Korean Pro Baseball Guidebooks

I wanted to introduce an invaluable KBO resource in English.   For the 1999-2003 seasons, Thomas St. John wrote a Korean Baseball Guidebook for the KBO.   Included in these wonderful guides is the standard statistical information for every player from the previous year, as well as a team analysis for the comming year and some articles on important events or milestones.   Unfortunately, these guidebooks are no longer available, but you might be able to find them somewhere used online.

  

From the guidebooks, Thomas was the KBO’s official photographer and advisor. He also covered Korean pro ball for the Korean Times and other news outlets.

No-hitters in the KBO

Since professional baseball began in Korea in 1982, there have been fifteen nine inning no-hitters (노히트노런).  Fourteen of them occurred during the regular season and one happened during the Korean Series. Charlie Shirek of the NC Dinos was the first foreign player (용병) to throw a no-hitter in the KBO. Below is a list of all of the no-hitters in KBO history.  I have included both English and Korean versions.

No-hitters

구분	Pitcher (Team)	Date	Opponent	Score
1	Su-won Bang (Haitai)	5/5/1984	Sammi	5-0
2	Jeong-haeng Kim (Lotte)	6/5/1986	Binggrae	8-0
3	Ho-yeon Jang  (OB)	4/2/1988	Lotte	4-0
4	Dong-seok Lee (Binggrae)	4/17/1988	Haitai	1-0
5	Dong-yeol Seon (Haitai)	7/6/1989	Samsung	10-0
6	Tae-il Lee (Samsung)	8/8/1990	Lotte	8-0
7	Won-hyeong Kim (Ssangbangwool)	4/30/1993	OB	3-0
8	Tae-won Kim (LG)	9/9/1993	Ssangbangwool	9-0
9*	Myeong-won Jeong (Hyundai)	10/20/1996	Haitai	4-0 (KS)
10	Min-cheol Jeong (Hanwha)	5/23/1997	OB	8-0
11	Jin-woo Song (Hanwha)	5/18/2000	Haitai	6-0
12	Charlie Shirek (NC)	6/24/2014	LG	6-0
13	Yunesky Maya	4/9/2015	Nexen	1-0
14	Michael Bowden (Doosan)	6/30/16	NC	4-0
15	Deck McGuire	4/21/19	Hanwha	16-0
	*Indicates happened during game 4 of the Korean Series

노히트노런

구분	선수명 (팀)	일자	상대팀	결과
1	방수원 (해)	5/5/1984	삼미	5-0
2	김정행 (롯)	6/5/1986	빙그레	8-0
3	장호연 (OB)	4/2/1988	롯데	4-0
4	이동석 (빙)	4/17/1988	해태	1-0
5	선동열 (해)	7/6/1989	삼성	10-0
6	이태일 (삼)	8/8/1990	롯데	8-0
7	김원형 (쌍)	4/30/1993	OB	3-0
8	김태원 (L)	9/9/1993	쌍방울	9-0
9	정민철 (한)	5/23/1997	OB	8-0
10	송진우 (한)	5/18/2000	해태	6-0
11	찰리 쉬렉 (NC)	6/24/2014	LG	6-0
12	유네스키 마야	4/9/2015	넥센	1-0
13	마이클 보우덴	6/30/16	NC	4-0
14	덱 맥과이어	4/21/19	한화	16-0
#	박동희 (롯)	5/13/1993	쌍방울	4-0 (6회 강우콜드)
#	정명원 (현)	10/20/1996	해태	4-0 (KS 4차전)

In the English list, I did not include one game, as it was called in the sixth inning and not a nine inning game.

There has never been a perfect game thrown in Korea's highest league, however, one has been thrown in Korea Baseball Futures League (한국야구 퓨처스리그), which is the equivalent of the minor leagues. Lee, Yong-hun (이용훈), pitcher for the Lotte Giants (Futures), tossed a perfect game against the Hanwha Eagles (Futures) on September 17, 2011.

Baseball Book Recommendations

As a fan of both baseball and books, it's natural for me to enjoy reading about baseball, and with this post I wanted to make a few recommendations on this topic. In addition, I've also talked to some people who know a little something about baseball and asked them if they would recommend some books as well. I will be starting off with their recommendations and ending with mine.

I have included links for each book mentioned for those of you who would like to get a little more information about the books or read reviews of them.

From japanesebaseball.com
Michael Westbay was kind enough to point me to his discussion page when I asked him for some recommendations. Many of books mentioned on his site have been mentioned by others on their list here, so I will only add one's not mentioned. It is however, worth taking a look at the site, as there are reviews of some of the books mentioned in some of the links on this post. Westbay-san also mentioned that he agreed with Mr. Allen's choice of Banzai Babe Ruth.

Wally Yonamine by Robert K. Fitts

A Zen Way of Baseball by Sadaharu Oh and David Falkner


David Klopfenstein of Yakyu Night Owl:
Dollar Sign on the Muscle: The World of Baseball Scouting by Kevin Kerrane

Baseball in '41 by Robert W. Creamer

When Women Played Hardball by Susan E. Johnson

Teammates by David Halberstam

SATCHEL by Larry Tye

Runs, Hits and an Era by Paul J. Zingg and Mark D. Medeiros

Red Smith on Baseball by Red Smith

Ball Four by Jim Bouton

Say Hey by Willie Mays with Lou Sahadi

Baseball's Hometown Teams by Bruce Chadwick

Slugging It Out in Japan by Warren Cromartie and Robert Whiting

My Greatest Day in Baseball by John P. Carmichael

Smithsonian Baseball by Stephen Wong

Play by Play by Neal Conan

Sayonara Home Run! by John Gall and Gary Engel

The Baseball Anthology by Joseph Wallace


Jason Coskrey of the Japan Times:
You Gotta Have Wa by Robert Whiting

The Samurai Way of Baseball by Robert Whiting (aka The Meaning of Ichiro)

Field of Screams by Mickey Bradley and Dan Gordon

Baseball Is Just Baseball: The Understated Ichiro by David Shields

Banzai Babe Ruth by Robert K. Fitts

Moneyball by Michael Lewis

The Yankee Years by Joe Torre and Tom Verducci

Trading Bases by Joe Peta


From the Japan Baseball Weekly Podcast with John E. Gibson and Jim Allen
Remembering Japanese Baseball by Robert K. Fitts (Gibson)

Transpacific Field of Dreams by Sayuri Guthrie-Shimizu (Gibson)

Banzai Babe Ruth by Robert K. Fitts (Allen)

The Samurai Way of Baseball by Robert Whiting (aka The Meaning of Ichiro) (Allen)


Thomas St. John
Minor Players, Major Dreams by Brett Mandel

The Zen of Zim by Don Zimmer

Ichiro on Ichiro by Ichiro Suzuki

A Zen Way of Baseball by Sadaharu Oh and David Falkner

The Samurai Way of Baseball by Robert Whiting (aka The Meaning of Ichiro)

Slugging It Out in Japan by Warren Cromartie and Robert Whiting


Patrick (mine)
Weaver on Strategy by Earl Weaver with Terry Pluto

Taking in a Game: A History of Baseball in Asia by Joseph A. Reaves

Moneyball by Michael Lewis

The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract by Bill James

The Chrysanthemum and the Bat by Robert Whiting

You Gotta Have Wa by Robert Whiting

The Bullpen Gospels by Dirk Hayhurst

Baseball: A Literary Anthology by Nicholas Dawidoff

Wherever I Wind Up by R. A. Dickey with Wayne Coffey

Ichiro Magic by Jim Allen

Can you root for the Hanshin Tigers in English? by Shannon O. Higgins

The Glory of Their Times by Lawrence S. Ritter

Lost Ballparks by Lawrence S. Ritter

Korean Pro Baseball Guidebooks by Thomas St. John

For the parents with young kids:

My Baseball Book by Gail Gibbons

H is for Home Run by Brad Herzog

Take Me Out to the Yakyu by Aaron Meshon

Three Extras (recently recommended to me)
Opening Day by Jonathan Eig

The Numbers Game by Alan Schwartz

Field of Schemes by Neil deMause & Joanna Cagan

Overall, the list was more diverse than I expected, though a bit heavy on Japanese related titles. Banzai Babe Ruth and The Samurai Way of Baseball seemed to be the most recommend books. I would like to thank everyone for contributing their recommendations!

 Hope you enjoyed the lists.  Part of this reason for this post was that I knew many great books wouldn't be mentioned, so if you have any recommendations, feel free to leave them in the comments section.

Update:
In case this list isn't enough for you, I have just found this book:
501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die by Ron Kaplan

St. Louis Cardinals Play in Korea 1958

In October of 1958 the St. Louis Cardinals came to Korea and played a Korean team referred to as the Seoul All-Stars (全서울) or Korean All-Stars.  Tickets were sold for 2,000, 1,000, 500 or 300 hwan (Korean currency at the time), and according to the Korea Times a total of 1,500 reserved seats were made available for U.S. military personnel.

There is an article about this game in the Korea Times: St. Louis Cardinals played in Korea in 1958

Line Score

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
St. Louis	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	3	10	0
Seoul	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0

Rosters:

Cardinals
General Manager - Bing Devine
Coaches - Harry Walker, Johnny Keane
Manager - Solly Hemus

Players
Pitchers - 27 - Bob Blaylock, 37 - Jim Brosnan, 39 - Larry Jackson, 23 - Sam Jones, 38 - Wilmer "Vinegar Bend" Mizell, 31 - Ernie Broglio, 25 - Phil Paine, 29 - Bill Wight
Catchers - Harold "Hal" R. Smith, Hobart "Hobie" N. Landrith, Ray Katt
Infielders - 3 - Don Blasingame, 10 - Alex Grammas, 14 - Ken Boyer, 36 - Lee Tate, 28 - Joe Cunningham, 19 - Ruben Amaro, 2 - Benny Valenzuela, 4 - Solly Hemus
Outfielders - 6 - Stan Musial, 12 - Gene Green (C.), 15 - Bobby Gene Smith, 20 - Wally Moon

Korean Team
단장 (general manager) - 1 - 선우인서 (Sunwoo, Inso)
감독 (manager) - 5 - 오윤환 (Oh, Yon-Whan)
주장 (captain) - 한태동 (Han, Tae-Dung)

선수 (players):
7 - 한태동 (Han, Tae-Dong, P.), 8 - 박현식 (Park, Hyun-shik, LF.), 9 - 서동준 (Sur, Dong-Joon P.), 10 - 배용섭 (Bae, Yong-Sop, P.), 12 - 구상문 (Koo, Sang-Mun, P.), 13 - 곽상령 (Kwak, Sang-yong, P.), 15 - 김영조 (Kim, Yong-Cho, C.), 17 - 허호준 (Hur, Ho-Jon, C.), 18 - 정병섭 (Chung, Byong-Sop, C.), 19 - 김정환 (Kim, Chung-whan, 1B), 20 - 김용구 (Kim, Yong-kwo, IF.), 22 - 이기역 (Lee, Kye-Yok, IF.), 24 - 성기영 (Seoung, Ki-yung, 2B), 25 - 김희? (Kim, Hi-Yon, 3B.), 27 - 박하성 (Park, Ha-Song, IF.), 28 - 김진영 (Kim, Chin-yong, SS.), 30 - 배동원 (Bae, Tung-Won, IF.), 32 - 김양중 (Kim, Yang-chung, P.), 33 - 장태영 (Chang, Tae-yong, CF.), 34 - 허정규 (Hur, Jung-kyu, RF.), 35 - 진원주 (Chin, Won-Chu, OF.), 36 - 정두영 (Chung, Doo-Yong, OF.)

Umpire Crew
Edward Sadol - Plate Umpire
조점룡 (趙点龍)- First Base
박점도 (朴点道) - Second Base
이신덕 (李辛德) - Third Base

Regarding the players for each team, there were some discrepancies between the English language sources and the Korean sources. Additionally, there were also discrepancies between some of the articles from the Korea Times and the score cards. I used Korean language sources for all the Korean names, except in the case of Kim, Hi-Yon, as the original Korean source was missing the second part of his given name. In this case I used the original scorecard information, but I also found Hi-ryon and Hi-yong as alternate spellings in other sources. For the romanization of the Korean names I used the official scorecard (which personally I don't like and if you can read Korean, will notice is not very accurate, although neither was the Korea Times). I followed the Korean standard of family name, given name for all Korean names in both Korean and English.

I really hope everyone enjoys the post and as always, if you have any questions or additional information, feel free to leave it in the comments section.