How Dodgers' Hyun-Jin Ryu rose from South Korea to MLB All-Star starter
LOS ANGELES - The three men waited in the parking lot until the very last minute before getting out of the car to slip into Daejeon Hanbat Baseball Stadium for first pitch.
It was September 2012. For years, the Dodgers, like many other major league teams, had kept close tabs on a 25-year-old South Korean left-hander named Hyun-Jin Ryu, monitoring his rise from intriguing amateur to established ace with the Hanwha Eagles in the Korean Baseball Organization.
Ryu was expected to become available to MLB clubs that winter and the Dodgers wanted one last look to ensure, above all, he was healthy before entering the sweepstakes. So scouting director Logan White, director of Asian operations Acey Kohrogi and scout Byung-Hwan An arrived for a final in-person incognito inspection, emphasis on incognito.
An had suggested the Dodgers sign pitcher Chan Ho Park, the first Korean-born player to appear in the major leagues, two decades earlier. He served as the Korean national team manager and was a longtime manager in the country's industrial league. He was famous. Then there was White.
"It's kind of hard to hide me in Korea because I'm about 6-2, 235," White said. "I'm a big white guy in Korea."
One misstep and the baseball
