CHOI Dong-Won: almost almost a Blue Jay and almost the majors’ first Korean player

I recently read the 1987 book “ Ballpark Figures: The Blue Jays and the Business of Baseball” by Canadian Baseball Hall of fame Jack Graney Award winner Larry Millson, who covered the Blue Jays for 26 years for the Globe & Mail. It was one of the first baseball books to cover the business aspect of the sport and I highly recommend it to Blue Jays fans.

When the Blue Jays signed Rob Refsnyder I noticed that he was the first South Korean born player to play for the team. But in Millson’s book I read that the honour almost went to Choi Dong-Won in 1982.

In 1981, Pat Gillick sent Wayne Morgan to cover a tournament in Edmonton called the International Cup. Morgan saw a 23 year-old Choi pitching for the Korean team and “knew at once he was a major-league prospect.” The Dodgers offered him $150,000 at the tournament but he would have to go to the minors and he didn’t want to do that. Elliott Wahle offered up this assessment:

The Jays talked to him at the tournament, and ended up making four trips to Korea in pursuit of the prospect. Finally Morgan and Wahle got Choi to agree to a contract to have Choi start with the big league team, with negotiations being held with Choi’s fatther through an interpreter. A contract was typed up late one night using a hotel typewriter (1981, remember) and Choi signed it. But MLB needed two contracts to be submitted for approval. The second one was typed up the next morning and when they telephoned Choi to come and sign that copy, he refused, as apparently he was being advised to sign with the Dodgers.

A Korean league was formed the next season (now the Korean Baseball Organization) and Choi ended up signing with his hometown (Busan) team, the Lotte Giants. He became a star in the league, breaking out in 1984 with a 27–13 record, 1.92 ERA and 223 strikeouts. He led the league in wins, strikeouts, and innings pitched and finished second in ERA, winning the MVP award. He was considered one of the top two Korean pitchers of the 1980s and his number 11 was retired by the Giants in 2011, shortly after his death at the age of 53 from colon cancer.

He would have been the first South Korean born major leaguer, preceding Park Chan-Ho by 12 years. Choi’s Wikipedia page has some slightly different details, mentioning he was offered the chance to skip military duty if he remained in Korea, and that the Blue Jays scouts were threatened with jail if they tried to sneak the contracts out of the country.

photo source: Yonhap News via the Korea Herald

Blue Jays family portraits, 1984 Yearbook

Happy Family Day long weekend, everybody! These spring training photos appeared in the 1984 Blue Jays Yearbook. Baseball players seemed somewhat more “like you and me” back then.

Buck and Arlene met on a beach in Puerto Rico in 1971 when Buck was playing winter ball for Cangrejeros de Santurce (oddly I’m wearing a Cangrejeros t-shirt today). They’ve been married over 41 years. More on how they met here. You may remember little Casey was drafted by the Blue Jays as a catcher. He was taken in the 47th round of the 2000 draft. He pretty much topped out in A ball, other than 7 PAs in AA and 5 PAs in AAA.

Cliff Johnson’s daughter Dana caused Cliff a lot of distraction during a playoff game while he was with the Yankees. He says he can’t remember anything about that game on October 2, 1978 because his wife Pam was giving birth to Dana and he was a “pile of nerves.”

The Shaker and his wife Adrienne added a son later, Lloyd II.

To see the families of Jesse, Rance, and Ernie, look here.

Toronto Blue Jays CP Air ad, 1985 Scorebook Magazine vol. 9

Happy birthday Jesse Barfield! Born October 29, 1959 in Joliet, Illinois, Jesse certainly was “Flyin’ High” in ‘85, finishing 7th in the AL MVP voting for his great power (27 HR), speed (22 SB) and defense (led all AL outfielders in assists (22) and all RF in putouts (348)).

May your birthday be first class, Jesse.

Luis Leal, 1984 Scorebook Magazine

Luis Leal is a bit of a forgotten man in Blue Jays history, I find. The Venezuelan was a starting pitcher from 1980-1985, just as the team was coming into its own. He still ranks 9th in club history in innings pitched, and 10th in wins (51, tied with Ricky Romero). In his best season, 1982, he started 38 games, pitched 249 2/3 innings, and finished 3rd among AL pitchers with 5.1 WAR.

Impressively Dave Stieb led the league with 7.7, and Jim Clancy finished 5th with 5.0, making the 1982 Blue Jays one of only 13 teams in the integration era (1947) to have 3 pitchers with 5 or more WAR. The most recent was the 2011 Phillies of Halladay, Lee, Hamels.

1991 All-Star Game, FanFest Souvenir Program

With All-Star week upon us, here’s something from the time Toronto and the SkyDome hosted the 1991 All-Star game. The first two pictures are from the gatefold cover. I love the guy in the front row that looks like Jimmy “The Mouth of the South” Hart from the WWF. If this wasn’t the first FanFest I’m pretty sure it was one of the first. 

My biggest memory of FanFest involved baseball cards. Some of the major card companys were giving away free baseball cards (this being right in the “overproduction era”). My friend and I found some empty wall space and started flicking/flipping our cards, playing “closies” first. Then we moved onto “knockdowns” by which time several kids (also in possession of free cards) had stopped to watch and ask what we were doing. At that time cards were seen as “investments” so you had to keep those precious Tom Gordon rookies mint so that they’d be worth lots of money one day. This concept of flicking them against the wall for fun was totally new to them. So we ended up leaning about 10 cards against the wall (each person put one in) and whoever knocked the last one down was going to get a big pile of cards (whatever card you shot got added to the booty). The kids were really into it, and we gathered quite a crowd with the parents of these kids, plus other kids and parents watching. The pile got pretty big so it was pretty exciting when the last card fell. We then stepped away, and the kids continued playing in our absence.

SkyDome on The Simpsons, season 13 episode 11

27 years ago today, on June 3, 1989, SkyDome opened with a big extravaganza. This Simpsons episode aired on February 17, 2002 and even at 12 years-old Marge thought the stadium was still photo-op worthy. 

Though the stadium has its detractors, I’m not one of them. The location is awesome, the sightlines are good, and no other stadium has a view like our CN Tower vista. Plus the ground-breaking retractability factor is still amazing. Happy birthday, SkyDome!

photo via battersbox.ca

Colby Rasmus, Playball! Official Program 2014 Issue 2

I was wondering what Blue Jay was the hardest to double up, so I ran these numbers (minimum 500 AB). Thirty-five batters had a ratio of 50 AB per GIDP or better. Of those 35, 17 bat right, 10 bat left, and 8 are switch hitters (but 5 of the top 10).

I’ve already done a post on Rapid City’s finest, Dave Collins, so I’m showing Colby some love here. I’m surprised he’s up here so high, but I guess you’re not GIDP as much when you strike out a ton. Collins struck out in 13% of his AB, Rasmus was 31%. To see how impressive the 120 AB/GIDP ratio is, I looked to see how many players in the division era (1969 - present) have a career ratio of > 120 (minimum 1000 AB). Only 16 do, and they are largely speedsters like Vince Coleman, Billy Hamilton, and Dee Gordon (Collins wasn’t on the career list). Impressive.

Surprises for me on the Blue Jays with 50+ AB/GIDP were right-handed catchers Rod Barajas, Rick Cerone, and JP Arencibia. Slugging lefty Carlos Delgado was a bit of a surprise, and I smiled when I saw Munenori Kawasaki on there.

Blue Jays TV Schedule, 1983 Scorebook Magazine v7

These days we worry about whether to stream our 162 Blue Jays games or splurge for cable. If we decide to stream we have to choose between MLB.tv or Sportsnet Now. If we decide to get cable do you watch on regular HD, or should you plunk down more money to watch via the new 4K TV technology? Luckily with any option you are able to watch in HD on your phone or tablet while you’re at the office or otherwise away from home.

Not only was the technology a lot simpler in 1983, the TV schedule was too. Sunday and Wednesday was basically all you got on free TV (CTV) — plus maybe one or two games a year on Monday Night Baseball on ABC if the team was good. Those who ponied up for “Pay TV” were lucky enough to get another game a week.

We kind of take it for granted now how we can tune in live to every inning of every game from practically anywhere. I mean, you can even watch on-demand later on if you missed it live. Let’s pause for a moment and be thankful for 162 games of televised Blue Jays baseball.

Dave Stieb, Tomorrow I’ll Be Perfect back cover

Let’s talk about dominance. From 1982 to 1985, Dave Stieb posted a WAR of between 6.8 and 7.9 every season. He had 4 of the top 6 WAR seasons in the AL (#1, 2, 5, 6) and 4 of the top 11 in MLB (#3, 4, 10, 11). 

Number of 6.8 WAR seasons, MLB, 1982-85: Dave Stieb - 4 Everybody Else - 7 (nobody more than 1)

Top 3 WAR totals, 1982-85: 1) Dave Stieb - 29.4 2) Mario Soto - 22.2 3) John Tudor - 19.0

He’s 10 WAR clear of the third best guy, and a full Cy Young type season clear of the second best guy. For reference, Clayton Kershaw’s 2011-14 where he won 3 Cy Young Awards and finished 2nd the other year totaled 28.0 WAR*. So how did Dave Stieb do in AL Cy Young voting from 1982-85? He finished: 4th, no votes, 7th, 7th. Gross. Injustice.

I did a book review of Tomorrow I’ll Be Perfect, Stieb’s 1986 autobiography, here.

* Granted, pitchers threw more IP then, but in Kershaw’s stretch his WAR lead is 5.7 on number 2 (Cole Hamels), compared to Stieb’s 7.2 lead.

Blue Jays family portraits, 1984 Yearbook

Happy Family Day, everybody! These spring training photos appeared in the 1984 Blue Jays Yearbook. Baseball players seemed more "of the people” back then before even utility men and relievers were millionaires.

Jesse & Marla have been married 33 years and two of their children went on to play pro baseball. Little Josh here had a 14 year pro baseball career, including 4 seasons in the majors with the Padres and Indians, and Jeremy has played 8 seasons, reaching as high as AAA.

Rance & Jeannette went on to have 4 children: Ryan, Merissa, Whitney, and Seth

Ernie & Christine held at 3 children, are still married, and live in Michigan when Ernie isn’t coaching 

Ontario Hydro advertisement, Scorebook Magazine 1985 vol. 9

Well this seems like a bit of an odd pairing looking back on it. Ontario Hydro and the Blue Jays actually teamed up for a while, as you can tell from this entertaining 1984 commercial featuring Jim Gott, Roy Lee Jackson, Bobby Cox, and Jim Clancy.

Some notes: - You can tell it’s 1984 as that’s the only year Key wore # 27 - It also makes sense given the high profile bullpen woes of 1983: brutal 55% save percentage (32 saves, 26 blown), only one reliever with a positive WPA - The story seems to suggest the Jays are being killed, but when Key gives up what looks to be the 3rd homer we’ve seen, the Jays are actually winning 8-3. Seems like Bobby Cox was tough with the hook. - If you look closely enough, the pitcher’s shoes are not Nike

Kudos to the pitchers for being such good sports in this. I swear there was another Ontario Hydro commercial with Lloyd Moseby singing in the shower, but I can’t find anything. Let me know if you remember this too.