Korea: Baseball Done Right

Sajik Stadium

I finally made it to my first Korean baseball game. I must say, it was a riot. I have never seen anything like it. One of my co-workers helped me get tickets online and we paid around $12 for field level seats. I couldn't believe it.  After being at the game, I would recommend sitting higher up, as your vision is a little obstructed, but it was still a really good time. We sat behind first base, and that seemed to be quite the section to be sitting.

One of the three mascots (seagulls)

The game started kind of slow, not too much action and Busan was down 5-0 against Incheon. However, once Busan started their comeback, the fans started to go wild. When they scored a run, you'd have thought they just won the championship. It was really great to see fans get that excited about their team. Each player has their own theme song and every time they go up to bat, or make a move to benefit the team, the crowd goes crazy and chants their song. Busan's team has a foreign player, who appeared to be Spanish and they seemed to really love him haha.

The game turned out to be really exciting as the two teams ended up with a tie of 7-7 in the 9th inning. Busan ended up winning the game 8-7 in the bottom of the 9th due to an overthrow by the pitcher, also known as a wild pitch. The fans literally went wild and were so excited. It was a truly great experience to have in Korea, and I think MLB fans back home have a thing or two to learn about cheering their teams on!

the "Eye Fight"

An egg carton headband,
because why not?

One of our hilarious seat mates 

The most interesting thing that I found was that you can bring absolutely anything you want into the stadium, food or drink wise. People bring boxes of stuff. The most popular items seem to be fried chicken, pizza, dried squid, beer, and soju. I think the increase of alcohol consumption as the game went on had something to do with the increase of cheers as the game went on. There were a group of guys sitting next to my friend and I, and they were really entertaining.  They knew all the songs and cheers to sing and sang and danced for most of the game. When Busan tied the game, we received hugs of excitement. There are even cheerleaders at the games, and people make pompoms out of newspapers. They also have something called an "Eye Fight" where a fan from each team have an eye contest and the first person to blink, loses and the winner gets a prize. It seemed really strange to us foreigners but was quite hilarious.

At the beginning of the last inning, the ushers hand out orange plastic bags meant to collect your trash, but before they do that, the fans blow up the bags and tie them to the tops of their heads. When you look around all you see is a sea of orange. Like I said, this was a truly entertaining experience and I am glad I made it to a game!