practice, they talked about how delighted they were to travel 60 miles instead of 6,000 to see their son, Patrick, wear his Tigers uniform for the first time. The couple lives in Murrieta, and they had no idea where a Korean team would hold spring training.
“We’re in Irvine?” Colleen Wisdom recalled saying. “I said, ‘What?’ ”
Infielder Patrick Wisdom, 33, is one of the Tigers’ three foreign players, the maximum allowed per team under KBO rules. Wisdom, a former first-round draft pick, hit 28 home runs for the Chicago Cubs four years ago, 25 three years ago, and 23 two years ago.
He hopes to leverage a strong season in the KBO into interest from major league teams next winter. His parents, meanwhile, have learned that high-speed rail can cover the roughly 220 miles from Seoul to the Tigers’ home city of Gwangju in about two hours.
“We’re hoping to go for opening day and stay for a few weeks,” Colleen Wisdom said.
The Tigers’ other two foreign players, pitchers Adam Oller and James Naile, have spent a combined 18 years in professional baseball without completing a full season in the majors.
The Korean players on the Tigers have asked them for sightseeing suggestions here, even though Oller grew up in Texas and Naile in Missouri. Naile said he was pleased to see one of his Korean teammates text him a picture from the Griffith Observatory on a recent day off.
The Dodgers agreed to terms with reliever Alex Vesia, according to a person with knowledge of the situation not authorized to speak publicly.
Oller, 30, is in his first season with the Tigers. Naile, 31, joined the Tigers last season. He left home in January, bound for spring training in Australia, and did not return to family and friends back home until Halloween.
“This year, our spring training is in California, so it’s great,” Naile said. “That’s an extra month in the United States.
“Last year, I would just tell stories of how great it was. We won the championship, but it was hard for them to understand what was going on so far away. With this, they’re able to come check it out.”
Park, the team spokesman, says he already has a favorite place to eat, a Korean restaurant about a mile from the Tigers’ hotel. Its name is BCD Tofu House, and it bills itself as “The House That Tofu Built.”
Go beyond the scoreboard
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