Every year, summer students at Sogang University get to go to a baseball game in Seoul to cheer for the hometown team, the Doosan Bears. Here, every team is based in a city, but it's named after the company that sponsors them (i.e. YG Twins, etc.). They played against the Hanhwa Eagles, and I was super excited to go, as the baseball game was one of my favorite fieldtrips.
One thing I love about Korean people is that they give their all to what they do and what they love. Their favorite baseball team is no exception.
Prime example of Koreans' undying love
We got a block of seats really close to the field, so we could actually see the action.
Classmates: (l-r) Ian, Cody, Pablo
Back row: Pablo, Marianne, Charlie; Front row: Me, Manon, Chin Ping
We were behind 1st base - so close!
The best part of going to the game for me is doing all the cheers with the crowd. Not only does the team have several cheers that everyone knows, some of which are set to popular songs, but individual players have their own chants or songs. My favorite from this year was for Min Byeong Heon. It's set to the tune of Abba's "Honey Honey", because the last syllable of his name sounds like "honey" when you add an "ee" on the end. I can't find a video clip of it now, but when I do, I'll add it in.
Everyone cheering with their thunder sticks! Cheerleaders are up on the stand above the blue/white sign, and are wearing inflatable inner tubes. Why not.
So close to the action!
Taylor from my class, and Carrie behind me. I got a pink floral Doosan Bears hat and wore it backwards like all the college students do here on campus. Not sure if I can pull it off...but I fooled all my classmates into thinking I was in the 22-25 age range, so I can do what I want.
One thing that differs in a Korean baseball game is the types of games they play between some innings. Case in point: a relay beer-drinking game. Rules: 4 people have to take turns drinking from a pitcher of beer with a straw until it's gone. It was intense, y'all.
It must be said that they all looked like they were going to throw up immediately after the prize (which was a huge case of beer, of course).
When our team was losing by a large margin, it was time to explore the stadium. It was pretty standard, but there were a few nice touches like this one:
Props to following through with a theme, even on the restroom door.
Apparently not everyone found it exciting. It's to be noted that this happened when the rest of the crowd was cheering. Poor TA.
Part-way through the game, a dad encouraged his little daughter to come up and talk to some of us foreigners in English. Then she started playing games with the thunder sticks. She was so cute.
We lost the game in the end, but Go Doosan Bears!
2 comments:
Korean baseball games sure sound a lot more fun than the ones I've been to here. Was Cody in your class last year?
How fun! I love that those cheerleaders are wearing the inflatable tubes! Like you said-cause why not? That's hysterical! I also love the women's sign on the door!
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