Since I am a baseball fan and a Los Angeles Dodgers fan (cuz I grew up and lived in SoCal for almost 20 years), I just wanted to offer an observation regarding the trades that the Dodgers just made right before the non-waiver trade deadline today. First, I was glad to see that they did make some trades -- for the past few years, the Dodgers have been languishing near the bottom of their division, largely due to making no trades at all or rather lackluster ones. At least they’re showing that they’re actively trying to improve their team this time around.

Second, I noticed that they just traded for Hee Seop Choi, a Korean American first baseman. He’s a good player although he doesn’t have the monster power numbers that elite first basemen have, but he’s a solid addition to the Dodgers. But perhaps just as important, Choi is Korean and the Dodgers have lost much of their Korean fans since Chan Ho Park left a few years ago. I’m just wondering to what extent the Dodgers had his Korean ethnic identity in mind when they traded for him, perhaps as a way to regain their Korean American fans, in the metro area that contains the largest Korean population outside of Korea. Hmmm . . .