On the way to the game, I was explained that there is a professional baseball organization in Korea, named the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO). I was invited to see the third of five games played by the Lotte Giants, Busan's home team, and the Doosan Bears, a team from Seoul. I was also explained that the Giants were facing the Bears in the first round of the 2010 Korean pro-baseball playoffs, and that Busan could very well win the KBO championship this year.
In Canada, I was not a big follower of baseball. Like most Canadians, I followed hockey, and I cheered for the Toronto Maple Leafs. OK... Maybe most Canadians do not cheer for the Toronto Maple Leafs... There are, after all, 6 professional hockey teams in Canada, one in Vancouver (the Vancouver Canucks), one in Edmonton (the Edmonton Oilers), one in Calgary (the Calgary Flames), one in Toronto (the Toronto Maple Leafs), one in Ottawa (the Ottawa Senators), and one in Montréal (le Canadien de Montréal). And some of these teams have a long history, both as hockey teams and as part of the Canadian cultural landscape. But I digress...
There are a total of 8 teams in the KBO, three of which are based in Seoul (the Doosan Bears, the LG Twins and the Nexen Heroes). There is also one team located in Inchon (the SK Wyverns), one in Daejon (the Hanwha Eagles), one in Daegu (the Samsung Lions), one in Gwangju (the Kia Tigers), and one in Busan (the Lotte Giants). Interestingly, these teams all have English names similar to those of major baseball teams in the United States. However, the team names are pronounced with a Korean accent and have a Korean spelling as well. For instance, the Giants are known as the "Ja-ee-eon-cheu" (자이언츠).
Also, all 8 teams have a major corporate sponsor, and the teams appear to be better known for their sponsors than for the cities in which they are based. For instance, Busan's team is known as the Lotte Giants, and not as the Busan Giants. Lotte, a very large Korean corporation, is the main sponsor of the team. The company operates hotels and department stores. Some food products available at my local supermarket are made by Lotte as well. I think that the company gets enormous publicity by sponsoring the Busan team. Though Canada's hockey teams have major corporate sponsors as well, I don't think that Canadian hockey fans would ever refer to their team as the Scotia Bank Senators or the Air Canada Maple Leafs. However, this may be due mostly to our love of inter-city hockey rivalries (see Calgary versus Edmonton, Toronto versus Ottawa, and Toronto versus Montréal). But again, I digress...
Since I am not a big baseball fan, I went to see this game more for the novelty of seeing a Korean baseball game than out of interest for the game itself. But in the end, I found the game to be very entertaining. It turns out that the Lotte Giants had quite a few sluggers on their team this year, and they could hit the ball rather impressively. In addition, the fans were so energetically cheering on their team that it was completely impossible not to become hyped up along with them.
Among the highlights of the experience were the songs sung by the crowd at various points during the game. It seemed to me that everyone in the stadium knew the words and chorus to at least 10 songs. Some of these songs were sung at specific moments in the game, like at the beginning or at the mid-point of an inning. These songs were amusing to me, as I recognized many of them as Korean cover versions of songs that I know well. Among the melodies I recognized were those of a song by Twisted Sister ("We're Not Gonna Take It"), another by Joe Dassin ("Les Champs-Élysées"), one by Quiet Riot ("Come On Feel the Noise"), and one by Four Non-Blondes ("What's Up"). Other songs were sung when specific Busan players came to bat. For instance, Busan's main slugger Lee Dae Ho ( 이대호 ) was greeted so loudly by his fans that I wondered how they could scream as they did without damaging their vocal chords. There was also one Mexican player on the Busan team. His name was Garcia, but the crowd called out "Ga-roo-see-ya" when he came up to bat. In Hangul, the Korean language, it is not possible to put the consonant "r" in front of an "s"-sound without putting a vowel between them, hence the "Ga-roo-see-ya" pronunciation of "Garcia".
My friend also explained to me that the residents of Busan are known throughout Korea for being pretty rowdy baseball fans. I witnessed this first-hand when, fairly late in the game, a Busan player was involved in a controversial play. More precisely, at one point in the game, a Busan player was at bat. He successfully batted the ball, but it popped up high and struck one of a group of large balloons that were tethered to one side of the stadium. After striking these balloons, the ball fell onto the field. The umpires did not seem to know how to deal with this occurrence, and they debated the matter for quite some time. During this time, the crowd was becoming rather restless, so much so that a message asking fans not to throw anything onto the field was posted on the stadium's video screen. In the end, nothing regrettable occurred, even though the umpires ruled against the Busan player who's pop fly had struck the balloons.
Unfortunately, the game that I saw was the beginning of the end of the Lotte Giants' 2010 post-season effort. They lost the game, and then were eliminated altogether by the Doosan Bears a few days later.
Yesterday, the 2010 KBO post-season has come to an end. The SK Wyverns have won the 2010 KBO championship, winning four straight games against the Samsung Lions.
 | |
| A Giants' player takes off towards first base. |
 | |
| The umpires debate a controversial play with a pair of Busan players. |
 | |
| Busan fans share their opinion about the play. |
 | |
| The crowd is asked not to throw trash onto the field. |
 |
| At the center of the controversy - baseball-shaped balloons. |
 | |
| A Doosan Bears' player at bat after play finally resumes. |
 |
| Korean stadium food - dried squid. |
No comments:
Post a Comment