Chiba Lotte Marines won the Japan Series - the World Series of Japanese baseball.

Why do I care? Because Lee Seung-Yeop, the South Korean slugger, plays for the Marines. In the series, his record was: .545 hitting average, 3 homeruns, 4 runs, and 6 RBIs. In the 4th and final game (it was a 4-0 sweep), he drove in all 3 runs for his team with a 2-run homerun and a RBI double. The score was 3-2. That's pretty dang good.

Lee Seung-Yeop was formerly a Samsung Lion. After dominating the Korean baseball league for years, he wanted to come to the US and play in the Major League. However, no one paid much attention to him here. Feelings hurt, he decided to go to Japan instead of coming to the Major League where he'd play in a crappy team for a near-minimum salary. After all, he is the "Asian Homerun King", after hitting 56 homeruns in his last season with the Samsung Lions (55 was the previous Asian record for most homeruns in a single season held by some Japanese dude - no one outside of Korea really cared about this stat however).

His first season with the Marines was just hellish. He sucked it up. After all, it was his first season in a better, harder league in a foreign land. But the second season comes, and he is back at the top.

While this is just another one of my 'I'm proud of my fellow Korean' moments, it also means something potentially even greater. The Marines' manager is Bobby Valentine - former manager of the NY Mets who took them to the World Series in 2000. What does this mean? Some teams from the Major League are interested in bringing him back to the US. If and when he does, there's a chance that he might bring Lee with him. Especially after such an emphatic season, he might do just that. Wouldn't that be exciting? No? Haha I am.

Hooray for Korean athletes.