Korea Does America's Pastime Better.

One Sunday evening we decided to attend a Korean professional baseball game between the LG Twins and the Lotte Giants, which took place at the Twin's home stadium. While the game may be the same, the differences between Korean and U.S. baseball surprised me. First, the baseball teams in Korea are named after the company that owns them. Thus, you have teams such as the LG Twins, Samsung Lions, and Kia Tigers. (Yes, Samsung and LG are a Korean companies, NOT Japanese). At one point Hyundai sponsored a team called the Unicorns! (Imagine how that name would go over in the U.S.). Second, there are only eight professional baseball teams in Korea, as opposed to 30 in the U.S. However, considering the U.S. has a population of 300 million and Korea contains only 50 million, the number of major league baseball teams per capita is actually a higher in Korea than in the U.S. Third, the average salaries of professional baseball players in Korea is far less than the United States. In Korea, the average player makes roughly $70k per year (http://xr.com/qpru) whereas in the U.S. the average major league baseball player makes about $3.25m annually. (http://xr.com/x9le). Fourth, the LG Twins and Doosan Bears, both based in Seoul, share a home stadium, Jamsil Stadium, which was built for the 1988 Summer Olympic baseball games. Can you imagine the Yankees and Mets sharing a stadium?? Or the Dodgers and Angels?? Somehow I do not think that would fly in the United States.

But now for the less-boring differences between Korean and U.S. baseball.

In Korea, street vendors set up shop all around the stadium. You can buy soda, beer, hot wings, squid jerky, and peanuts just feet from the gate. The craziest thing is that in Korea you can actually the food and drink you buy from these vendors INSIDE the stadium. This blew our minds. Somehow I doubt the administration at Coor's Field would allow a fan to bring in a bag full of hot wings and 12 large cans of Miller Light. But in Seoul, it is allowed. Also, there were very little cops present! I only saw three outside the stadium and zero inside the stadium. No one searched our bags from the vendors either. How easy it would be to sneak a weapon to a game!

In Korea, each team brings its own male cheer/song leader dressed in full uniform and a handful of extremly good looking female cheerleaders in skimpy clothing, who continually dance and sing throughout the game. The home team fans and cheerleaders were along the first baseline whereas the visiting team and cheerleaders sat on the third base side. The fan base for both teams was about even, which made for a good time because the fans from one team could not drown out the sounds of the other. Even though the stadium only seats around 35,000 and wasn't even sold out, the fans were much louder than those in the U.S.

Singing may be the biggest difference between U.S. and Korean baseball games. At our game, the fans sang and cheered the ENTIRE game. When a player got a base hit, the way the crowd erupted you'd think he just hit a homer. When a homerun was hit, it was as if he just won the game with a walk-off home run. Now that I think about it, I'd LOVE to see the reactions of Korean fans when their team wins with a walk-off homer. Throughout our game I heard singing cheers to the tunes of "Dancing Queen," "We're Not Gonna Take It," "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," "What's Going On," and "My Life Would Suck Without You." Sometimes between innings each team would have their cheerleaders dance their own choreographed routines to songs played over the loudspeaker. Since we sat in left-center field, the simultaneous songs made for some interesting music. It sounded like sitting between two speakers, each playing a different song.

Also, I found the fan base to be quite diverse. There were groups of teeny-bopper girls, old men, families, single guys, and couples all cheering for the same team. The two teenage girls in front of us really got excited when the LG Twins did well. Behind us, an little old man grinned from ear to ear and loudly banged his noisemakers together as he celebrated the Lotte Giants victory. You'd think he just had a grandbaby based on the way he looked after the game. Of course, there was also the occasional intoxicated American male who would not shut-up. One of them, seated behind me 5 or 6 rows, taunted me a few times because his Lotte Giants defeated the LG Twins, who I had chosen to support. However, based on his lack of balance and slurred speech, I highly doubt he even remembers doing so. I guess you can't get away from them no matter what country you're watching professional baseball.

One thing I did not like about the Korean game was the lack of instant replays. They never showed a replay the entire game. This got frustrating, especially when sitting so far from home plate. With no replays, the occasional botched fielding of a bunt or close play at first could not be viewed on the big screen in slow motion. But despite this only downer, I found the Koreans games to be a much more enjoyable atmosphere than U.S. games. However, I must point out I've never been to a Yankees/Red Sox or Cubs/White Sox game. Perhaps I'd feel differently if I'd seen a U.S. game with that much hype.