American baseball player Eric Thames speaks at the launch ceremony for MLB Breakfast Club in Seoul, Monday. (Yonhap) You can take Eric Thames out of South Korea, but you cannot take South Korea out of the former slugger.Thames, the 2015 MVP for the NC Dinos in the Korea Baseball Organization, is back in a country he calls "my second home" this week. On Monday, he helped launch MLB Breakfast Club, a new big league initiative targeting MLB fans in South Korea watching big league action in the morning, thanks to the time difference.Thames was one of three former players with dual MLB and KBO ties, joined by South Korean Kim Byung-hyun and American Dustin Nippert, both former pitchers.On Tuesday, Thames plans to attend a KBO game between the Hanwha Eagles and Doosan Bears at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul."I'm happy to be back in Korea. I try to make a trip once or twice a year. This is like my second home," said Thames, who played for the Dinos from 2014 to 2016 after appearing in 267 games in MLB. "It means a lot. I can't express that enough about how you guys welcome me back here. It means a lot to me from the bottom of my heart."Asked what keeps him coming back to South Korea a decade after he last played here, Thames broke into a grin: "Food." In particular, he said he loves "gogi," or meat."I just love it. The weather. I love going to Busan, love going to the beach," he said. "My friends and I always pop over for four or five days and get some food and then go walk around. I've seen concerts and festivals here. I want to try to come to a concert."After three dominant years for the Dinos, with 124 home runs and a .349/.451/.721 line in 390 games, Thames made it back to the major leagues stateside. He launched his MLB career-high 31 home runs with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2017 and played three more seasons in the US, before playing in Japan in 2021 and returning to the minor leagues in the US in 2022.Thames was among the first players to carve out a successful career back in MLB after a stint in the KBO. In earlier years, ex-MLB players came to South Korea toward the end of their career. Foreign-born players crossing the Pacific have been getting younger lately, and more players have been able to land big league jobs after reinventing themselves here."Like 15, 20 years ago, playing in the KBO after MLB was seen as like your career was over," he said. "But nowadays, it can jump-start your career. So I've talked on the phone with many players. I've met up with them to talk about my experience here because they're excited to come. Everybody wants to come play in the KBO."Along the way, Thames has been keeping tabs on the KBO by watching highlights on social media. He said he even got up at 4 a.m. to watch and root for South Korea at the World Baseball Classic in March."Actually, fans send me a lot of videos from KBO games," Thames said with a smile. "It's nice being in the hotel here. I'm watching a lot of baseball. I miss it."Since he is on a short trip, Thames won't have time to travel out of Seoul to watch his former team, the Dinos, play. The Dinos will play three games in Daegu to begin this week and then play three more games at their home in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, both cities long train rides from Seoul."Maybe if they make the playoffs, I'll come back," said Thames, who last attended a Dinos game in August 2025.(This article was produced with the assistance of AI. — Ed.)