Baseball Games in Korea

I've been to two Lotte Giants baseball games in the last month. These games are an absolute blast! There's so much energy and enthusiasm at these games. The Koreans are really into supporting their team. They've got many chants and cheers and special things they say for some of the players. Tickets are inexpensive and you can bring whatever food you want into the stadium. It really makes for a fun family or group outing.

I remember a particular San Diego Padres game at the old Jack Murphy stadium way back when. It's as if we had the Def Comedy Jam sitting behind us - just a bunch of constant profanity and yapping. I offered the guy behind me five bucks if he could be quiet for five minutes. He couldn't do it. That was during my hot-head days. I'm surprised a fight didn't break out because of that encounter. Not to say that all games in the US are like that. Just saying. At the time, Carol and I didn't have kids yet. Anyway, I'm very appreciative of the family friendly atmosphere you get here at the Lotte Giants ballgames, and the same type of atmosphere for most of Korea for that matter.

That's Ms. Kang on the left, our Admin Assistant at work. She's just a lot of fun to be around. Jake has learned to do the traditional Korean picture pose. V for victory!

They have cute little Korean girls as "ballboys" for the team.

Even the umpires are slim in Korea.

The entire crowd makes their own pom-poms from newspapers.

Jake got a foul ball at the game! Actually, it was given to him by the man sitting in front of him. When someone gets a foul ball, the crowd chants "Give it to a kid! Give it to a kid!" In Korean of course. No, Jake's teeth aren't that bad. He was chomping on a chocolate moon pie, hence the stains in his teeth.

Yup, cheerleaders at the ballgame. They really get the crowd going. I know there are different opinions on cheerleaders. Traditionalists say they don't belong at ballgames. Heck, I say have cheerleaders at hockey games, PTA meetings, Six Party talks, you name it. Just don't have them at a military homecoming where spouses are greeting their husbands after a long deployment. I've seen claws come out when this happens. I digress.

I've been to two ballgames and have seen a very public marriage proposal at each game. They also do this cool thing called the "kiss camera." You can see the stadium camera pan around the crowd on the big screen TV. Whoever the camera stops on, those people have to kiss - even if they are total strangers. Makes for a lot of laughs.

They sell just about everything at the ballgame except for peanuts and popcorn. They even have these portable beer kegs on vendors' backs. Gotta get me one of those.

So near the end of the game, about the 7th inning or so, they hand out these orange plastic backs to everyone. People tie them to their heads, kinda like a rally cap. It's absolutely hilarious! Quite the sight. The bags serve a dual purpose. At the end of the game, people stuff the bags with all of their trash and then deposit the trash in designated piles. Ingenious! Wonder if that would work in the US?

That's Mr. Yun, one of our Marine Transportation Assistants sporting a creative (and kinda scary) way to use your bag.

We will definitely hit more baseball games next season. Until next time -- C2