I also left Korean greetings on Instagram for Korean fans.While contemplating retirement, Eric Thames (37), a foreign hitter of the ‘Hotajunjok’ who had a relationship with Korean professional baseball and blossomed his baseball life, announced his real retirement. Thames, who announced his intention to retire in English on Instagram, drew attention by writing a special thank you to Korean fans in Korean.온라인바카라
Thames wrote in Korean on Instagram on the 16th, “I didn’t know that I would fall in love with a country so quickly. “I had no idea how much fun it would be to play in the KBO,” he wrote. “Thank you for embracing me and Dinos. No matter which team I support, I love all of you. I plan to visit Korea frequently, and if you see me, please do not hesitate to say hello.”
Thames, who made his debut with the Toronto Blue Jays in American professional baseball in 2011, was an ordinary mid- and long-distance hitter in the major leagues. In 2013, when he was contemplating his retirement without ever reaching the big leagues, NC Dinos offered him a contract. At this time, Thames’ choice changed his baseball life and left a splendid record in Korean professional baseball.
In 2013, when he was thinking about retiring
from MLB, he signed a contract with NC.
In 2014, the first year of joining the NC, he played an active role with a batting average of 0.343, 37 homers and 121 RBIs, and in 2015, he burned even hotter with a batting average of 0.381, 47 homers and 140 RBIs. And in 2015, with 47 home runs and 40 stolen bases, he joined the only 40 home run-40 stolen base club in the KBO League so far and became the league’s best player (MVP). At this time, NC fans cheered for Thames by calling him the nickname ‘Teunjang’, which is a combination of his name and ‘Gwanunjang’. Thames recorded a career batting average of 0.349, 124 homers, and 382 RBIs in three KBO league seasons.
While playing in NC, Thames supported a childcare facility in Goseong, South Gyeongsang Province, and later did good deeds, such as inviting children from the facility to games.
Based on his performance in the KBO League, Thames returned to the big leagues by signing with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2017 for a total of 16 million dollars (about 20.5 billion won) over three years. In Milwaukee, when he hit 72 home runs in three seasons, fans even called Thames a ‘big monster’ (a monster created by the KBO League).
Good deeds, such as sponsoring a nursery school and inviting a children’s stadium,
contributed greatly to the settlement of KBO, an NC club in the early days of its foundation
However, as he entered his mid-thirties, Thames could not avoid the ‘aging curve’. He moved to the Washington Nationals in 2020, but he only hit .203 with 3 homers and 12 RBIs. He then joined the Japanese professional baseball Yomiuri Giants in 2021, but immediately returned to the United States due to a serious injury in which his Achilles tendon was cut during defense in his first team debut.
Since then, Thames has been consistently mentioned as a candidate for a foreign hitter in the KBO League, but eventually signed a minor league contract with the Oakland Athletics in 2022 without returning to the Korean stage. In Oakland, he failed to get a call-up to the big leagues, and eventually took off his uniform without finding a team to