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Phillies Notebook: Park on top of the World in his first Series

NO ONE IN the Phillies' champagne-splashed locker room Wednesday night could have been happier to be dripping with bubbly than Chan Ho Park. Only 2 years ago, it appeared his baseball career was nearing its end. That year, he played in only one game with

Chan Ho Park cheers with the fan after Game 5 of the NLCS at Citizens Bank Park. (Yong Kim / Staff Photographer)
Chan Ho Park cheers with the fan after Game 5 of the NLCS at Citizens Bank Park. (Yong Kim / Staff Photographer)Read more

NO ONE IN the Phillies' champagne-splashed locker room Wednesday night could have been happier to be dripping with bubbly than Chan Ho Park. Only 2 years ago, it appeared his baseball career was nearing its end. That year, he played in only one game with the Mets before he was sent down to Triple A New Orleans and later released. Houston then picked him up and assigned him to Triple A Round Rock, where he was an abysmal 2-10 with a 6.21 earned run average. On the wrong side of 30 by that point, he seemed to be just about finished.

But he gave it another shot the following year and some good things began to happen. The Dodgers gave him a seat in their bullpen in 2008 and he pitched well enough to hang on through the season, which culminated in four relief appearance in the playoffs against the Phillies. By the following spring, he had switched caps and signed with the Phillies. He even earned a berth in the starting rotation, only to end up this year as a reliable asset in the bullpen. Now he is heading to a World Series, his first one in a 16-year career that saw him become the first Korean-born player in major league baseball.

"You know the word l-o-v-e? Love?" said Park, standing in an alcove as his teammates popped bottles of champagne. "I feel that for the people back home in Korea, who have always supported me, and for the fans in Philadelphia, who have treated me so well. I am so happy that I did not give up 2 years ago, that now I have a chance to be a champion."

To get to finally play in a World Series is understandably thrilling to Park, who only a few weeks ago was in no shape to even play. In a September relief appearance against the Mets, he heard a "pop" in a hamstring on his final pitch of an inning. Initially, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said that, "He is probably going to be down for a while." As the season drew to a close, his availability for the playoffs seemed even more imperiled when he walked off the mound during a rehab assignment in Florida. Scratched from the roster for the NLDS against Colorado, he began to worry that his chance to pitch in a World Series would pass him by.

"I was arguing with the man upstairs [that would be God, not senior vice president and general manager Ruben Amaro Jr.]: 'Why now, at the end of the season, you know?' '' said Park, who was 2-2 with a 2.57 earned run average since joining the Phillies' bullpen in May. "But I worked hard in Florida to get better and when I came off the mound, it was because I pushed myself too hard to pitch again. I feel fine now."

Park had his ups and downs in his four appearances in the Dodgers' series. He had scoreless/hitless one-inning stints in Games 1 and 4, but absorbed the loss in Game 2 when he surrendered two runs on two hits in one-third of an inning, and gave up one run on two hits in one inning in Game 5. In the losing clubhouse a year ago with the Dodgers, he was especially pleased to beat them this year, if only because the Dodgers were the team he began his pro career with as a frightened 21-year-old in 1994.

"I have been hoping since then to get in a World Series," said Park, who has an energetic fan following in the Philadelphia's Korean community. "I have pitched in the World Baseball Classic for Korea, but the World Series is even more exciting, because it took such a long time to get there. I know that the Korean people have been watching every day."

That includes the members of the Chan Ho Park Fan Club. According to president Kwang W. Park (no relation), Chan Ho stopped by the Korean community at 5th and Olney yesterday and visited with his fans. He signed autographs and posed for pictures. He told them that the Phillies could beat either the Yankees or the Angels and, with a smile, said: "There should be no problem."

"He told us he was worried when he got hurt late in the season," said Kwang Park, who attended the three Dodgers games, but cannot get a World Series ticket. "But he said he is feeling fine now. He looked good."

Club vice president Kenny Kang added: "I think Chan Ho is going to be OK. And we are all excited. I hope they play the Yankees."

Park said it did not matter to him whom the Phillies played in the World Series.

"Whoever it is will be a challenge," he said. "But I am just looking forward to being there." *