The Curious Case of the 50-Year-Old Knuckleballer
A Potential Feel-Good Sandwich Article Takes a Turn For The Weird
So about a month ago, I came across a reel on Instagram. The Melbourne Aces, a team trying to find its way since their split from the Australian Baseball League, had posted that they gave a tryout to tech billionaire Min Hur, who turns 50 in May. And well, it was a feel-good piece:
(A note: For the purposes of this article, I’ll refer to the player as ‘Min Hur,’ but he has been referenced as ‘Hur Min’ and ‘Heo Min’ as well).
If you don’t have time to watch that clip, here’s the skinny: 49-year-olds just physically don’t have the arm strength to throw a baseball 100 miles per hour. This non-athlete masters what’s known as a ‘knuckleball,’ a SLOW pitch that kind of floats in the air when it’s thrown. It’s like a carnival trick, but a respected one. Anyway, I wrote the first draft of this article about three weeks back, scheduled it to go live the next day, and went to bed.
But I couldn’t sleep.
Why would a Korean ‘tech billionaire’ even consider playing baseball in Australia? Korean baseball is the world’s third-largest market. Why is a rich person “trying out?” Why now? And why do I care so much? So, please indulge me as I show you the rabbit hole I fell down following this guy.
So Min Hur made his money in video games by being on the team that created ‘Dungeon & Fighter,’ which became a massive hit in China.
Sure, whatever.
But that was my first question, right? If you live in Korea and Korea has a massive Korean baseball scene, wouldn’t you want to start domestically if you have the itch to play? Get this, he kind of DID. In fact, you see that picture I posted earlier in this article? The handshake one? That team in the picture, the Goyang Wonders was a team he founded as the FIRST independent baseball team in Korea. It wasn’t affiliated, and while they played legitimate baseball clubs, the stats never counted. Imagine just starting a baseball team and then getting to play the Yankees and Dodgers for funsies. The Wonders folded after only two years in operation. Slight plot twist, Min Hur never actually played for the team he owned, for “reasons.”
His obsession with learning the knuckleball and practice didn’t stop there. After a stint playing for a team in the United States (I mean, really, WHY haven’t I heard of this guy before??), he became a controversial figure during his stint as an executive with Korean Baseball team, the Kiwoom Heroes:
Hur Min, chairman of the board for the Kiwoom Heroes in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), issued a statement through the club, apologizing to baseball fans and the rest of the league for a much-publicized incident from last year.
Hur, a millionaire-turned-baseball executive, caused a stir in October when it was belatedly revealed, through a TV news report, that he had forced the Heroes’ minor league players to stay late after their practice in June 2019 so he could play catch and show off his knuckleball in live batting practice. KBO fans were up in arms over Hur’s apparent lack of respect for professional athletes and accused him of using his authority to turn the baseball field into his personal playground. - Source
He made the team stay late so he could throw pitches! That’s insane! Because what are you going to do if you’re on that team? Say, “Nah, I’d rather go home and NOT do this?” You know, I’ve never seen The Office, but I imagine it went down like this:
Winning cures everything, at least. That American team I mentioned earlier. Min Hur’s stats while on that team are a matter of public record:
In baseball, a sub-3 ERA is considered elite. This guy hovers over TWELVE. In other words, he wasn’t even good ten years ago!
And so, this brings me back to the Melbourne Aces. Here’s a guy who is obviously not an elite athlete, throwing a pitch so unpredictable it can’t even be relied upon to win a game, but has so much money and influence that he continues to get chances to do so. Or, if I’m being more forgiving: Here’s a guy who really loves baseball so much he dedicated his adult life to the chance to be a viable player, while learning about the game along the way from the executive side of things. Seeing a once in a lifetime opportunity, he grabbed the brass ring to pitch in Australia. Either narrative you choose leads to one question:
WHAT THE F ARE THE MELBOURNE ACES DOING?
But then, it all makes sense:
Korea is essentially using Australia as an offseason training ground. There’s better weather, the seasons in the southern hemisphere are flipped, it’s cheaper to train there than Japan…it just makes sense. And the Aces, as I mentioned, is an Australian baseball team that’s outside of the Australian Baseball League. Mix the two, and my conspiracy theory is that Melbourne is willing to take a guy who appears to be getting run out of Korea but has too much money to actually ride off into the sunset, and poof! Now you have Aces executives talking about a guy who could qualify for AARP like he’s the second coming of Phil Niekro.
Stay after work late, he’ll show you.