Beyond the Bleachers: The Party That is Korean Baseball
I’m on another visit to Seoul, Korea - my home away from home. The other day I went to my first professional baseball game with my niece and her family. And while the game is the same, the fan experience is quite a world apart from Dodger Baseball.
Professional baseball in Korea consists of ten teams: four in the Seoul metro area and six others scattered across the other major cities. I travelled to Suwon, a city about an hour’s drive south of Seoul, to watch the KT Wiz (short for Wizards). KT is the Korean Telecom company. It’s a reminder that every team here is corporate-owned.
Day-tripping -
My niece works for KT, hence the family’s fierce loyalty. As we drove down to the ballgame, her middle-school daughter, Jian, and her cousin, Soyun, filled me in on the ins and outs of Korean-style baseball as she worked on her English. Jian told me about her favorite player, Ahn Hyun-Min.
“Is he your favorite because he’s handsome?” I teased.
“He’s not so handsome,” she replied, “but he’s very powerful. His nickname is Ko-rilla, like Ko for Korea and gorilla. He hits a lot of home runs.”
Ahn, it seems, set a lot of rookie records last year for the Wiz and was named Rookie of the Year. I was already aware that Korean fans were big on vocal participation, with choreographed chants and singing in support of their teams.
“Can you teach me one or two of the chants?” I asked. “So that I can join in?”
“There are too many,” she replied. “There is a special song for each player that we sing when he is up to bat.”
The Sky-Box Experience
When we arrived at the stadium, we bypassed the lines and went straight to our Sky-Box, one of several that KT offers to its employees as an occasional perk. My niece offered me an extra team jersey to wear since I didn’t have one of my own. I contemplated buying one for myself, but the line to even get into the merchandise store wrapped around the building,
Up in the Sky-Box, we were already in a party mood. There was the usual ballpark food, but with a Korean twist:
Pizza: topped with bulgogi, or sweet potato and shrimp.
Chili fries: Where the “chili” had the spicy-sweet kick of gochujang.
Garlic chicken: Crispy nuggets paired with excellent Korean beer.
The Atmosphere
As the players finished their warm-ups and the game was about to begin, the noise level spiked. The Wiz fans dominated the first base side, and the opposing fans took the third-base side. Cheering contests soon emerged, led by a half dozen cheerleaders and a cheer master with a microphone, prancing about on the roof of the dugout. A couple of men began banging on timpani, and soon “clappers”, inflatable hand-held noise makers, appeared in the crowd… and there was flag waving, and by flag, I mean bedsheet-sized flags!
Soon, the game commenced, and the etiquette was fascinating. As we were the home team, our players were in the field, and the others were up to bat. KT fans sat and politely let the other fans cheer on their players, with only the occasional cheer for a well-played ball. It was all very respectful, save maybe the “Hearts and Flowers” violin solos whenever an opponent struck out.
When our boys came up, the individual choreographed chants began with each at bat. It was a sight to see half the stadium moving and singing in perfect unison. Halfway through the game, I noticed Soyun wasn’t out with us watching the game. She was inside, in the lounge, studying at a table.
“She has her high school placement test next week, so she has to study hard.” My niece explained. Some things never change; placement tests still count for everything in the Korean educational system.
The Final Out
The game itself is no different. This particular game featured no home runs, unfortunately. I was looking forward to seeing our young standout show off his power. But there was plenty of action: squeeze bunts and double plays – “small ball” as they say.
The fan experience makes the game feel like a three-hour-long party. Perhaps the most moving part came at the very end: once the last out was recorded, both teams lined up on the baselines and bowed deeply to their fans. You certainly won’t see that in America!
