But is the 12-year-old worried? Does he feel the same pressure on him as Barry Bonds or Sammy Sosa?
By Dylan Butler
With four games left, Sun Ho Kim is one long ball away from breaking the Bayside Little League record for home runs in a season.
But is the 12-year-old worried? Does he feel the same pressure on him as Barry Bonds or Sammy Sosa?
“I’m not nervous at all,” Kim said coolly. “I’m not playing in the Major Leagues. It’s no big deal.”
Kim has hit 13 home runs, the same amount knocked out by Nick Theoharis in 1995. Since breaking the previous record of 10 home runs, Theoharis went on to have a successful four-year career at St. Francis Prep and will attend Stony Brook University in the fall.
“It was fun while it lasted,” Theoharis said. “If he breaks it, he breaks it. I had my time with the record.”
Kim said he developed his home run swing when he was 8. He picked it up from Hector Roca, who is a minor league coach in the Toronto Blue Jays organization.
“He told me I should swing down,” Kim said. “I didn’t think I could hit home runs that way but I just listened to him and I started hitting home runs.”
His opponents are amazed at how effortlessly Kim, who said his favorite Major League players are Bonds and Derek Jeter, can knock the ball out of the park.
“He makes it look so easy,” said Anthony Ippolito, 11. “He just hits it and it goes out.”
After a ferocious start to the season, Kim has cooled off of late. He’s not in a slump though, but opposing pitchers have given Kim very little to hit, opting to walk the power hitter rather than give up a home run.
“I get some pitchers who throw me a floater,” he said. “It gets frustrating.”
One pitcher who hasn’t given up a Kim home run is Sal Rongo, who throws for Bayside Plumbing.
“If I pitched it down the middle, I think it would go back there,” said Rongo, 12, as he pointed towards the left field fence. “I didn’t want to give him anything good to hit.”
Kim thought he had broken the record twice in a game Monday, but both of his hits went off the top of the right field fence and stayed in the ballpark.
“It’s really exciting because the Bayside Little League has the Major League version of Mark McGuire chasing [Roger Maris’] home run record,” said Bayside Little League president Bob Reid.
Despite being on the verge of breaking a record, baseball isn’t even Kim’s top sport. He is also an accomplished golfer.
“I think it’s a good game,” Kim said of golf. “It’s a lot of pressure, but I like the pressure. I have a natural swing because of baseball.”
But in the beginning, Kim would get his upward golf swing mixed up with his downward baseball swing.
“Because of baseball, I can hit the ball far in golf,” said Kim, whose drive average 275 yards and has a handicap.
Kim, who is taught by Anthony Colonna, Jay Na and Dale Spina at the Alley Pond Golf Center, has also found great success on the links, winning five Metropolitan PGA junior tournaments and has a seven handicap.
“I don’t know of any athlete as good at both baseball and golf as Sun Ho,” said Colonna, the director of junior programs teaching pro at Alley Pond Golf Center, who is in the top-20 of touring pros on the PGA assistance tour in the Metropolitan section and who was beaten by Kim twice. “I’ve taught 10,000 juniors in four years on a public course and occasionally you run into a phenom.”
Reach Associate Sports Editor Dylan Butler by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 143.
