It’s a good time to be an alarm clock in Korea.
It’s a better time to be Jae-Gyun Hwang.
Right now, both are in high demand.
On Wednesday in San Francisco, Hwang will become the first Korean born player to compete for the Giants in a Major League game, as he’ll start at third base and hit fifth in the team’s series finale against the Colorado Rockies.
With infielder Conor Gillaspie heading to the disabled list, the Giants needed another bat on their roster, and they made the sudden decision to call up Hwang from AAA Sacramento.
It’s a good thing news of Hwang’s call-up broke a day before his debut, because it allowed the Korean media to adjust its broadcasting schedule so that Hwang’s arrival in the majors could be aired live.
“The moment the announcement of my call-up was announced, I obviously got a lot of calls, but if you look at any of the media streams, all of the search words were Jae-Gyun Hwang,” Hwang said through a translator on Wednesday morning. “And even though right now the game will be broadcasted early in the morning in Korea, they had to switch up all the channels and the programming just to be able to broadcast this game live so I think it means a lot to the Koreans back home.”
How early in the morning?
The 12:45 start time on Wednesday afternoon in San Francisco means Hwang’s fans back home will be treated to a Major League baseball at 4:45 a.m. on Thursday morning.
After meeting Hwang on Wednesday, it comes as no surprise to me that Koreans will rearrange their schedules around the third baseman’s MLB debut, as it’s clear he shares a special bond with the fans that have followed his every move for the past decade.
The 29-year-old was a power-hitting star for Lotte, a team in the Korean Baseball Organization, before he elected to pursue his Major League dream this spring with San Francisco. While Hwang showcased an impressive approach at the plate in Spring Training, the Giants’ organization decided to give Hwang an opportunity to prove himself at the AAA level before allowing him to realize his dream.
After hitting .287 with seven home runs and 44 RBIs through the first three months of the season, Hwang received the call he’s been waiting for on Tuesday, and hopped on a plane from El Paso bound for San Francisco.
“I’ve given up a lot back home, whether that’s money, being away from family, my career, just to be here and the only reason I did that like I said before was because I wanted to realize my childhood dream of playing a game in the big leagues and this opportunity came almost unexpectedly and so suddenly,” Hwang said. “But I’m really hoping to carry over this excitement to the field and capitalize on this opportunity.”
During his time with the Sacramento River Cats, Hwang played third base, first base and worked in both corner outfield spots in an effort to increase his versatility and value to the Giants. Though San Francisco has struggled at the plate this season, Giants’ management gave opportunities to Hwang’s AAA teammates, Christian Arroyo, Austin Slater and Ryder Jones, before giving Hwang the nod.
After an eventful spring training and a strong start to his first year in the United States, Hwang said watching his teammates with the River Cats progress to the next level convinced him that he would soon find himself in the orange and black.
But time and again, Hwang was passed up in favor of other prospects, and he admitted he began to grow impatient.
“In the beginning, I thought seeing my teammates get called up that I can be there too because we were playing at the same level, we were producing and we were playing together so I thought that it meant I could be called up the same as they could,” Hwang said. “But as time went on, it was a little bit harder to be honest, being patient and trying to stay the course. I was trying to do a little too much and I got a little anxious trying to force my way up. But in the end, I decided that it was going to do me any favors so I decided to let it all go and focus on baseball and having fun again.”
That fun translated into a .324 average in the month of June with Sacramento, and on Tuesday, it translated into the opportunity he’s been waiting his whole life to receive.
On Wednesday, Hwang joins a Giants team that’s also begun to have some fun again. After a walkoff win in 14 innings over the Rockies on Tuesday evening, San Francisco has its first win streak in a calendar month. Sure, it’s just two games, but after the victory, two of Tuesday night’s heroes, center fielder Denard Span and left fielder Gorkys Hernandez, spoke about how enjoyable it was to inject some life back into a clubhouse that’s sorely missed it this season.
While Hwang likely won’t be an everyday player once third baseman Eduardo Nunez returns from the disabled list on Friday, the Giants will have a player who knows how to have fun on a daily basis, and there’s no doubt they could use more of that.
No, you’re not going to see the wild bat flips that made Hwang such a popular presence in Korea (he joked he doesn’t want to get drilled with a pitch), but you are going to see a happy-go-lucky hitter whose personality, pop and passion for the game could make him a fan favorite in no time.