I love Korean baseball!

Funny how they are not champions this year!  Seems like false advertising but I believe it is incorrect translation of their slogan for the year.

I celebrated the Fourth of July on the 5th with some great friends and a trip to the ballpark.  Korean baseball is just different from American baseball.  The game is played basically the same way.  I couldn't figure out if they had a designated hitter or not but otherwise the rules are essentially the same.  The atmosphere however is very different.

At Korean baseball games you can bring your own food and drinks into the stadium, when buying tickets there are areas designated as cheering sections and areas that you have to buy tickets in pairs because they are designed for couples, there are cheerleaders who lead the cheering sections, there are cheers for each individual player (sensing a theme yet?).  They cheer so much that you end up distracted from the game at least half the time.  The cheering makes the game a lot of fun and you end up picking up on the cheers quickly even though its in Korean :)

Korean baseball where each player has a song that is played as they come up to bat, and in Busan you wear a plastic bag on your head during the last inning and a half and then use that same bag for your trash when the game is over.

From left to right: Nicole, myself, Michelle, and Tiana.  

Most people wear their plastic bags like this.

We opted for the more fun big bow design.

A sea of orange with almost everyone with a bag on their heads.

A closer look at all the plastic bags!

Even the opposing team fans got into the action.

Korean baseball where when a foul ball is hit there is typically a cheer started among the adults in the area in which they are essentially shouting for the person who caught the ball to give it to a kid.  And every foul ball hit in my area ended up in the hands of a kid nearby.  I love this!

Korean baseball where when they change pitchers the new pitcher from the bullpen are brought in by a car.

Korean baseball where they use a countdown clock between innings.  They get 3 minutes between innings and they are punctual.  During this 3 minute break there are of course cheering but also at times games.  During my game they had a staring contest.  This was done where two people (one for the home team and one for the visiting team) had to stare into a camera and the first to blink would lose.  Literally a full minute later they called a tie and had the two girls play rock, paper, scissors to determine the winner.  It was pretty incredible to watch.

If you see the clock at the top right of the screen that is the time between the innings.  And seriously these two were like this for a full minute.  It was insane!

Korean baseball where the bat-girls have a path to follow, wear a helmet that is not the same as a batting helmet, and use an easter-like basket to bring out more baseballs to the umpire.  

Oh and the game I went to was full of so much excitement with just the baseball.  The home team the Lotte Giants were trailing 6-1 after 5.5 innings and even 7-5 when we started the bottom of the ninth.  But they pulled off an incredible ninth by scoring the trying runs through three singles and a sacrifice bunt.  Then with the bases loaded and two outs we scored the winner on a wild pitch!  

And finally a few videos to give a glimpse into the fun atmosphere of Korean baseball!

This video they are cheering Lotte Giants.  See if you can hear it.

We won!!!!