It has been a whirlwind of a week for St. Louis Cardinals infielder Tommy Edman. After starting the week in Florida for spring training with his major league club, the half-Korean star found himself in Seoul on Thursday, practicing with the rest of the South Korean national team for the first time in preparation for the World Baseball Classic (WBC).

"It was fun. It was a little crazy, kind of trying to learn all the plays, and just meeting everybody for the first time," Edman said after South Korea's workout at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Thursday. "It seems like we have a lot of very good players on the team. I am excited to start playing with the team."

Edman, born in Michigan to a Korean mother and an American father, is the first half-Korean player to represent South Korea at an international baseball tournament. Under the tournament's loose eligibility rules, players are able to compete for countries of one of their parents' birth, even if they themselves aren't from there. Edman is far from alone in that category at this year's WBC.

As one of only two Major League Baseball (MLB) players for South Korea, along with San Diego Padres infielder Kim Ha-seong, Edman understands the type of pressure and expectations that accompany his status.

"I hope that I can play up to the Korean fans' standards and show them what a player from MLB can look like," Edman said. "And I hope that I can impact the game in a variety of ways, both hitting and on the base paths and from a defensive standpoint. I think that's one of the best parts about my game: being versatile and doing a lot of things well."

Edman, the 2021 National League Gold Glove winner at second base, and Kim, the 2022 Gold Glove finalist at shortstop, will make a formidable middle infield. And Edman said it was the team's first baseman, Park Byung-ho, who reached out and offered a helping hand on his first day here.

Park had a cup of coffee with the Minnesota Twins starting in 2016 and has long been known to take new foreign players under his wing in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) thanks to his English skills.

"BH Park helped me out a lot. He speaks pretty good English, and he was guiding me through everything," Edman said. "Having been an experienced player in the KBO, he knows everyone and knows everything. He was very helpful for me today."

Source: Yonhap News Agency