
Ruf, for instance, hit 31 and 33 homers in his first two years there, but just 22 in 2019. The league changed its baseballs before the season, essentially de-juicing them, and offensive numbers cratered. Williamson still managed to put up solid numbers in his stint there, although it was perhaps not the best season for an American slugger to land in the KBO. Their arsenal was just different in that way." I struggled with that, so that was the biggest adjustment from a gameplay standpoint. "The biggest difference for me was a lot more of the pitchers in Korea have splitters than in the United States. "There are definitely some talented guys there that can play in the big leagues," he said. Any time you do something good they're chanting that song.

Every player has his own chant and song, so when you're hitting they are chanting that song and dancing the entire time you're hitting. "They have a head cheerleader who makes up a cheer for each player.

"The fan experience in those games is really what sets it apart, and it's hard to duplicate that now because they don't have fans," he said. More than anything, he learned how important the fans are to KBO games.ĭuring a phone conversation Tuesday from his North Carolina home, Williamson explained what Giants fans should know about the KBO games they're watching. He learned a new cuisine, new culture and got accustomed to a different power structure in the dugout, one based entirely on seniority.
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He learned how to quickly calculate how fast a pitch was when it would pop up as 145 kilometers per hour.

273 with four homers in 40 games for the Lions. The former Giants outfielder ended last season in South Korea, hitting. But when Mac Williamson tunes in this week to catch a glimpse of his 2019 Samsung Lions teammates, that's the first thing that'll catch his eye. Baseball fans were just happy to have some form of the game back this week, so it was easy to overlook the empty seats as the Korean Baseball Organization kicked off Monday night.
