On 3 September, LG Twins pitcher Rad-hames Liz appeared to attempt to bean – or intentionally strike with the bal – SK Wyverns’ Choi Jeong twice in one game.
The second hit, in the seventh inning, was a 156km fastball into Choi’s lower back. Sixty seconds previously, Liz narrowly missed Choi’s head. Dominican-born Liz was heading for 20 hit batters in one season, more than anyone else. Resentment was growing, benches were clearing and managers were getting upset.
One week later, Liz returned to the pitcher’s mound. Without a title since 1994, LG Twins were one win away from going top of the table when they faced the defending Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) champions Samsung Lions with a play-off spot beckoning.
In the first inning, Liz conceded a lead-off solo home run to the Lions’ Bae Young-seop. By the sixth, Liz’ team had recovered to lead 3-1. Bae was back at the plate and Liz looked to be struggling. The occasion got to the Twins’ star man as he ploughed a 151km/h fastball into the side of Bae’s helmet. The batter immediately collapsed to the ground.
Batters wear helmets but Liz’ rocket ricocheted an inch from his temple. Bae was lucky the helmet cushioned the blow. As the ambulance carted him away, a chorus of boos awaited Liz, who stood alone on the mound.
Liz retired the next three batters. It was scintillating viewing. Strike Out. Strike Out. Strike Out. Three Ks in a row on the scoreboard. After the third out, he performed a spontaneous dance off the mound, running back to his dugout. The Twins hung on to win 5-4, sending them to the summit of the table.
The following day, Korean baseball was engulfed in its worst racism row in living memory. Bounce Kim, sports cartoonist for the web portal nate.com, was attempting to convey a sense of bitterness after seeing Liz celebrate the third strike out following Bae’s awful injury. He used the baseball terminology ‘K’, which signifies a strike out, to show Liz chased from the field by the KKK.
Within 30 minutes of going online, the cartoon was pulled and an apology appeared on Bounce Kim’s Facebook page. “We didn’t have enough knowledge on the subject matter, and we were trying hard to come up with something new and compelling,” read the statement. “More than anything, we fully understand that this was borne out of sheer stupidity.”
Does the cartoonist expect us to believe he didn’t know what the KKK symbolises? And why can’t people take full responsibility for their actions, instead of hiding behind the ‘I didn’t realise it would create so much anger’ argument?
Like thousands of others, the wife of the Twins’ other foreign pitcher, Ben Jukich, took to social media to condemn the cartoon. But despite the furore, nate.comannounced that Bounce Kim would not be disciplined, and the LG Twins pleaded for the situation not to escalate any further.
This incident comes just two months after Kim Tae-kyun’s racist remarks about Shane Youman, and marks another low for Korean baseball. But it also asks serious questions about the issue of race in this country. Where is the humour in this cartoon like this, and how could it ever get published? More questions for Korean society that probably won’t be answered.
Andrew Farrell works as an English language teacher in Korea.
