In the turning-point scene of "The Sandlot," holographic-dream-vision Babe Ruth tells Benny Rodriguez, "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die." And that’s true, of course, but the Babe left out an even higher idol: gods. Because, as we’ve now learned, thanks to Brewers superhuman slugger Eric Thames – who was nicknamed "God" during his prodigiously productive three years of playing baseball in South Korea – while heroes get remembered, and legends never die, gods get their own home run songs.
Thames’ Korean home run song is nothing new; it was gloriously discovered online about a month ago, and has since made its rounds. But on Tuesday, in the Brewers’ 11-7 win over Boston, Thames hit his 13th home run of the season – tied for the league lead – and his delightful, middle-school-marching-band-esque cheer song played for the first time at Miller Park.
Cheer songs are pretty popular in the Korean Baseball Organization, and Thames’ NC Dinos – or, more likely, the team’s fans – certainly gave him a good one. The 2015 KBO MVP’s song goes a little something like this (translation courtesy of Brewers.com):
Eric Thames. Crush that ball!
Eric Thames. Crush that ball!
Eric Thames. Home run!
Oh oh oh oh-ho oh oh-oh oh ohhhhhh
Yep. They pretty much nailed it.
A few weeks ago, we wrote that it was time to start speaking about Eric Thames – then leading the majors in basically everything and destroying not just baseballs, but reasonable people’s credulity that he was, in fact, a real human being with actual natural abilities – in fabled terms. We came up with some decent ones, and many people have since submitted their own excellent #ThamesTallTales, but hearing this magnificent tune every time "Eric!" socks a dinger is the highest honor for him and truly the best pleasure for Milwaukee fans – assuming they don’t have anything else they need to remember or concentrate on in their brains.
Thames, who has cooled off (become marginally more mortal) a bit over the last couple of weeks, still boasts an awesome slash line of .327/.437/.743, good for a 1.180 OPS, with 13 homers, 24 RBI and a team-high 1.8 WAR. He and the surprisingly frisky, 17-16 Brewers have two more games against the Red Sox, before a three-game weekend series at home against the pitch-poor New York Mets. Should be plenty of opportunities to play the super-awesome-fun Eric Thames Korean crushed-ball big home run cheer song coming up at Miller Park.
Just for more smiles, here's a video of the Brewers watching and reacting to the song (Keon Broxton lolz):
Born in Milwaukee but a product of Shorewood High School (go ‘Hounds!) and Northwestern University (go ‘Cats!), Jimmy never knew the schoolboy bliss of cheering for a winning football, basketball or baseball team. So he ditched being a fan in order to cover sports professionally - occasionally objectively, always passionately. He's lived in Chicago, New York and Dallas, but now resides again in his beloved Brew City and is an ardent attacker of the notorious Milwaukee Inferiority Complex.
After interning at print publications like Birds and Blooms (official motto: "America's #1 backyard birding and gardening magazine!"), Sports Illustrated (unofficial motto: "Subscribe and save up to 90% off the cover price!") and The Dallas Morning News (a newspaper!), Jimmy worked for web outlets like CBSSports.com, where he was a Packers beat reporter, and FOX Sports Wisconsin, where he managed digital content. He's a proponent and frequent user of em dashes, parenthetical asides, descriptive appositives and, really, anything that makes his sentences longer and more needlessly complex.
Jimmy appreciates references to late '90s Brewers and Bucks players and is the curator of the unofficial John Jaha Hall of Fame. He also enjoys running, biking and soccer, but isn't too annoying about them. He writes about sports - both mainstream and unconventional - and non-sports, including history, music, food, art and even golf (just kidding!), and welcomes reader suggestions for off-the-beaten-path story ideas.
