Brewers first baseman Eric Thames has been one of the biggest stories of the young baseball season.
After washing out of the Major Leagues in 2012, Thames bounced around the minor leagues before landing in South Korea in 2014. There, he absolutely dominated the Korean Baseball Organization, hitting 124 homers in three season and earning a reputation as something like Korea’s Babe Ruth.
Now he’s back in the Majors and, improbably, he has brought his prodigious power stateside. Thames is hitting .415 with a 1.481 OPS, and on Thursday night he whacked his league-leading eighth home run of the season.
The opposite-field shot, which came off Cardinals ace Carlos Martinez, was quite exciting for the Korean broadcast team calling the game for MBC Sports+.
https://twitter.com/sung_minkim/status/855238033385209856
That’s not exactly Andres Cantor-level excitement, but it definitely approaches Gus Johnson-level excitement. At the very least, it’s more energy than you usually get in the fifth inning of a Brewers game in April.
Thames obviously won’t continue his torrid start forever, but if he does turn into a productive MLB power-hitter, the reactions from Korea will be fun to pay attention to.
About Alex Putterman
Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.