It’s certainly hard to figure out where baseball stands in (South Korean) society. The game certainly has a devoted fan base; there is plenty of baseball related advertising as well as books proclaiming that the Koreans are baseball crazy and that it is their number one sport. It’s a slightly different message than what I was hearing from the people that I spoke with on the street. While there was a smattering of fans mixed into the group, most of the people that I spoke with seemed to think that soccer is the big thing here.
Nonetheless the fans are very enthusiastic about the game. There is a lot of pride about having made it to the semi-finals in the World Baseball Classic and especially about their victory over the Japanese squad earlier in the tournament (although they lost to them during their second match - in the semi finals). In Asia it’s not the American teams that everyone looks to as to the pinnacle of baseball excellence. Baseball here isn’t Americas’ game, but Japan’s. It’s the Japanese teams that the Koreans emulate, compare themselves to and who they hope to beat.
Thus the game is played using the Japanese model here - it’s all about the team, small ball, not striking out in the clutch and putting the ball in play. Even the number three and four hitters on a team usually have only a handful of home runs. I didn’t know this until I actually made it to my first Korean pro baseball game but I had already seen the league’s home run champion of ’04 and ’05, Tyrone Woods (an American). He was playing in Japan (he hit two home runs for the Dragons the night I saw him play) after jumping to that league for this season.
That mercenary approach of jumping leagues for money, especially to the Japanese leagues is a black eye for non-native players considering the love-hate relationship between South Korea and Japan (it may also be part of the reason that the Korean leagues limit each team to two foreign players maximum).
Despite such issues, Westerner baseball fans are quite welcome at the games, which are a spectacle to behold. The fans are wild (so wild in fact that for two years sales of beer at games was banned due to rowdy behavior) and enthusiastic. Because travel is cheap and easy, fans literally can follow their team to road games (you can travel South Korea pretty much end to end to any of the biggest cities for under $30 in less than 3 hours). Because of this to avoid problems the fans are segregated by team preference, along either the first or third baseline (nearest the dugout of their team).
Taking in a game here is a lot of fun and baseball is a real spectacle. I just witnessed my first game here – it was between the Doosan Bears (Doosan is a beer maker) and the Hanwha Eagles in Seoul. The stadium has a very minor league feel to it as does the game itself primarily due to the small crowds and cheap tickets (the best seat in the house is between $8-10 depending on whether it’s a weekend or not). But what the crowds lack in size they make up for with attitude. Dressed almost entirely in team colors and carrying team colored thunder sticks they arrive ready to have a very active and good time. The cheap seats, which are only $4 less than the good seats, are where the action really is. Out there is where the Cheer Masters (one for each team) and the scantily clad dancing girls (two for each team) are.
Each team has their own Cheer Master (or cheer leader if you prefer) and set of dancing girls along with a sound system, stage and microphone. The cheer master is the leader of the fans, he tells them when to clap, when to sing, when to pound their thunder sticks, and when to dance – and they do surely dance. Most of these actions take place when the preferred team is up at bat, but cheers for defense and great plays can happen anytime. Cheers for the batting team keep going the whole half inning – even during the action and while players are batting (although they are planned not to interfere with viewing the game – so mainly you get rhythmic clapping or singing then).
There are two stretches also during the game one in the home fifth inning for the home town fans (lead of course by the cheer master) and one in the sixth – where the players all run out onto the field to stretch!
The food is a little different too. While tastes at the game run heavily towards American fast food, you’ll also find octopus jerky on stick, skewers of chicken, and bowls of soup with kimchi, sushi and other assorted Asian delicacies. Even the American food has a decidedly Korean flavor to it unless the Colonial’s original recipe for fried chicken included large amounts of Korean hot pepper paste, and burgers came with sides of pickled cabbage.
Still when you can tear yourself away from the differences, the game is clearly baseball and for the most part well played baseball. Is it up to Major League standards on the whole? Probably not, but seeing a game in an exciting intimate setting is a real joy and Korean baseball certainly fits the bill.
