NC native and his baseball team in South Korea make an unexpected connection with home
When Mike Wright decided to go about as far away as possible and play baseball in South Korea, he never thought it would end up bringing him closer to home.
In one of the odder turns of the coronavirus pandemic, a North Carolina native ended up playing for North Carolina’s adopted team in one of the very few leagues playing right now, in any sport. It’s not what Wright expected when he signed with the NC Dinos, a team named for its software-company sponsor, NCSoft.
Then COVID-19 arrived. South Korea was able to get on top of it with a robust regime of testing and tracing, the KBO baseball league started up — without fans — and ESPN, for lack of alternatives, picked up the rights and sports-starved fans in North Carolina discovered their Korean namesake.
Next thing you know, the NC Dinos’ dinosaur mascots are wearing Durham Bulls hats and Wool E. Bull is on the scoreboard in the empty stadium in Changwon. Wright, who grew up in Whiteville and went to East Carolina, even recorded a “stay safe” public service announcement for all of the NC Dinos’ new fans back in his home state.
“One of the things we thought when we first signed is, this is some kind of fate: NC Dinos,” Wright said in a telephone conversation Monday. “It’s awesome, obviously, being from North Carolina. A lot of people are like, ‘NC, you got to pull for them.’ Our team kind of took that and ran with it. The first game here at home it said, ‘What’s up, North Carolina?’ on the scoreboard.”
Wright and his wife, Madison, who is from Cary, were just looking for a change of pace after nine seasons of professional ball that saw Wright make 110 appearances with the Baltimore Orioles and Seattle Mariners. He had seen the majors and was ready to travel the world. KBO teams are allowed three foreigners. In a country that tends to develop more MLB-caliber hitters than pitchers, many of the imports are experienced major-league arms like Wright.
They were expecting the little disruptions, like the random announcements that come over the intercom in their apartment, ubiquitous in South Korea — “We have a lady in our ceiling,” Madison joked about the disembodied voice — not a global pandemic that delayed the start of the season, originally scheduled for March 28.
With COVID-19 under control in South Korea, the 10-team KBO started play this month without fans, spitting or high-fives and with a new TV deal with ESPN. Wright made his first start last Wednesday, picking up the win after giving up two runs on four hits over five innings in a game that wasn’t televised in the states.
He’s excited about the possibility of his family and friends seeing him pitch, not anything he expected when he signed.
“I had a couple friends screenshot or take a picture when ESPN showed me in the dugout,” Wright said. “It’s a really cool situation that we’re in, being halfway around the world and my family being able to watch.”
Life in Changwon, on the south coast of South Korea and a few hours from Seoul, is relatively tranquil. The Wrights have been able to get outdoors and enjoy the mountainous hiking trails and cherry blossoms in bloom. Stores and restaurants are open, what Wright called a “normal life with a mask.”
Baseball is still a bit weird. There are frequent temperature checks, coaches and umpires wear masks, and there’s no getting around the empty stands.
“There’s a lot of attempts to make a fake atmosphere,” Wright said. “In the dugout, I’m trying to bring some energy, but I’ll be honest, it’s different. One of the exciting things about coming over here is what the crowd brings. They have a chant for every hitter and it’s really exciting baseball. But it is awesome to have another team in the other dugout. That part is baseball as usual.”
There’s no baseball at all in the states, usual or otherwise, and the NC Dinos aren’t slowing down in their attempts to feed their new fan base. A new video released Sunday night features one mascot trying to find North Carolina on a map before the other tells him — wait for it — it’s in his heart.
“We are NC,” Wright says in the video he recorded, and at this point, it’s true either way.
This story was originally published May 11, 2020 at 1:03 PM.
