Bridging the Gap

Ryan Sadowski throws a pitch for the Lotte Giants during a Korea Baseball Organization playoff game against the Doosan Bears, on Sept. 30, 2010.
/ Yonhap

It takes more than talent to succeed in baseball

By Patrick Bourgo

Ryan Sadowski might be best known in Korea as the ex-pitcher for the Lotte Giants who can speak Korean, but since hanging up his cleats he's been making a name for himself off the field.

Earlier this year, Sadowski was part of a seminar designed to help foreign players adjust to living and playing in Korea. As someone who has played in both countries, understands Korean culture and speaks Korean, he is in a unique position to help players adjust.

After leaving the KBO in 2012, Sadowski remained active in baseball and his scouting work, as well as a series of articles in Korean, did not go unnoticed by Korean teams. He was hired by the Lotte Giants before the start of this season.

With more than 30 foreign players in the league and the cost of foreign talent on the rise ― especially since the elimination of the salary cap on foreign players ― it's become more important than ever for teams to maximize the talent of the players they bring over.

Since foreigners started playing in the KBO in 1998, their success rate has been spotty at best, with few players lasting more than one year, and many not even lasting that long. Given the resources that teams pour into bringing these players over, observers have to wonder: Why has there been such a low success rate?

Foreign players are signed specifically for their ability to play baseball, and an increasing number of them are going on to play in the MLB after their stints in the KBO. This year alone, at least three KBO alums have already seen action in MLB games, and many more are playing in Triple-A.

According to Sadowski, it takes more than talent to succeed in the KBO.

In particular, a player needs to be able to adjust not only to Korea's style of baseball, but also its culture, he says.

With more players than ever moving between leagues, looking at how to help players succeed has become increasing important, for both KBO and MLB teams. Having recognized the difference in styles and the importance of cultural adjustments firsthand as a player, Sadowski is addressing these needs in his new role with Lotte. Below are excerpts of an interview that have been edited for length and clarity.

Q: Back when you first came over, what was the hardest thing about adjusting to playing and living in Korea?

A: The hardest thing about living in Korea is gaining an understanding of what is really around you. Everything looks different and everything is served different. I always use the example of the food. I like to eat budaejjige. I like it a lot, but if you just look at its raw ingredients, to an American the raw ingredients look very unappetizing. So you don't know what you're eating, you don't know really what's around you. So that adjustment, and that's just food, but that kind of applies to baseball, to life, to food, to shopping and to meeting people.

Q: What was it about working for a KBO team that appealed to you?

A: I think the biggest thing is that I saw that baseball had so much talent. Korean people, when you compare Koreans to the other East Asian countries that play baseball, are so much more physical, just in their genetics. When you saw that and you see the desire for Korea to be good at baseball, it really made it enticing for me to come back and be a part of it, because I really feel like I can bridge the gap in cultures and in styles.

Q: How is working for the Giants different from playing for them?

A: Well, it's a very different department, you know. You don't put on a uniform every day. The office setting in Korea is much different than an office setting in the States, much different than the way a front office is run in Major League Baseball, it's just a smaller operation. You are more closely knit with the people around you, where in major league baseball you can work as a scout and maybe talk to the general manager, see the general manager two or three times a year. I was seeing the farm director, the general manager, the vice president on a daily basis.

Q: What can you tell us about your current position?

A: I am working to help Brooks (Raley), Josh (Lindblom) and Jim (Adduci) learn the KBO players and try to help them just maximize their talent any way that I can, whether it be on the field or whether it be off the field. And at the same time, I'm in the States helping scout other foreign players.

Q: What do you think are the biggest difficulties Korean players encounter in moving to MLB?

A: A lot of the same difficulties foreign players have coming to Korea. Only 33 percent of foreigners play for more than one year in the KBO as it stands currently. We know that some players will be on the 2015 list of guys that don't last for more than a few months, and a lot of that does not have to do with talent. A lot of it has to do with the inability to adjust culturally, or the inability to understand the league, or the players or the style, and when it comes to raw ability that's secondary. There are a lot of players in the KBO that can play in the major leagues if we are just talking about talent.

Q: What are some of your long-term goals working in Korean baseball?

A: I think my long-term goal is, like I said earlier, to help bridge the gap between a Western style of baseball and an Eastern style of baseball. Each culture can have its own identity, but at the same time the KBO, and more specifically the Lotte Giants can be doing things, as efficiently and effectively as they possibly could.

Patrick Bourgo is a Seoul-based baseball researcher and writer. He's on Twitter: @kballhistory