SEOUL, South Korea — Police in South Korea had been investigating a bomb menace on Wednesday in opposition to baseball star Shohei Ohtani, who’s in Seoul for Main League Baseball’s first regular-season video games within the nation.
They had been alerted by the South Korean Consulate in Vancouver, which obtained an e mail written in English threatening to bomb the 18,000-seat Gocheok Sky Dome within the South Korean capital, the place Ohtani’s Los Angeles Dodgers are enjoying the San Diego Padres.
The Dodgers’ journey to Asia has drawn legions of followers, with Ohtani the headline act.
After looking with sniffer canine, X-ray detectors and different tools, police mentioned no signal of a bomb had been discovered and that they had been offering extra safety on the season opener on Wednesday, which is reportedly offered out.
Police mentioned the menace bore similarities to earlier ones that originated in Japan, and that they had been monitoring down the sender of the e-mail.
The menace seemingly did little to discourage followers, who traveled from different components of South Korea, the USA and elsewhere for the two-game “Seoul Sequence” between the Dodgers and Padres to open the season.
“I’ve no worries as our nation has very strict safety,” Kim Myeong-seo, a 33-year-old Dodgers fan from Daegu, South Korea, advised Reuters. “It was very troublesome to get a ticket … I’m simply so excited and wish to go in as quickly as doable.”
Ohtani, 29, joined the Dodgers in December after signing a 10-year, $700-million contract that was the largest in baseball historical past.
The 2-time American League Most Precious Participant, who has been in comparison with Babe Ruth, is so standard that South Korean followers have embraced him regardless of their nation’s historic rivalry along with his house nation of Japan, greeting him and the Dodgers like rock stars once they arrived at Incheon Worldwide Airport outdoors Seoul final week.
Ohtani, who is commonly described in Japanese as “the proper particular person,” advised reporters on Saturday that he has all the time revered South Korean baseball gamers and mentioned South Korea was “one in every of my favourite international locations.”
However Ohtani is just not the one draw: Followers are additionally flocking to see his teammate Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 25, who can be from Japan and who additionally joined the Dodgers in December, signing a 12-year contract price $325 million.
The Padres, in the meantime, introduced Ha-Seong Kim, 28, a shortstop born and raised outdoors Seoul who beforehand performed at Gocheok Sky Dome with the Korea Baseball Group’s Kiwoom Heroes. In addition they characteristic Japanese ace Yu Darvish.
The ceremonial first pitch on the sport on Wednesday was thrown by Chan Ho Park, 50, a former pitcher for the Dodgers, Padres and others who was the primary Korean-born participant in Main League Baseball.
“I do know our gamers are thrilled to place their skills on show in a rustic so wealthy with baseball custom and expertise, together with former Dodgers Chan Ho Park, Hee-Seop Choi and Hyun Jin Ryu,” Dodgers president Stan Kasten mentioned in a information launch saying the Seoul video games final July.
Main League Baseball sees the potential for large market development in Japan and South Korea, each international locations with their very own nationwide groups {and professional} leagues in addition to extremely enthusiastic followers whose loud and spirited conduct at video games is usually a type of leisure in itself.
Stella Kim reported from Seoul, South Korea, and Andee Capellan reported from Hong Kong.