May 3, 2024 By Chris Dugan 5 min read

Imagine, for a moment, being a recent high school graduate who wants to start a baseball career, and further your education, in another country, where nobody has seen you play.

So you leave your homeland with little more than a baseball glove, a diploma and an impressive fastball, travel to a foreign country and attend a showcase for prospective college baseball players.

The only problem is you don’t speak the native language of the country you are now in.

Scary stuff, especially for a teenager.

That was the uncomfortable situation that Wild Things pitcher Gyeongju Kim was in seven years ago when he left his native South Korea, bound for Dallas and a showcase attended by college coaches, some armed with scholarship offers to Division I programs. They liked what they saw from Kim, even if he didn’t really understand what they were telling him.

“I spoke no English,” said Kim, who today speaks fluent English. “I couldn’t get into most of the colleges because I couldn’t speak English. … One school that was at the showcase that didn’t have a problem with the language barrier was the University of the Ozarks. They said I could attend school there and play baseball.”

University of the Ozarks, located in Clarksville, Ark., is an NCAA Division III school.

“I remember attending classes at the start of my first year there and not understanding one word that was said,” Kim recalled. “I had teammates helping me, teaching me English, classmates taught me English. I watched YouTube videos to learn to speak English. I guess even watching television helped me.”

Kim is a quick learner, both in the classroom and on the diamond. He pitched in 19 games over two years at University of the Ozarks and had five wins.

Then military duty called.

A native of Seoul, Kim had to return to Korea to serve a required two-year military stint. After being discharged from the military, Kim wanted to return to the United States. During his two years away, Nathan Bacon, his pitching coach at University of the Ozarks, had become the head coach at Dordt University, an NAIA school in Sioux Center, Iowa. So Kim enrolled at Dordt for the 2021 baseball season.

In 2022, Kim struck out 109 batters in 68 2/3 innings. After playing well that summer in the Prospect League, Kim returned to Dordt last spring and had a 7-3 record with 116 strikeouts and only 26 walks in 82 2/3 innings. He set the school’s single-game record with 21 strikeouts.

“I had a girlfriend while I was at Dordt and we got married. She got a job in Atlanta and we moved there,” Kim said. “I still wanted to play baseball, so last summer I was going to attend a showcase for players who wanted to play independent ball.”

That’s when Kim received a phone call from Wild Things manager Tom Vaeth. Kim had never heard of Vaeth or the Wild Things, but Kim liked what he heard.

“I don’t remember who first told me about Kim, but I eventually got in touch with his college coach. He sent me some videos and I liked what I saw. I called him and he said that he was going to (a showcase) and I told him to save his money, don’t go and that we’d offer him a contract. I knew it wasn’t going to work out last year because it was so late in the season and the situation with visas for foreign players, so we were shooting for this year.”

“I’m 25 years old, and I know that’s too old to get drafted,” Kim said. “I had an offer to play for Sioux City in the American Association, but it was too close to where I played in college. It’s just too cold there. I don’t like cold weather. I knew the Frontier League has been doing well, and when Tom called he said he’d give me a couple days to think about it. I trust him so I signed here.”

Kim, the first Korean-born player to sign with Washington, made his Wild Things debut in an exhibition game Tuesday at Florence and threw three scoreless innings with four strikeouts.

“It has been a long time and we’ve been patiently waiting to see him on the field. He still has things to work on, but there is a lot to like about him,” Vaeth said.

Extra bases

Washington released left-handed pitcher Tanner Propst and signed lefty Edward Polimir. The 5-11, 145-pound Polimir played last season with the New York Yankees’ Florida Complex League team and pitched in one game for their Class A affiliate in Tampa. … The first mandatory roster cutdown for Frontier League teams is Sunday. Teams must get down to 28 players on the active roster. The Wild Things currently have 33 players in camp ahead of their final two exhibition games Saturday at Lake Erie and Sunday (3:05 p.m.) at home against the Crushers.