Baseball comes again to life yearly on the again fields, throughout these peaceable mornings between the time pitchers and catchers report and the time exhibition video games start.
The rhythms of those observe fields are comforting and acquainted: pitchers cowl first base, infielders take floor balls, hitters take swings off an precise pitcher after a winter of understanding within the batting cage. No stadiums. No crowds.
Baseball has come again to life in Irvine, the place the reigning champions are coaching for the brand new season. Not the Dodgers, after all. They’ll report back to spring coaching in Arizona on Feb. 11.
These are the Kia Tigers, the champions of the Korean Baseball Group (KBO). They opened coaching camp final week on the Nice Park in Irvine — not on the stadium there, the place USC performs its dwelling video games, however on Subject 8 and Subject 9 of a baseball and softball advanced primarily utilized by youth groups.
The intense crimson banner adjoining to the primary base dugout on Subject 8 shows the workforce slogan in white letters: “One Coronary heart, One Group.”
None of the ten KBO groups trains in South Korea this 12 months: three opened coaching 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 be part of 5 different KBO groups in Okinawa, Japan to finish spring coaching and play exhibition video games.
The Kia Tigers, a Korean Baseball Group workforce, conducts spring coaching in Irvine. Coaches hit balls for infield drills.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Instances)
The Tigers opened coaching camp in Tucson two years in the past and in Melbourne, Australia, final 12 months.
In choosing a coaching website this 12 months, spokesman Sangwoo Park stated, the Tigers prioritized a secure surroundings, area availability and a Korean neighborhood. Irvine is dwelling to greater than 20,000 Korean-People — greater than any United States metropolis outdoors Los Angeles and New York, in keeping with census knowledge compiled by the Korean American Grassroots Convention — and Korean meals is extensively obtainable.
“All the things is pricey right here, particularly meals,” Park stated. “However the climate is nice.”
Mornings on the again fields will be the very best time to work together with a participant, both at Camelback Ranch with the Dodgers or right here with the Tigers. Exercises are free, right here or there.
Two Tigers fan associates determined to satisfy right here. Hyemm Kim got here from Vancouver, hoping for an image together with her favourite pitcher. Seokyeong Yoo got here from Korea, hoping for an image together with her favourite catcher. In each instances, mission completed.
As Pat and Colleen Knowledge watched observe, they talked about how delighted they had been to journey 60 miles as an alternative of 6,000 to see their son Patrick put on his Tigers uniform for the primary time. The couple lives in Murrieta, they usually had no concept the place a Korean workforce would maintain spring coaching.
“We’re in Irvine?” Colleen Knowledge recalled saying. “I stated, ‘What?’ ”
Former Chicago Cubs infielder Patrick Knowledge chats along with his dad and mom, Pat and Colleen Knowledge after understanding with the Kia Tigers, a Korean Baseball Group workforce, on the Nice Park in Irvine.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Instances)
Infielder Patrick Knowledge, 33, is likely one of the Tigers’ three overseas gamers, the utmost allowed per workforce underneath KBO guidelines. Knowledge, a former first-round draft choose, hit 28 dwelling runs for the Chicago Cubs 4 years in the past, 25 three years in the past, and 23 two years in the past.
He hopes to leverage a powerful season within the KBO into curiosity from main league groups subsequent winter. His dad and mom, in the meantime, have realized that high-speed rail can cowl the roughly 220 miles from Seoul to the Tigers’ dwelling metropolis of Gwangju in about two hours.
“We’re hoping to go for Opening Day and keep for just a few weeks,” Colleen Knowledge stated.
The Tigers’ different two overseas gamers, pitchers Adam Oller and James Naile, have spent a mixed 18 years in skilled baseball with out finishing a full season within the majors.
The Korean gamers on the Tigers have requested them for sightseeing solutions right here, regardless that Oller grew up in Texas and Naile in Missouri. Naile stated he was happy to see one among his Korean teammates textual content him an image from the Griffith Observatory on a current break day.
Oller, 30, is in his first season with the Tigers. Naile, 31, joined the Tigers final season. He left dwelling in January, sure for spring coaching in Australia, and didn’t return to household and associates again dwelling till Halloween.
“This 12 months, our spring coaching is in California, so it’s nice,” Naile stated. “That’s an additional month in the US.
“Final 12 months, I’d simply inform tales of how nice it was. We gained the championship, however it was onerous for them to know what was occurring so distant. With this, they’re in a position to come test it out.”
Park, the workforce spokesman, says he already has a favourite place to eat, a Korean restaurant a few mile from the Tigers’ resort. Its title is BCD Tofu Home, and it payments itself as “The Home That Tofu Constructed.”