Edman family feels Korean pride swelling with each swing for Dodgers

Just about the entirety of Maureen Kwak’s family on her father’s side lives in the Los Angeles area, and she has several first cousins with whom she remains as close as siblings -- and boy, were they thrilled when Maureen’s son, Tommy Edman, swapped his Cardinal red for Dodger blue at the Trade Deadline.

“They claim that they manifested it, because they've been praying for it since the minute he got drafted,” Kwak said. “So my cousins claim that they made this happen.”

That Korean-American extended family had already been rabid Dodgers fans anyway, as Maureen, her family, and her dad’s three brothers and their families had long since set down roots in the area as part of the family’s immigration to the U.S. -- which, for Maureen, happened when she was five years old.

With that in mind, the half-Korean Edman -- who was born to Kwak in the U.S., grew up in the U.S. and only first visited South Korea after he opted to represent his mother’s home country in the 2023 World Baseball Classic -- certainly grew up more immersed in the American half of his Korean-American heritage.

But then, there’s this: On Friday, Edman will become only the fourth player to appear on both the South Korean national team in international competition and in a World Series, joining a trio of the nation’s titans of the sport: Chan Ho Park, Byung-Hyun Kim and Hyun Jin Ryu.

And there’s this, too: Edman will do so in the uniform of the Los Angeles Dodgers, which have always represented the center of the Korean MLB universe, from the massive Korean diaspora in the Los Angeles area (roughly 300,000 strong) to the nation across the Pacific that has followed closely since Park became the first player to fly their country’s flag in the big leagues -- in Dodger blue.

“My mother says that her relatives have been contacting her a lot,” Kwak said. “Not just her relatives, but people she went to college with, people she went to grad school with. They're all contacting her and they're losing their minds.”

So in what should already be the most global World Series to date considering, well, the Ohtani of it all, Thomas Hyunsu Edman -- the reigning National League Chamionship Series MVP -- is also slated to play a role in the continued growth of worldwide representation in the sport, distant as his Korean roots may feel.

“Obviously, looking at it from the outside, you've got several Korean players who have come through here, especially lately,” Edman said. “Ryu was here for a while and had a ton of success. I think knowing that the Dodgers have such a big Korean fan base and then for me to get to experience that has been pretty special.”

Edman was the first half-Korean player to represent the nation in international competition as part of that 2023 WBC, and he most visibly wears that background through his middle name, which was given to him by his maternal grandmother, according to a traditional Korean familial naming custom.

“There's a bunch of cousins [for whom] their first character is Hyun,” Kwak said. “And I believe Hyun means wisdom, and Su means brilliant, like a jewel. My mother picked it.”

Kwak’s dad’s side of the family would get together for holidays to have big feasts of Korean food, play Korean New Year’s games and participate in the sebae, a holiday tradition of a bow of respect to one’s elders. But that was about the extent of it as Edman grew up in San Diego.

“Now, to get to experience that a little bit more, come across more Korean fans here in Los Angeles, it's been a lot of fun,” Edman said. “I can really get a good sense of how much the Koreans here love the Dodgers.”

Edman is part of that now, in a big way, bursting onto the national spotlight with 11 RBIs in the NLCS to tie the club record in any postseason round since the stat became official in 1920, winning MVP honors from the cleanup spot of a lineup highlighted by the likes of Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman.

And Edman did so after having joined the club in a midseason trade, one in which the Dodgers -- who long sought Edman -- jumped into what became a three-team deal with the White Sox and Cardinals to bring him home to Southern California.

And now, the world will continue to watch -- from the U.S. to Japan to Korea.