{"id":73819,"date":"2025-06-30T15:59:43","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T22:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=73819"},"modified":"2025-06-30T15:59:43","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T22:59:43","slug":"in-the-deep-south-baseball-is-as-american-as-kimchi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=73819","title":{"rendered":"In the Deep South Baseball Is as American as\u2026 Kimchi"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Jongwon Lee<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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With a growing population and rising investment from South Korea, Korean culture is permeating the Deep South.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Players in green jerseys took the field June 27 at Montgomery Riverwalk Stadium in Montgomery, Alabama for a minor league Double-A game between the Montgomery Biscuits and the Rocket City Trash Pandas.<\/p>\n

The otherwise typical summer scene was unusual in one respect: the Biscuits\u2019 jerseys were emblazoned with the word \u201ckimchi\u201d in bright-orange Korean lettering.<\/p>\n

\u201cBiscuits are the soul food of the Southerner,\u201d says Keith Kim of the nonprofit Alabama International Education and Economic Partnership (ALIEEP), which promotes greater cultural awareness across Alabama communities. \u201cTo celebrate Alabama\u2019s connection to Korea, the idea was to \u2018roll over\u2019 to Korean food once a year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since 2021, the Montgomery Biscuits have hosted an annual \u201cKorean Heritage Night,\u201d where the team changes its name to \u201cKimchi\u201d and plays in \u201cKimchi\u201d jerseys for a day. The June 27 game featured a kimchi bag giveaway. A second Kimchi Night is scheduled for August 2 and will feature Korean traditional music and taekwondo performances.<\/p>\n

Kimchi is a traditional Korean staple most often made by fermenting napa cabbage in a variety of chilies, garlic, and other spices and is famed for its health-promoting properties.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen people think of Montgomery, Alabama, they think of Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement, but we wanted to show that Montgomery has a more diverse population, including Koreans,\u201d Kim notes.<\/p>\n

The Montgomery Kimchi began as a collaborative effort between ALIEEP, the baseball team, and the local community. The team\u2019s Korean Heritage Nights are sponsored by Korean food maker Pulmuwon, which has hosted food tastings at each game over the past three years.<\/p>\n

According to Kim, when Major League Baseball was shut down in 2020 due to COVID-19, ESPN began broadcasting South Korea\u2019s KBO games under quarantine. \u201cThat\u2019s when I realized that both Korea and the U.S. love baseball, and that\u2019s when the idea for Montgomery Kimchi came about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Biscuits are a Double-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays and play in the Southern League.<\/p>\n

Montgomery, the capital of Alabama, is the heart of the South and a symbol of Korean investment. This year marks the 25th anniversary of South Korea\u2019s Hyundai Motor Group opening its first U.S. automobile production plant in 2005. Over 20 years, Hyundai has produced 6.27 million vehicles, employing more than 40,000 people directly and indirectly in Montgomery, Alabama.<\/p>\n

Korean investment in Alabama is also diversifying Montgomery\u2019s population. In 2000, Alabama\u2019s population was 71 percent white, 26 percent Black, and only 0.6 percent Asian, according to the census. By 2020, the Asian population had nearly quintupled to 2.9 percent. According to Business Insider, Korean is the third most frequently spoken language in Alabama, after English and Spanish.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Hyundai plant has increased interest in Korea and the Korean language within local communities,\u201d says Kim. \u201cAfter four years of organizing\u2026 I still get excited when students and teachers from Korea and Alabama come out to see a kimchi baseball game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Montgomery went on to beat the Trash Pandas 5-4.<\/p>\n

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Pastor James Song of the nonprofit Mission Agape throws out the first pitch during a May 30 game in Lawrenceville, Georgia between the Gwinnett Strippers and the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Just to the east, in Lawrenceville, Georgia, Korean American Pastor James Song throws out the first pitch in a minor league Triple-A game between the Gwinnett Strippers and the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp. The May 30 game was part of the Gwinnett Stripers\u2019 AAPI Heritage Night, in recognition of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always loved baseball, but this is the first time I\u2019ve ever played the game,\u201d said Pastor Song of the nonprofit Mission Agape, which for more than 15 years has provided meals and other necessities to Atlanta\u2019s low-income residents, while hosting free English and math tutoring throughout Metro Atlanta. \u201cPlaying against real league players on a real baseball field makes me realize that we Koreans are now a part of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gwinnett County District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson, Georgia State Representative Matt Reeves, and former DeKalb County Commissioner Larry Johnson were among elected officials on hand for the game, a sign of the Korean community\u2019s rising presence in the region.<\/p>\n

Atlanta, Georgia, has also seen recent investment from Korean companies. Hyundai Motor Group opened a Kia Motors Georgia plant in 2010 and a Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America opened in 2025. South Korea\u2019s SK and Hanwha opened a battery plant and a solar panel factory in 2023, respectively.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith South Korea\u2019s investment and population growth, Georgia and South Korea want to better understand each other\u2019s cultures,\u201d Song said, adding, \u201cBoth Koreans and Southerners love baseball, which is a great common value to start the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feature image via\u00a0X<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ByJongwon Lee Jun 30, 2025 With...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73820,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73819\/revisions\/73820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}