"Celebrating Diversity in Major League Baseball: The LA Dodgers as a Melting Pot of Talent and History"

The online sports-related slang ‘Jehanda’ is short for ‘Hey, if you’re Korean, let’s support the <a href="https://www.world-today-news.com/ryu-hyun-jinbest-left-handed-pitcher-warren-span-award-%e4%ba%9e-first/" title="Ryu Hyun-jin'Best Left Handed Pitcher' Warren Span Award…亞 first”>LA Dodgers.’ It is known that ‘Jehan Man’ originated when Park Ji-sung was playing for Manchester United.

Domestic fans are familiar with the LA Dodgers. This is the team where Park Chan-ho debuted in 1994, and Ryu Hyun-jin wore a Dodgers uniform for seven seasons starting in 2013.

The Dodgers advanced to the Major League World Series in the 2024 season. The first game of the best-of-seven series will be played against the New York Yankees at Dodger Stadium on the 26th.

There is also a good reason to ‘shut out’. The Dodgers have a Korean national baseball player. Tommy Edman played a key role in the Dodgers’ advance to the World Series by scoring 4 RBIs, including a two-run home run, in Game 6 of the National League Championship Series against the New York Mets on the 21st He was also selected as the Series MVP. Edman’s mother is of Korean descent, and he wore the Taegeuk symbol at the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC). His middle name is ‘Hyeonsu’, so he is known as ‘American Hyunsoo’ among basketball fans.

Dodgers leadoff hitter Shohei Otani is a Japanese player, but his popularity in Korea makes him worth rooting for. In addition, the Dodgers played the opening game against San Diego, where Kim Ha-seong plays, at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul last March. Close to ‘our team’.

But it’s not blood ties or regional ties that are worth cheering for the Dodgers. The Dodgers play some special baseball.

The Dodgers dugout is known as the ‘melting pot’. It is a place where different races, nationalities, and languages ​​mix. In the 2018 Dodgers opening roster, when Ryu Hyun-jin played, there were players from eight nationalities. This was the largest record in the major league based on the opening roster.

Even now, the Dodgers team is so diverse it’s almost like ‘bibimbap.’ Otani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto are Japanese players, and Kike Hernández, who played a big role in the division series, is from Puerto Rico. Director Dave Roberts’ mother is from Okinawa.

It’s a long-standing tradition of the Dodgers. The Dodgers were the team that beat Jackie Robinson, the first black player in the major leagues, while he was in Brooklyn. It was with the Dodgers that Chan-Ho Park and Hideo Nomo (Japan) were able to break the ‘major league wall’. Dodgers baseball is ‘diversity baseball.’ Andrew Friedman, President of the Baseball Division, described it as “the versatility of the Dodgers.”

Race, nationality, language, as well as a player’s talent are not limited to a specific position. Mookie Betts will play center field and shortstop, and Edmond, the ‘American defender’, will also play center field and shortstop in the postseason. Hernández’s Division Series MVP starting positions this season include first baseman (7 games), second baseman (6 games), third baseman (60 games), shortstop (6 games), left winger (8 games), and center fielder (6 games). . It was diverse. Even as a losing pitcher, he pitched 4.1 innings in 4 games. As is known, Otani only played as a hitter this season due to an elbow injury, but he is a “two-hit player “.

If races, nationalities, languages, and even professions are mixed together like this, wouldn’t there be a problem with the important ‘teamwork’? Wouldn’t it be stronger to have a group with the same group where everyone understands by just looking at them, even if they don’t say a word?

Professor Kate Bezrukova of Santa Clara University in the US reported the difference in wins and losses by group identity of major league clubs in a 2015 paper titled ‘A multi- level on fault lines, distinguishing effects between group and group level fault lines.’ The results of the study showed that the clearer the fault lines within a group, the greater the diversity, and the better the conflict between them was managed, the more likely it was to achieve good results.

This means that it is only when diversity within an organization is secured and that different points of view are accepted that it can respond more effectively to external changes. The Dodgers’ positional diversity is also the basis for effectively dealing with opposing pitcher management.

Teamwork also becomes stronger. Coach Roberts said, “It’s very meaningful and enjoyable to see the Japanese and Cuban players trying to understand each other (despite not communicating well),” and added, “That the secret to our team being able to come together tightly.” .The Dodgers have been in fall baseball for 12 consecutive years since 2013.

Therefore, because of change and development in ‘Yongsan’, who firmly says, “If you throw a stone, you will win,” and only shouts for unrighteousness as when he was a charge, this will be sent away. to fall

He clearly said that he loves basketball.