Park Chan Ho will be playing in Korea this season

Well it's old news but kinda cool. The first Korean born baseball player to ever make it to the major leagues will be playing next year with his quasi-hometown Daejeon Hanhwa Eagles (I say quasi because he's actually from Gongju, about 45 minutes west of Daejeon). Although his best days are 10-15 years ago (2000 being his best season) and he really hasn't been the same since the 2007 season when he suffered from internal bleeding and missed most of the season, it will be neat to see a real legend playing here. I'm sure his games will sell out well in advance in Daegu but with his Daejeon being 45 minutes up the road I invision a Daejeon weekend to see him when the Lions are in town.

Park is important to Korean baseball far beyond his actual talent. He debuted in 1994 but didn't become a regular in the Dodgers lineup until 1996. This is in line with the first Japanese players to make the move to MLB (Masanori Murakami's 1965 season aside). In much the same way that Hideo Nomo proved that Japanese could play at a Major League level and Ichiro Suzuki proved that the Japanese could hit at an MLB level, Park proved that the Koreans could play at the Major League level.

I'm not sure how many seasons Park has left in him (he's 38 after all) but it will be neat to see him before he retires for good. You can read about Park Chan Ho here.