South Korean video game mogul Min Hur pitches at age 50

Min Hur, a South Korean businessman who made his fortune in video games, is still pursuing a professional baseball career at age 50. The former Rockland Boulders pitcher recently flew from Australia to meet with knuckleball coach Joe Gannon at a batting cage in Lower Manhattan, continuing his attempts to master the pitch that he believes remains his only viable path to the major leagues.

Hur’s quest began in 2013 when he hired an agent to secure tryouts with major league organizations. The Texas Rangers, Seattle Mariners, and Arizona Diamondbacks all declined to sign him. The independent minor league Rockland Boulders, based in upstate New York, eventually agreed to evaluate his skills. Hur commuted from Manhattan daily with a chauffeur and translator during the tryout period. He made the roster and left his business interests to focus on baseball, though his professional debut with the Boulders resulted in three innings of work where he surrendered five runs on five hits and four walks while also hitting three batters.

The team promoted Hur’s debut under the name "Min-Sanity," a reference to the "Lin-Sanity" phenomenon surrounding New York Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin. Hur bussed spectators from Korean neighborhoods in New York and flew his family in from Seoul to watch him pitch. His story crossed paths with Howard Rich, a Brooklyn real estate investor and founder of Americans for Limited Government, who had watched R. A. Dickey win the Cy Young Award in 2012 while sitting in the Mets’ home plate section.

Rich viewed the scarcity of knuckleballers in the major leagues as a market failure. He established the International Knuckleball Academy (IKA) and hired minor league knucklers Chris Nowlin and Zach Staniewicz to lead instruction. After reading about Hur’s Boulders stint, Rich arranged a meeting with Hur, Nowlin, and Staniewicz in Koreatown. Despite the gathering, much was lost in translation, and Hur recalled discussing only the pitch itself rather than any educational venture.

Rich proceeded with the IKA by renting Dodgertown, the former Los Angeles Dodgers spring training complex. Staniewicz expressed concern about the business model, noting that finding individuals willing to pay thousands of dollars per week to learn the knuckleball was difficult enough without financial barriers. "That cut the pool of possible clients from, like, ten to two," Staniewicz said. Rich implemented a financing plan drafted by an attorney that allowed players to attend for free but required them to pay a small percentage of their salary if they threw ten or more pitches in the major leagues.

The International Knuckleball Academy closed before a single student enrolled. Hur, however, has not stopped. After a stint with the Melbourne Aces in Australia, he returned to New York to continue training with Gannon. He maintains that his age is not a barrier for a knuckleballer and asserts that he is performing better than ever.