If you plan to attend a spring training game and yell loudly enough to be picked up by stadium microphones, it is probably a good idea to know who you’re yelling at. Unfortunately, one Los Angeles Dodgers fan did not quite get it right during Sunday’s spring training game.
During the 8th inning of Sunday’s game, television microphones picked up a fan yelling at Dodgers outfielder Hyeseong Kim while Kim was up to bat. The fan seemingly confused Kim with former San Diego Padres infielder Ha-Seong Kim, as she gloated about him being “on a better team now.”
“Come on, Kim, you’re on a better team now! Let’s go!” the fan yelled. “You’re going to actually get a ring!”
The player suiting up for the Dodgers on Sunday joined the team this offseason after a successful stint in Korea’s KBO. The Dodgers are probably better than the Kiwoom Heroes, but we’re assuming that is not the comparison this fan was trying to make.
Ha-Seong Kim spent the last four seasons with the Padres as the team developed a pretty intense rivalry with the Dodgers. He wound up signing with the Tampa Bay Rays, however, and was very much not in the ballpark for Sunday’s Dodgers-Padres game.
Nobody’s perfect, and the names are extremely similar, but this fan probably should have known that the player the Dodgers signed is very much not the same one that played a key role for the Padres for the last few years. Hyeseong Kim will hope to make enough of an impression that nobody will be confusing him with his Korean compatriot by the end of the year.
