Park Gets in Touch With Inner Ace

As Chan Ho Park enhances his status among the game’s elite pitchers and helps sustain an injury-riddled rotation through the final weeks of a pennant race (his final weeks as a Dodger, perhaps?), it is easy to forget that he is still a work in progress--on and off the field.

It is easy to forget that he was 19 when signed by the Dodgers from South Korea, that his professional learning curve has been compounded by the daunting cultural and language adjustments and that he didn’t have either the baseball background or degree of interaction with U.S. players that Hideo Nomo, Kazuhiro Sasaki and Ichiro Suzuki had already experienced as veterans of the Japanese pro leagues coming to the United States.

At 28, Park’s ongoing development as a pitcher can be measured by statistics among baseball’s best and the opinion of interim General Manager Dave Wallace, the former Dodger pitching coach, who says Park “has turned out to be everything everybody thought he would be.” Or as pitching coach Jim Colborn put it: “If you say Randy Johnson is in his own league, Chan Ho is on a par with anybody else.”

As a person, however, Park’s ongoing development is harder to quantify. Not everything comes through in conversations marred by a reporter’s inability to speak Korean and Park’s improving but still incomplete grasp of English.

And there seems to be plenty wanting to come through.

What Park has become as a multitalented pitcher is largely the result of what he has become as a multifaceted person “attuned to many of the things that relate to the patterns of life,” agent Scott Boras said.

A “sensitive and introspective” person who “continues to define his self-image,” said Colborn, a veteran Asian hand who previously served as Seattle’s Pacific Rim scouting director.

The process includes a daily hour of Zen meditation, wide reading in philosophy and religion, occasional meetings with noted sports psychologist Harvey Dorfman (who works with Boras), a diet of foods that carry spiritual as well as nutritional values, and occasional use of massage and acupuncture for the inherent aches and stiffness of his profession.

Brought up as a Buddhist, Park said he isn’t deeply religious. But he said his exposure to the wider range of beliefs in the United States has sparked his interest and that he has come to believe that in pitching and all things “the mental and spiritual” aspect comes first.

For him to be his best, “I have to know myself and understand myself.” He is also gaining a handle through his reading and other explorations.

“If I am comfortable with myself, I can avoid the stress and pressure I felt when I first came to this country,” he said. “If I am comfortable with myself, I should be comfortable with everything. And if I have an understanding of God, no matter what the religion is, I feel like I should almost feel like God and be capable of doing anything.”

Divine influence? Perhaps.

Closer to earth, Colborn cited his many Asian scouting trips and said he simply believes doors have opened to Park that a Korean youngster often finds shut.

“Whereas our culture tends to encourage kids to expand and be all they can be, the Korean culture tends to restrict expression and growth,” he said. “Young athletes in Korea are often berated and beat down by very tough coaches. It was as if Chan Ho had to come to the U.S. to find the opportunity and responsibility for developing his own self image, and he has the interest and initiative to do it.”

As a pitcher, of course, Park can only be responsible for himself. He can’t always control wins and losses.

After going 18-10 last year with a career-high 226 innings and career-best 3.27 earned-run average, his current record of 11-8 doesn’t tell the whole story.

He has held opposing hitters to a .200 batting average, second in the National League to Johnson’s .195. He is sixth in the league with a 2.98 ERA, third in innings pitched and fourth in strikeouts.

Of his 26 starts (he makes his 27th today against the New York Mets), 22, including 15 in a row at one point, have qualified as a quality start--at least six innings with a yield of three runs or fewer. However, he emerged from 12 of those starts with an 0-5 record because the Dodgers scored only 16 runs when he was on the mound, and his eight shutout innings against the Montreal Expos on Tuesday night evaporated when Jeff Shaw gave up four runs in the ninth, the third time that the bullpen had lost a Park lead in the late innings.

Said Montreal Manager Jeff Torborg, who caught no-hitters by Sandy Koufax and Nolan Ryan: “Chan Ho is the whole package. We were talking in the dugout about how much leg drive he gets, like Ryan and [Tom] Seaver.”

In the course of his development, the Dodgers have encouraged Park to use his fastball more, maximize his pitch counts by trusting his stuff and competing with the hitter rather than aiming for perfection.

In a meeting earlier this season with Manager Jim Tracy, catcher Chad Kreuter and Colborn, they “challenged him to face up to adversity and get the extra out” when a Dodger error or mistake put him in a situation where it was required, Tracy said.

“He wasn’t very adept at that and there was no sense pretending we didn’t see it,” Tracy added. “Now he’s very adept at it. He’s stepped up in a lot of ways. He understands what’s expected of him and what will continue to be expected because he has that type of ability.”

Park has been the constant amid the loss of Kevin Brown, Darren Dreifort, Andy Ashby and Luke Prokopec. He insists that he is only trying to stay focused and consistent, that to consciously think about picking up the slack would be to add unneeded pressure. Kreuter has been his partner, his regular catcher and mentor of the last two years, and--given the pitching injuries and need for at least one dominant starter--it would be ridiculous to interrupt their rhythm at this point to get Paul Lo Duca’s livelier bat behind the plate. Lo Duca may start today, but it will be at first base.

“It would be no problem pitching to another catcher, but I feel comfortable with Chad there and we communicate so well,” Park said. “He’s the first catcher who has spent time with me away from the ballpark. We often have lunch or dinner together when we’re on the road, and Chad has even taken an interest in the Korean culture and language.”

Boras represents Park and Kreuter. The latter is signed for 2002, but Boras may have to demand a trade to whatever club Park signs with, if he leaves as a free agent at the end of the season. Industry officials believe Park, who is getting $9.9 million this year, may seek as much as $20 million a year in a multiyear deal. It is difficult to believe the Dodgers, given the physical concerns with Brown, Ashby and Dreifort, would let Park leave, but then he might not want to stay if he felt the Dodgers weren’t capable of winning.

Of course, he has a built-in support system with Kreuter and the organization that gave him his start, and he might have difficulty finding a larger Korean community. In addition, the expectations inherent in a possibly record pitching contract could be much larger with a new team.

“I don’t want to even think about it,” Park said. “If I continue to pitch good, good things will happen. I like it here, but who knows?”

Who knows where Park’s inner search will take him--beyond the bank?