Thames retired from the KBO… “I never thought I would fall in love with a country like this”

Eric Thames (37), considered the best foreign hitter in Korean professional baseball history, will retire from active play.

On his 16th, Thames said on his social media, “I have been blessed to be able to call baseball a ‘profession’ for 14 years. Thank you for supporting my rich hairstyle (beard),” he said goodbye.

Thames also left a message in Korean for Korean fans. “I never thought I would fall in love with a country so quickly. He wrote, “I didn’t know that playing in the KBO League would be so much fun,” and “I trained to the best of my ability for all the reasons you support me.” He also mentioned his former team, the NC Dinos, and said, “Thank you for embracing me and the Dinos메이저사이트 No matter which team you support, I love you all. I plan to visit Korea often, and if you see me, please do not hesitate to say hello.”

Thames was a slugger with a career batting average of 0.349, 124 home runs, and 382 RBIs while wearing an NC uniform for three years from 2014 to 2016. From his first season, he successfully settled in, posting a batting average of .343, 37 home runs, and 121 RBI. The following year, in 2015, he topped the league with a batting average of 0.381, 140 RBIs, 47 home runs, and 40 stolen bases, and was named the MVP of the regular season. 40 home runs and 40 stolen bases is a record only Thames has achieved in KBO league history.

Thames signed a contract with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2017 for a total of 16 million dollars (about 20.5 billion won) over three years, using his performance in NC as a stepping stone. He was an ordinary mid-to-long-distance hitter before coming to Korea, but after achieving the ‘Korean Dream’, he made a golden return to the major leagues.

Thames played an active role in Milwaukee, hitting 72 homers for three years, before transferring to the Washington Nationals in 2020. However, in Washington, his performance did not meet expectations and he was released. In 2021, he joined the Yomiuri Giants of Japanese professional baseball, but had the misfortune of suffering a severe injury in which his Achilles tendon was torn in his first team debut.

He signed a minor league contract with the Oakland Athletics last year and tried to make a comeback, but failed to re-enter the big leagues and eventually took off his uniform.

Thames hit the final home run of his professional career in May of last year with the Oakland Triple-A team. His place was Sacramento, California, a city right next to his hometown. “It was an unbelievable experience to hit my last home run near my hometown with my parents watching,” he said. “The next page of my life will be amazing.”