New Brewers first baseman Eric Thames crushed his first home run of the season in the fourth inning of Milwaukee’s 6-1 win over Colorado on Wednesday night. The 404-foot blast was also his first homer in the major leagues since Sept. 23, 2012, when he was with the Mariners, before he went to play in Korea for three years.
It’s very early, but Thames has gotten off to a good start so far, showing the bat the Brewers hoped they were getting when they signed him to a three-year, $16 million contract during the offseason. Entering play Thursday, he was batting .333 (3 for 9) with one home run, three RBI and two runs scored.
Thames spent the previous three years tearing up the Korean Baseball Organization, where he hit a whopping 124 home runs. To that country’s television audience, those dingers probably sounded a lot like this.
Outstanding.
From 2014-16, with the NC Dinos, Thames hit .348 and totaled 124 homers and 382 RBI. In 2015, Thames batted .381 with 47 home runs, 140 RBI and 40 steals, becoming the first member of the KBO’s 40-40 club and the first player in league history to hit for the cycle twice in one season. That year, he was named the KBO MVP, and also won the league’s Golden Glove Award for first basemen.
So, judging by the prodigious production and the euphoria of that broadcast call, it’s safe to say Thames is still pretty beloved in Korea.
And kudos to FOX Sports Wisconsin, its television production staff and announcers Brian Anderson and Bill Schroeder for not only finding, but also featuring the call on the broadcast. Very cool and original. Well, except maybe for these crazy Australian guys.
We second Anderson’s sentiment: "I think that becomes a thing now for the rest of the year." Hopefully, it's a thing another 30 or so times.
Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.
After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.
Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.
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