Xavier Scruggs, former Korea Baseball Organization player now working as an analyst for MLB Network, poses for a photo after an interview with Yonhap News Agency at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on March 18, 2024. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Mar. 20 (Korea Bizwire) — To Xavier Scruggs, former baseball player turned analyst, South Korea means more than just a stop during his 12-year playing career.
South Korea is where his first child was born in 2018, while he was playing for the NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO). This country is also where Scruggs, 36, learned to be open-minded to different perspectives, a lesson that has helped him in his new career.
Nearly six years after playing his last KBO game, Scruggs is back in South Korea to cover Major League Baseball’s historic Seoul Series for MLB Network. The two games between the Los Angeles Dodgers against the San Diego Padres at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Wednesday and Thursday will open the 2024 MLB regular season. They will be the first MLB games played in South Korea.
“It’s an amazing homecoming,” Scruggs told Yonhap News Agency at Gocheok on Monday. “It’s been weird. It’s almost like I never left because of just feeling the atmosphere and the passion of the fans and seeing the stadium, seeing a lot of familiar faces. It’s been almost surreal.”
Scruggs was a 19th-round draft pick by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2008 and made his MLB debut with them in 2014.
After logging 50 games with them over three years, Scruggs moved to South Korea. He smacked 61 home runs, and had 208 RBIs for the Dinos in 2017 and 2018. His impact in those two seasons was such that the Dinos have invited Scruggs to throw out the ceremonial first pitch in their season opener Saturday.
Following his KBO stint, Scruggs played in Mexico and then called it a career in January 2021. He jumped right into broadcasting, joining ESPN’s MLB coverage in 2021 and then MLB Network in 2022.
“I’m loving it. I think I didn’t realize I would love it this much, but I think what I like is just finding the little details of certain players or certain things going on on the field, maybe off the field as well that I can highlight,” Scruggs said. “I really love looking at the little nuances of the game and giving people a certain perspective on that, too. So I’m really enjoying it and just trying to take it as far as it will go.”
This is where lessons he’d learned in South Korea can come into play.
“I think what I learned about myself (while in South Korea) is that you have to be open to different perspectives,” he said. “You have to be open to different experiences, and those things will help you breed success. I think that’s what I was excited about, but I didn’t know that I was going to experience that to its totality.
“When I first came to Korea, I wasn’t sure that I should be going to Korea like I wanted to play in the major leagues,” he continued. “But after having fun and playing well, that told me that, hey, no matter the situation, things will work out.”
Scruggs said he was happy for the Dodgers and the Padres as they will have a chance to play in front of enthusiastic Korean fans, and for the fans here to watch MLB games in person.
“I’ll never forget the Korean fan base, the excitement that they had. I can’t wait for those guys to experience it,” Scruggs said. “I’m really happy that a lot of the Korean fans get to experience Major League Baseball here because it’s two games that are going to count and no better way to start the season.”
(Yonhap)
