South Korean businessman millionaire Min Hur, 37, got to live his dream this weekend in America. A baseball fanatic (he owns Korea’s one and only independent professional team, the Goyang Wonders), Min was signed by the New York minor league baseball team the Rockland Boulders –for one game. Min, who made his $900M in assets mostly from the online game Dungeon & Fighter, has been studying the art of throwing the knuckleball under Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro and attended rookie tryout camps with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Texas Rangers, Seattle Mariners, and (this summer) the Rockland Boulders. On Sunday, Min pitched three innings at the Boulders’ stadium against the Newark Bears. He gave up three runs in the first, and two in the second. The Boulders lost 6-2.
But most of the audience didn’t seem to mind the loss. It was the penultimate game of the season, and Min purchased and gave away 2,000 free tickets to Boulders fans (the stadium holds 4,500) and several South Korean communities in the tri-state area. (Baseball has become the most popular sport in Korea. Min’s game was broadcast to more than 50 million viewers in South Korea via television, the Internet and mobile devices on the Seoul Broadcasting System, an ESPN affiliate.) A smart marketer, Min also charmed the crowd by giving away “Min Mania” and “Minsanity” t-shirts at the game. Will Boulders fans see him in the spring? Maybe… Just last month, Min quit his day job as CEO of the online commerce company Wemakeprice Inc.
