The Old English ‘D’ travels well, as Jeff Seidel learned in South Korea covering the 2018 Winter Olympics.
GANGNEUNG, South Korea — I looked up. What the heck? There it was. The Old English D in Korea at the Winter Olympics.
Unbelievable.
A man was wearing a Detroit Tigers cap in a store near the media village.
“Michigan,” I said.
He looked at me blankly.
I pointed at his familiar blue cap.
“I’m from Detroit,” I said.
He smiled and cocked his head.
He didn’t speak English. I don’t speak Korean. I have a hard enough time saying thank you around here: gamsahamnida.
Which is pronounced: “Gum-sha-hum-ne-dah.”
Or something like that. I’m better at it after a glass of wine.
I asked a clerk to translate but it did not go smoothly. I wanted to ask him a million questions: How did he become a Tigers fan? What does he think of the rebuild? What does he think of the new roster? Or the new coaching staff? Does he know of any other Tigers fans? Do they get together?
Then again, I was skeptical.
Maybe, he just found the cap at a yard sale or bought it because he liked the colors.
“Are you a Tigers fan?” I ask.
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A clerk, who spoke some English, translated the question for me.
The man nodded his head and smiled.
“Verlander,” he said.
Yes, Verlander, that would be a great place to start.
I’m sensing a cool story here.
But I had a hard enough time getting his name.
As best as I can tell, it is Kim Sang Cheol and he lives in Seoul. My deepest apologies, Mr. Tigers Cap Man, if I got that wrong. It took a while to get that much.
“How long have you had the cap?” I asked.
“Four years,” he replied through the translator.
“I write about them,” I said.
The translator looked at me.
“Verlander move the team?” the translator said.
Whoa.
A random clerk, in South Korea, knows about Verlander.
Cue the amazing, small-world alert.
“Not the team,” I said. “He went to Houston.”
Something was getting lost in translation.
The man smiled. He looked like he was in a rush and we said goodbye.
I was left with so many more questions: How did he start following the team? How does he watch the games? Are there are a lot of Tigers fans here? And where did he even buy that cap?
But they will go unanswered, for now, I guess.
I’ll just chalk it up to a small, cool experience.
Bumping into a Tigers fan in South Korea.
Free Press columnist Jeff Seidel is covering the 2018 Winter Olympics as part of the USA Today Network. Contact him at jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff. To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel/.
