GWANGJU, South Korea — You can see the craggy outline of Mount Mudeung from the home dugout of the Kia Tigers, the professional baseball team in this sleepy city near the tip of the Korean Peninsula. The summit is visible, too, out on the artificial-turf field at Gwangju Jeil High School, just a short drive from the Tigers’ stadium.

When Seo Jae-weong, a Tigers pitcher and a graduate of the high school, was growing up in Gwangju, he always heard about Mudeung and its gi — the Korean word for a metaphysical energy force in East Asian culture. The mountain, on the eastern outskirts of the city, supposedly passed the energy on to people in its vicinity.

“Back then, I didn’t believe it,” said Seo, 38, who played in Major League Baseball from 2002 to 2007 and had an 8-2 record for the Mets in 2005. “Yet as I’ve gotten older, I can’t help but feel there might be something to it.”