FanPost

Korean baseball


I went to a baseball game in Korea yesterday between the Nexen Heroes and the Doosan Bears.  The outside of the stadium was interesting.  First of all, there were a lot of different snacks available from the vendors outside the stadium.  Octopus, boiled eggs and maki for example.  In Korea you can take food and beverages into the stadium.  You can also leave and come back with more food.  The prices in the stadium are normal though so it doesn't matter too much (unless you want some octopus which is only available outside).  There was also a beer company giving away beer for some kind of promotion.  Free beer singer/dancers were promoting the beer as well.

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via www.itravelpictures.com

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via www.itravelpictures.com

There are 8 teams in the Korean League Organization.  They are all named after corporations (ex: LG Twins, Samsung Lions, Kia Tigers).  The teams are allowed 2 foreigners each which are usually Americans who can't make it in mlb or Japan.  The salaries are lower in Korea than Japan so the best Korean players play in Japan too.   I was told the highest salary in Korea is about $700K.  There are no season tickets available in South Korea and the tickets are available online about 1 month before the game.  We went with the highest priced regular tickets which were about 15 rows up on the 3rd baseline for about $14 Cdn. There are also VIP tickets with tables and other padded seats behind homeplate for about $35-$50 Cdn.

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via www.itravelpictures.com

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via www.itravelpictures.com

The game itself wasn't too eventful other than this marriage proposal.  Nexen won 3-2 and led from the 4th inning onward.  The fans are a lot like in Japan.  They have chants and make a lot of noise (but not nearly as much noise as in the Tokyo Dome).  I like the stadium atmosphere more than at Skydome for example.  There are a couple of stadium differences too.  They have protective mesh all the way to the foul poles.  That seems a lot safer than in mlb and also makes it almost impossible to run onto the field.  The mesh at the end of the foul lines is only about 15 feet high; it just stops the line drives.  There is also a difference on the scoreboard as they have R H E and B (Runs, hits, errors, and walks).  I reckon the walks total is a useful addition.

That's it for the baseball stuff.  The day before we also tried to go to a game but it was rained out so we went and walked inside the '88 Olympic stadium next door for a Ben Johnson moment on the 100m track.  It is a really big stadium obviously and is quite impressive still.  It is sort of sad though that it isn't used for anything.  Until 2002 it was used for soccer, but in 2002 they built a $300M stadium for the World Cup.

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via www.itravelpictures.com

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via www.itravelpictures.com


Editor's Note: This is a FanPost written by a reader and member of Bluebird Banter. It was not commissioned by the editors and is not necessarily reflective of the opinions of Bluebird Banter or SB Nation.