Sports

Column: Baseball diplomacy: How Shohei Ohtani, Yu Darvish bridge the Japan-South Korea divide

Published

2 years ago

March 18, 2024

Column: Baseball diplomacy: How Shohei Ohtani, Yu Darvish bridge the Japan-South Korea divide

SEOUL —

The day after the Dodgers deplaned at Incheon Airport, pictures of Shohei Ohtani and his wife were on the pages of every major newspaper in this country.

Not just any pages. The front pages.

On the evening news, segments on Ohtani were aired before those featuring the San Diego Padres, the Dodgers’ opening-day opponents. The Padres have a couple of Korean players in shortstop Ha-Seong Kim and right-hander Woo-Suk Go.

Ohtani is almost as popular here as he is in his home country.

“Right now,” journalist Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News Agency said, “I think he’s the most beloved Japanese athlete in Korea.

“Ever.

“In any sport.”

For a Japanese athlete to be embraced by South Koreans to this degree is extraordinary, considering the history between their countries. Wounds remain from Japan’s brutal 35-year occupation of Korea in the early 20th century.

Such widespread admiration of a Japanese player would have been unimaginable as recently as 15 years ago, when baseball games between Japan and South Korea were as politically charged as soccer games between Argentina and England or India and Pakistan.

“Back then, with the old-school players, there was definitely tension between the two countries every time they would play each other,” Go said through an interpreter.

Yu Darvish, the Padres’ opening-day starter, played for Japan in the World Baseball Classic in 2009 and again last year. Japan played South Korea both times, but Darvish said the atmospheres were entirely dissimilar.

“There was a feeling in 2009 that South Korea was a rival, an enemy,” Darvish said in Japanese.

Japan won the first two WBCs, in 2006 and 2009, with Ichiro Suzuki as their star. Suzuki is disliked in South Korea to this day.

During a 1997 exhibition series in South Korea, Suzuki complained of the country smelling like garlic. Before the inaugural WBC, Ichiro said he wanted to teach opponents such as South Korea and Taiwan that they “couldn’t beat Japan for the next 30 years.”

South Korea defeated Japan in the first-round stage and again in the second-round group stage, after which then-Dodgers pitcher Jae Seo planted a South Korean flag on the mound in a game played at Angel Stadium.

Ichiro screamed in frustration, and later called the defeat “the most humiliating day of my baseball career.”

Japan later won the tournament.

Ohtani is considerably more respectful, which is one of the reasons he is adored here.

Asked about his popularity in South Korea this week, Ohtani replied in Japanese, “From long ago, Japan and South Korea have played games in international competitions that were extremely intense and I watched them from the time I was a child. I thought South Korea was a great team. Because of that, I’m looking forward to playing in South Korea, and I was grateful to be welcomed at the airport like that.”

Ohtani was also complimentary of South Korea and other Asian countries during the WBC last year.

Independent South Korean journalist Daniel Kim, who operates a YouTube channel with 151,000 subscribers, mentioned how Ohtani included a South Korean flag emoji in a recent caption for an Instagram post. Kim said the small gesture was appreciated, enough to where it made news.

Chan Ho Park, pitching for the Dodgers during a 2008 game, was the first South Korean-born player in MLB.

(Matt Sayles / Associated Press)

Chan Ho Park, a former Dodgers pitcher who was the first South Korean-born major leaguer, counts himself as one of Ohtani’s admirers. Park said South Koreans were right to view Ohtani as a role model.

“Ohtani is a perfect example,” Park said. “In the amateur leagues, they all talk about how Ohtani grew up. Obviously, working hard is the No. 1 priority, but it’s also how to behave to be the right student, the right son.”

As polite as Ohtani is, as unprecedented as his on-field performance is, why wouldn’t South Korea welcome him? The country has already welcomed plenty of other things Japanese.

Yoo mentioned that he drives a Honda and wears clothes by Uniqlo.

“There’s a good portion of the Korean population that likes Japanese culture,” Kim said. “Even when the relationship between the two nations is bad, you see Koreans traveling to Japan.”

Japan has in turn incorporated South Korean culture into its own culture.

“Like, 20 years ago, [Korean dramas], they took off in Japan first,” Kim said. “Before Japanese audiences started watching K-dramas, they were mostly a domestic thing. Somehow, they took off in Japan. K-pop took off in Japan. And then they started going all over the world.”

Baseball has also contributed to cultural exchanges.

San Francisco Giants rookie outfielder Jung Hoo Lee is the son of Jong Beom Lee, who played on South Korea’s WBC team in 2006. The younger Lee was born in Japan while his father was playing for the Chunichi Dragons in Nippon Professional Baseball.

Jung Hoo Lee’s childhood hero?

“As a kid, I loved Ichiro,” Lee said through an interpreter.

Lee shared a clubhouse in spring training this year with a Japanese player, Yoshi Tsutsugo.

“We’ve gone to dinner together and talked baseball,” Lee said.

When Go joined the Padres, he appreciated how Darvish approached him and greeted him in Korean: “Annyeonghaseyo,” or hello.

Padres relief pitcher Woo-Suk Go talks with Yuki Matsui, center, and Yu Darvish during spring training last month.

(Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)

“We’re both from Asia,” Darvish said. “I know he has some uneasiness. At the same time, he wants to prove his strength, his personal strength, Korea’s strength. I understand that feeling.”

Go and shortstop Ha-Seong Kim now make it a point to say good morning to Darvish every day in Japanese: “Ohayo gozaimasu.”

Darvish said he purchased a translator application for his phone to communicate with his South Korean teammates.

More than anyone, Park understands the big differences that small actions like that can make. Park, who will deliver the ceremonial first pitch before the season opener on Wednesday, played with the Dodgers alongside Hideo Nomo.

Park and Nomo became lifelong friends. Nomo attended Park’s wedding. Nomo also traveled to South Korea for the opening of Park’s museum.

Park is hopeful that watching South Korean and Japanese players interact will make South Koreans and Japanese less suspicious of each other. Darvish has the same hope, saying the passing of time could heal the traumas and extinguish the prejudices of the past.

“I think it’s mostly older people who say, ‘I don’t like Korea’ or ‘I don’t like Japan,’” Darvish said.

Daniel Kim, who will be part of ESPN’s broadcast team for the Dodgers-Padres games, described the Japanese players on the Dodgers and Padres as the ultimate diplomats.

“What Shohei Ohtani and Yu Darvish have done for the last 48 hours is a lot more than what the political leaders have done on both sides in the last 10 years,” Kim said.

Darvish visited a cafe in Seoul run by a fan he befriended on Twitter.

Ohtani continued to share his fondness of South Korea, recalling a visit he made with a junior national team.

“I was still in high school at the time, so it was different than it is now,” Ohtani said. “But from that time, this was one of the countries I liked. At that point, I’d only been to Taiwan and South Korea, so in that sense, it was special. I think it’s also special that I’ve been able to come back [this week] to play baseball.”

It’s been special in other ways too — ways that extend far beyond balls and strikes and wins and losses.

Sports

US figure skating power couple makes history with record breaking seventh national championship

Published

9 hours ago

January 11, 2026

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US figure skating power couple makes history with record breaking seventh national championship

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U.S. figure skating stars Madison Chock and Evan Bates made history on Saturday with their record-setting seventh U.S. Figure Skating title in their final competition before the Milan Cortina Olympics.

The three-time reigning world champions, performing a flamenco-style dance to a version of the Rolling Stones hit “Paint It Black” from the dystopian sci-fi Western show “Westworld,” produced a season-best free skate and finished with 228.87 points.

“The feeling that we got from the audience today was unlike anything I’ve ever felt before,” Chock said.

Madison Chock and Evan Bates of United States perform during ISU World Figure Skating Championships – Boston, at TD Garden, on March 28, 2025 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Jurij Kodrun – International Skating Union/International Skating Union via Getty Images)

They’ll be the heavy favorites to win gold next month in Italy.

“I felt so much love and joy,” Chock continued, “and I’m so grateful for this moment.”

U.S. Figure Skating will announce its selections on Sunday.

Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik were second with 213.65 points and Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko were third with 206.95, making those two pairs the likely choices to join Chock and Bates on the American squad for the upcoming Winter Games.

The men’s medals also were to be decided on Saturday, though two-time world champion Ilia Malinin had built such a lead after his short program that the self-styled “Quad God” would have to stumble mightily to miss out on a fourth consecutive title.

The U.S. also has qualified the maximum of three men’s spots for the Winter Games, and competition is tight between second-place Tomoko Hiwatashi, fan favorite Jason Brown, Andrew Torgashev and Maxim Naumov to round out the nationals podium.

The last time Chock and Bates competed in the Olympics in 2022 in Beijing, they watched their gold initially go to an opponent who was later disqualified for doping violations.

Chock and Bates initially had to settle for team silver with their American teammates on the podium at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. Team Russia and Kamila Valieva, who was 15 at the time, stood above them with their gold medals.

It wasn’t until the end of January 2024, when the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) found Valieva guilty of an anti-doping rule violation, when Chock, Bates and the U.S. were declared the rightful 2022 gold medalists.

UN URGES COUNTRIES TO HONOR TRUCE DURING WINTER OLYMPICS, NOT DENY VISAS TO ANY NATION’S ATHLETES

Madison Chock and Evan Bates compete in championship ice dance at the U.S. figure skating championships Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Valieva tested positive for trimetazidine, a banned substance, during an anti-doping test at the Russian Figure Skating Championships in December 2021. She was suspended for four years and stripped of all competitive results since that date.

Chock and Bates spoke about what their message to Valieva would be today during an interview at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee media summit in October.

“It’s hard to, I think, imagine what a 15-year-old has gone through and under that kind of situation,” Bates said. “And I know how stressful it is, being an elite athlete as an adult, as a 36-year-old. And I think that grace should be given to humans across the board. And we can never really know the full situation, at least from our point of view. … I genuinely don’t know what I would say to her.”

Chock added, “I would just wish her well like as I would. I think life is short. And, at the end of the day, we’re all human just going through our own human experience together. And regardless of what someone has or hasn’t done and how it has affected you, I think it’s important to remember we’re humans as a collective, and we’re all here for this, our one moment on earth, at the same time. And I just wish people to have healthy, happy lives, full of people that love them.”

Chock and Bates had to wait more than two years after the initial Olympics to get their rightful gold medals, and they were finally presented with them during a ceremony at the Paris Olympics last summer.

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Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the USA perform in the Gala Exhibition during the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating Final Nagoya at IG Arena on December 07, 2025 in Nagoya, Japan. (Atsushi Tomura – International Skating Union/International Skating Union via Getty Images)

Chock, Bates and teammates Karen Chen, Nathan Chen, Zachary Donohue, Brandon Frazier, Madison Hubbell, Alexa Knierim and Vincent Zhou were given a specialized gold medal ceremony to receive the medals in front of more than 13,000 fans.

Chock and Bates became the first ice dancers to win three consecutive world championships in nearly three decades in March when they defeated Canadian rivals Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Jackson Thompson is a sports reporter for Fox News Digital covering critical political and cultural issues in sports, with an investigative lens. Jackson’s reporting has been cited in federal government actions related to the enforcement of Title IX, and in legacy media outlets including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Associated Press and ESPN.com.

Sports

Eric Dailey Jr. and Trent Perry power UCLA to victory over Maryland

Published

10 hours ago

January 11, 2026

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Eric Dailey Jr. and Trent Perry power UCLA to victory over Maryland

Dave Roberts tossed T-shirts to fans. The students were back out in bunches. UCLA traded in its recent first-half troubles for a big lead.

It was sort of fun to be a Bruin again Saturday at Pauley Pavilion.

On an evening the team honored Roberts, the Dodgers manager and former Bruins outfielder who triumphantly hoisted the World Series trophy over his head during a timeout as fans roared, it was possible to forget about UCLA’s troubles for a few hours.

The Bruins’ 67-55 victory over Maryland was a needed reprieve for a team aching over its defense, not to mention a two-game losing streak that was comfortably snapped despite the Terrapins grabbing one offensive rebound after another.

Maryland (7-9, 0-5) finished with an absurd 20 offensive rebounds, leading to 24 second-chance points, and it still wasn’t enough to make the final minutes a worry for UCLA (11-5, 3-2) after a 6-0 push put the game away.

Forward Eric Dailey Jr. ensured that things didn’t go awry for the Bruins, nearly logging a double-double with 15 points and nine rebounds. Trent Perry (16 points, six rebounds) hit a clutch corner three-pointer with a little less than six minutes left after Maryland had closed to within five points.

Maryland’s inability to make baskets — the Terrapins shot 30.3% overall and 18.2% from three-point range — was forced in part by some active defense, notably from UCLA’s Steven Jamerson II. The backup center had perhaps his best across-the-board showing as a Bruin, finishing with eight points, five rebounds, three assists, two blocks and one steal in 22 minutes.

UCLA guard Trent Perry, left, collides with Maryland guard Andre Mills while battling for a defensive rebound in the first half Saturday.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

His top highlight came on an offensive rebound he snagged while falling out of bounds and saved by flinging a pass to Perry for a three-pointer. UCLA would have won with even greater ease had it not made just 18 of 27 free throws (67%).

There were moments it was easy to forget the Bruins were playing without guard Skyy Clark (hamstring) and forward Brandon Williams (lower-leg injury). Both players are considered day to day, meaning they could return soon.

Maryland could relate to being shorthanded. The Terrapins were missing star center Pharrel Payne, who remained sidelined because of a knee injury. Forward Elijah Saunders led Maryland with 17 points.

It wasn’t nearly enough given the Bruins looked a bit more like the team they need to be.

Sports

Falcons hire franchise legend Matt Ryan to major front office role

Published

21 hours ago

January 10, 2026

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Falcons hire franchise legend Matt Ryan to major front office role

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The Atlanta Falcons have added one of the team’s greatest players to its front office.

The Falcons announced on Saturday that former quarterback Matt Ryan, who spent the first 14 years of his 15-year NFL career with the team after being drafted third overall in 2008, will be president of football on Saturday. The 40-year-old Ryan, who holds team records for passing yards, touchdowns and wins, will assume the new role immediately.

Ryan will report directly to owner Arthur Blank and collaborate with president and CEO Greg Beadles to ensure the alignment of the business and football areas of the organization.

Former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan (2) on the sideline before he is inducted into the team’s Ring of Honor at halftime of a game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, on Oct. 3, 2024. (Brett Davis/Imagn Images)

“Throughout his remarkable 14-year career in Atlanta, Matt’s leadership, attention to detail, knowledge of the game and unrelenting drive to win made him the most successful player in our franchise’s history,” Blank said in a statement.

“I am confident those same qualities will be a tremendous benefit to our organization as he steps into this new role. From his playing days to his time as an analyst at CBS, Matt has always been a student of the game, and he brings an astute understanding of today’s NFL, as well as unique knowledge of our organization and this market. I have full confidence and trust in Matt as we strive to deliver a championship caliber team for Atlanta and Falcons fans everywhere.”

The Falcons fired head coach Raheem Morris on Sunday after back-to-back 8-9 seasons. The Falcons had won their last four games, leading some to believe Morris might be afforded a third season, but Blank had other plans.

AARON RODGERS TAKES THINLY-VEILED SHOT AT JETS AHEAD OF STEELERS’ PLAYOFF GAME

CBS Sports broadcaster Matt Ryan before a game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Denver Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado, on Nov. 16, 2025. (Ron Chenoy/Imagn Images)

The Falcons also fired general manager Terry Fontenot after five seasons on Sunday. Ryan will be fully involved in the team’s search for the Falcons’ next head coach and general manager.

“Arthur gave me the chance of a lifetime almost twenty years ago, and he’s done it again today,” Ryan said in a statement.

“While I appreciate the time I had with the Colts and with CBS, I’ve always been a Falcon. It feels great to be home. I could not be more excited, grateful, or humbled by this new opportunity. I began my career with a singular goal: to do right by the Blank family, the Falcons organization, the City of Atlanta, and especially our fans. My commitment to the success of this franchise has not changed. I’m beyond ready to help write a new chapter of excellence.”

Ryan has spent the last three seasons as a member of the CBS Sports team as an analyst.

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Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan (2) passes the ball against the Buffalo Bills during the second half at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York, on Jan. 2, 2022. (Rich Barnes/USA TODAY Sports)

“I want to thank the incredible team at CBS Sports. I loved my three years there and I am truly grateful for their support in pursuing this opportunity. The CBS Sports culture is amazing, and I have made teammates and friends for life,” Ryan said in a statement.

Ryan, who was drafted out of Boston College, played with the Falcons for 14 seasons and holds many franchise records, including passing yards (59,735), attempts (8,003), completions (5,242), passing touchdowns (367), passer rating (94.6), completion percentage (65.5) and 300-yard games (73).

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Ryan Canfield is a digital production assistant for Fox News Digital.