Park here now - profile on South Korean baseball player Chan Ho Park - Illustration

Interview, May, 1994 by Lance Gould

In the first month of baseball's spring training, two rookies in Florida have soaked up most of the pre-season ink. One is the Chicago White Sox' Michael Jordan; the other is the L.A. Dodgers' Chan Ho Park, a twenty-year-old South Korean pitching phenom who is making himself the hottest young hurler in the game.

The son of a Kongju electronics-shop owner, Park is authentic East-meets-West athletic sensation: he deferentially bows to the umpire before batting, politely doffs his cap to his catcher after warming up his arm, and rather rudely blows ninety-five-mile-an-hour fastballs past dumbstruck batters. So far, the only thing that has slowed Park's progress is his English. No matter. Whenever the Dodgers' manager, Tommy Lasorda, makes a trip to the mound, Don Yi, Park's omnipresent interpreter, goes with him. In fact, every time Park dons his uniform, number 61, Yi puts on his number 94. Yi's number may auguer well for his colleague. After all, if Park makes the team, '94 will be the year that the first major-league player from Korea hurls his way into history.