Park Might Not Win This One

Who will make the headlines in South Korea’s sports pages today?

Over the last couple of years, it was no contest after Chan Ho Park pitched.

But Se Ri Pak, the 20-year-old Korean golfer, was the equal of the Dodger pitcher in a recent poll to determine the most admired athlete in their native land.

Park beat the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night, but Pak is the co-leader with a 65 after the first round of the LPGA Giant Eagle Classic at Howland, Ohio.

Pak has already won two major championships on the LPGA Tour and is second on the money list. The Korean media contingents following the two athletes are now about equal in size.

Park and Pak have never met, even though they are from the same town, Kong Ju City. They even spelled their name the same until Pak’s was misspelled on a passport and has remained that way.

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When Jaime Jarrin, the Dodger Spanish-language broadcaster who will be inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame on Sunday, began broadcasting, he would sit in a studio and listen to Vin Scully’s broadcast from the stadium while re-creating it in Spanish.

“I was flabbergasted that he could that,” Scully said.

Scully remembers when Jarrin and his broadcast partner, Rene Cardenas, and their equipment were routinely placed in a spot down the baseline, far from the prime spots behind home plate afforded their English-language counterparts.

“They were almost an afterthought,” Scully said. “Now people finally realize how valuable they are. I am absolutely thrilled and delighted for Jaime. I have great respect for him as a friend and a broadcaster.”

While Scully is thrilled for Jarrin and honored to have received the same honor himself in 1982, he tries to put it into perspective.

“I’ve never really felt like I was in the Hall of Fame,” he said. “There’s only one Hall of Fame and that’s for the guys who play. Those are the guys who go in. I just feel like I went into a side room.

“But I know Jaime will enjoy it because it is still truly a humbling experience.”

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How much movement has there been in this wild season of wheeling and dealing by the Dodgers?

Consider that 46 players have worn a Dodger uniform this year, three short of the L.A. record set in 1995 and eight short of the franchise mark, established in 1944 when the Brooklyn Dodgers were trying to maintain a roster in the middle of World War II.

And it’s only July, with the trading deadline still six days away.

TONIGHT

DODGERS’ DARREN DREIFORT (6-8, 3.51) vs. DIAMONDBACKS’ OMAR DAAL (3-5, 3.17 ERA)

Dodger Stadium, 7 p.m.

TV--Fox Sports West 2. Radio--AM 1150, KWKW (1330).

* Update--Dreifort would be thrilled if he could duplicate his last outing. Against the Cincinnati Reds earlier this week, he combined with reliever Jeff Shaw on a one-hitter, Dreifort going the first eight innings for his best start yet. Dreifort hasn’t given up an earned run against Arizona in 10 2/3 innings.