Baseball

Baseball, Korean style, is pretty wild. There are some coockoo fanatics in the States (no doubt about it), but to compare the overall atmosphere of a professional sporting event to that of a professional Korean baseball game is a joke.

A few weekends ago Lauren and I played witness to the LG Twins taking on the Kia Tigers. We arrived at the subway stop approximately 45 minutes before the 1st pitch and figured we could have a nice relaxing afternoon at the ballpark. Maybe a hot dog, probably an overpriced beer, possibly even peanuts.

As we were exiting the subway station headed towards the stadium, a vendor was selling "thunder sticks" (think long tube shaped beach balls). Of course we had to pick some up. We had nobody to cheer for at this point, but thankfully the vendor handed us 4 Kia Tigers thunder sticks. All set, Tiger fans we now were.

Upon arriving at the line to the ticket sales we thought "I wonder what we say or how much tickets are, or really what is going to happen". Well, a quick moving line gave us no options. "something eyoanya something geuseo" (We assume "next in line please).
"Uhhh, doogay" (the only number we know in Korean - 2).
"something something something" - ticket lady
"hmmm, how much do you think I should give her?" - C
"I don't, try 10000krw" - L
Alright, one green bill coming up. Slide it under the glass.
...blank stares...
At this point I get super nervous take out all the cash in my wallet and spread it evenly over the surface of the counter. Thankfully she only grabbed one more green bill (10000krw), and returned to us 1 red bill (5000krw),3 blue bills(1000krw), two tickets, and a "move along" hand motion.

Alright! Tickets! This will be great, in we go. Once inside we stood at the bottom of a set of stairs looking at numbers on walls, numbers on our tickets, and back and forth at each other. I mean come on, there have got to be some matching numbers somewhere (for crying outloud, we went to the movies last week and had assigned seats).

We decided to just head on up the stairs and see what happens. What we came to find out quickly was that we purchased general admission tickets for open seating basically anywhere along the outer rim.

After two laps around the entire stadium sticking our necks out like ostridges down aisles scanning for a group of empty seats, we resigned to standing in the on the outer edge. Apparently, if you want to go to a baseball game, and you are going to be general admission, arrive early, VERY early.

Beind the last row of seats is about a 25 foot wide cement walkway circling the entire stadium. This walkway turned into a picinic area for most families coming to the baseball game. You had to dig and dive your way around all the foil blankets (very popular) and scattered shoes (of course you can't step on the foil blanket with your shoes on! Are you nuts?!). Luckily we were able to nab a standing spot.

The game began and there were a couple of key differences from the old American Ballpark.
1) They have cheerleaders
2) The teams fans have developed long chants. Intricate chants including timed thunderstick clapping and Korean phrases that must last a solid minute.
3) Not everyone gets a seat.
4) If you don't get a seat, it is permissible to sit in the stairs/aisles next to all the seats (apparently fire hazards are a non issue).
5) If you want a snack or a drink, you should have brought one in.

In the end we stepped out a couple innings early (with our beloved Kia Tigers ahead by 3 runs) due to a bit of fatigue in our legs. We really enjoyed the game and especially enjoyed seeing such passionate and energetic fans. If they had fans like this in the U.S. they really could create a stunning home field advantage. Our next Korean baseball game will yield a little more preparation. We'll either arrive 2 hours early, or learn how to say assigned seating.