Yagu Shihap

Today we went to a baseball game in Seoul. There are two Seoul teams in the Korean professional baseball league, the LG Twins and the Doosan Bears. (Teams here, as in Japan, are named for the companies that own them. My favorite Japanese team name is the Nippon Ham Fighters of Hokkaido.) They share a stadium, originally built for the 1988 Olympics, in the Jamshil area of Seoul.


The baseball season here, as in America, is winding down. We figured we'd better see a game before classes start, and today, the day after Chuseok, seemed a good time to go. The LG Twins were hosting the SK Wyverns of Incheon. Before the game Erma and I decided to root for the Twins, since (1) they are the local team; and (2) facing the first-place SK team, they were the underdog. (The Twins, incidentally, have a logo that is, in my unprofessional legal opinion, sue-ably close to that of the Minnesota Twins.)

Here's a map of the stadium. The blue area behind home plate is "designated seating" (지정석), the red area is "infield seating" (내야석), and the green area is "outfield seating" (외야석). Only for the blue area does the ticket specify a particular seat; the other areas are open seating. (This picture, like all the others on the blog, is clickable for a larger image.)


When we went up to the ticket window, however, we had to specify not just one of these three areas, but also which team we were rooting for. LG fans sit along the first-base side, SK fans along the third-base side. Unfortunately, we were told that the designated seating tickets for LG were sold out. Rather than get cheaper tickets, we opted to sit on the SK side instead. The ticket seller nearly fell out of her chair when she heard that. I don't think many people casually switch sides like that.

Baseball wouldn't be baseball without snacks and beer. Here's one of the snack tables just outside the ticket windows. Lessee, you got your dried squids, your dried cuttlefish, your dried fish rounds, your gimbap (김밥, rice rolls wrapped in seaweed), and ... what's this? Peanuts!?!?


The stadium definitely had the intimate, simple feeling of a minor-league American ballpark. We were sitting pretty close, fifth row. SK is in red, LG in white.


The odd thing about the way the seats were numbered is that they within a section they were numbered contiguously, rather than starting over from 1 in each row. Erma says this is typical for Korea. Actually makes it pretty hard to find your seat. (This picture was taken after the game had ended. That's why the seats are empty.)


There was a pretty nice center-field electronic scoreboard. Erma and I learned quite a few Korean baseball terms from it.


The major difference in the game experience is the crowd. The fans in the infield seating sections form loud, regimented cheering sections. When their team is at-bat, they chant, sing, and move their arms in unison constantly while drums beat and whistles blow. If you saw any of the Korean team matches during the 2002 World Cup (held in Korea and Japan), you may be familiar with this Korean style of team support. In this picture you can see the thick sea of home-team fans in the red seating section. (Although we were told the blue section was sold out, there are lots of empty seats.)


Here's our team's cheering section, considerably smaller. The cheerleader stands on a raised platform and leads the crowd with cheers, hand-motions, and sharp blasts of his whistle.


There were huge posters opened across large swaths of the empty outfield seats. I don't know if fans brought these, or if they are supplied by the teams. Maybe the stadium is never full enough to prevent them from being displayed.


Oh yeah, almost forgot about the beer. These two guys look like they came right out of a Simpsons episode. They are selling Hite, a Korean brand, from giant kegs strapped to their backs. The kegs are, of course, decorated to look like baseballs.


In the middle of the sixth inning it was, apparently, the Sixth Inning Stretch. Nobody around us in the stands stood up, but all the ballplayers marched out onto the grass and did some useless-looking exercises.

The two sides did not fraternize.


Those of you still in suspense about the outcome of the game will be relieved to know that the LG Twins won. They had a really good foreign pitcher named Okseupeuring (옥스프링). I guess his real name must be Oxspring or Oakspring or somesuch. He held the Wyverns to just one run. The Twins capped their scoring with a two-run homer in the 8th inning by first-baseman Choe Dongsu 최동수. Here he is, after the game ended, bowing on the big screen to the crowd during a post-game on-field interview.


Here's a picture of me and Erma at the game. We had a good time.


Although this was definitely a Korean-flavored experience, the overall impression one has is of how similar the game of baseball is wherever it is played professionally.

I've now seen baseball played in four countries. (Yes, that includes Canada.)