When comparing great baseball players over the eras, it is often said that those who performed after the “color barrier” was broken by Jackie Robinson rate a slight edge, because they faced a wider range of competition.
Over time, Latin players made an enormous impact on the game. But in the 1990s, baseball became truly internationalized. The game became an official Olympic sport, cable and satellite television brought it to all four corners of the globe, and as a result superstars from Asia came to play in the U.S.
Baseball became popular in Italy, Australia, Canada and The Netherlands, but it was always a huge sport in Asia. Japan is nothing less than gaga about baseball, but it is a way of life in Taiwan and South Korea, too.
Some have argued that expansion has diluted the talent base, but this is not true. The talent base has expanded. Expansion has simply accommodated that talent base. There has been a vast improvement in amateur baseball; little leagues, high schools, American Legion, travel ball. Of course the college baseball experience, which consists of a year-round regimen in the fall, the spring schedule, and collegiate summer leagues in Alaska, Cape Cod and others, creates far better players than in the past.
On top of all this, economics, training methods, diet, coaching and weight training have improved the athletes. There is no doubt that the modern baseball player is, on the whole, better than ever, regardless of the nostalgia for the past. Unfortunately, the competition to get there, to stay there, and to thrive there, has directly resulted in steroid abuse. The worst truth about steroids is that it unquestionably improves performance, making it an irresistible temptation.
Japanese players first came to play for the Giants in the 1960s, but it was Hideki Nomo who opened doors for Asians in the 1990s. That was the door Byung-Hyun Kim walked through.
What made Kim unusual was the fact he first signed a pro baseball contract with an American team. Unlike Nomo, Ichiro Suzuki and others, he was not an established professional star in his native country.
Kim was a collegiate sophomore in South Korea when he signed with the Diamondbacks in 1999. Before that, he defeated the vaunted Cubans in the 1997 Four Nations Invitational Games in Osaka, Japan (1997). He was a member of the Korean National team, where he attracted great attention by fanning 15 U.S. Olympic hitters in a game at Tucson in 1998. From there he accompanied his team to Italy for the World Championships, where he earned a save – again vs. the U.S. – in the championship game.
He led South Korea to a Gold medal in the Asian Games, fanning 12 against China with eight straight strikeouts. His work in international competition earned him a contract from the Diamondbacks, as well as a deferment from the South Korean Army.
Employing a variety of side-arm and under-hand deliveries to the plate, Kim overpowered hitters with a fiendish collection of fastballs, sliders and curves that seemingly obeyed no known laws of physics. His phenomenal strikeout totals earned the 5-11 right-hander the nickname "The Little Unit," a nod to his 6-10 teammate and fellow strikeout master Randy Johnson, "The Big Unit."
Kim was the youngest player in the Majors when the Diamondbacks brought him up from Double-A El Paso in May 1999. At first, he looked actually unhittable with his side delivery. The initial reaction to him was one of wonder. Sportstalk host Jim Rome got wind of him and raved. He reminded people of the mythological Sidd Finch, a Sports Illustrated “story” about a 120-mile an hour wunderkind who could not be hit.
