Chan Ho Park can’t fight. We learned that for certain during a random June MLB game in 1999 when he decided to attack Anaheim Angels pitcher Tim Belcher. The whole incident is pretty weak, even for a baseball fight.
Let’s start with who Chan Ho Park is. He pitched in the big leagues for 16 seasons and was a serviceable starting pitcher. Park even made the All Star game in 2000 before signing a free agent deal with the Texas Rangers in 2001. He fought injuries for a few seasons and eventually found his way to the bullpen during the latter part of his career. His success helped pave the way for future Korean ball players to make their way stateside.
In some ways, Belcher was a mirror image of Park minus the whole being Korean bit. He was a decent starting pitcher who put together a 14-year career of being mostly unremarkable. But for whatever reason, sparks flew when these two players crossed paths in an interleague showdown between a pair of teams going nowhere that year.
It all starts with Park laying down a sacrifice bunt that travels down the first-base line to be fielded by Belcher. The Angels pitcher applies a firm tag to his sternum in what appears to be a routine play. However, Park takes offense to something, spins around and plants a forearm shiver on Belcher.
The Dodger player evades backwards opening up some space between himself and Belcher. This is the moment of truth. Park knows Belcher is charging at him and needs to do something to avoid being taken down.
So, what is his response? He uncorks what may be the weakest looking enziguri kick you’ll ever see.
Besides the fact the kicking someone is almost never acceptable in a fight, what the hell was Park trying to accomplish with the jump kick? Real life isn’t a movie. You are never going to have time to pull off something like that. If you really feel like a kick is the best move here, at least keep it simple.
Like everyone else who has ever failed in a fight, Park made sure to let the world know that he wasn’t really trying.
“I didn’t really kick him. If I had wanted to hurt him, I would have kicked him,” the pitcher told reporters.
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Chan Ho Park has a lame excuse to fight
Both players were ejected as a result of the fight and Park was hit with a seven-game suspension along with a US$3,000 fine. However, the excuse Chan Ho Park used to justify his decision to fight was almost as lame as the kick itself.
“Hopefully [Belcher] did not do it because I’m Korean. I don’t know that he was, but I always feel that way,” Park told the LA Times while adding that Belcher didn’t say anything about his race at any point in time during the scuffle.
Park may have not liked the hard tag or being cursed at, fair enough. But to drop the race card because someone is being a dick is unwarranted. And if we’re being honest, the tag wasn’t really that hard.
That’s not even the end of the story though. Belcher did get a little racist a few days after the incident, telling the same newspaper, “Maybe it’s a cultural thing, but if he can be taught the language, he can be taught the appropriate behavior.”
It should be clear to everyone by now why the Chan Ho Park fight is an event that makes our worst of the late 90s series.
