hanwha

This past Saturday I went to a baseball game. Here's two minutes of a baseball game in Korea:

This clip really has all you need to know about the Korean baseball experience. You have the thunder-sticks, which people ceaselessly clap together to create a truly annoying atmosphere in which to watch a baseball game. You have the constant singing and chanting, even when nothing is happening. I suppose it's like a soccer game in that regard. And you have Korea's comically bad ability to judge a fly-ball off the bat. Really, when a batter hits a ball in the air, everyone's first thought is "Home Run!" You can see it at the end of the video, as a batter hits a lazy fly ball to right, which brings people out of their seats.

I made a little bet with my girlfriend for the game, which was between Daejeon's team, the Hanwha Eagles, and the LG Twins, of Seoul. (All Korean teams are sponsored by large companies, and are typically referred to as such, and not by their city or team name.) My bet was that LG would beat Hanwha by more than 3 runs. I was pretty confident in my bet, because going into the game Hanwha was an astounding 0-11 on the season. Yup, 11 straight losses to begin the 2013 campaign.  Whoever lost the bet had to buy dinner after the game. 

Things started out good for me, when the lead-off hitter put a 2-2 pitch about ten feet to my left in the left field bleachers, and it only got better from there. By the 4th inning, LG was up 5-0. In time, Hanwha got on the board and made it 5-1, and were threatening with the bases loaded with 2 outs in the 7th. This is what transpired:

Hanwha didn't put up much of a fight after that, and the game ended 5-1. However, to their credit the Hanwha fans never packed it in. I give a bit of narration in the following clip to provide some context:

Even staring at an 0-12 start, down 4 runs in the ninth, they are still cheering their hearts out for something. I don't know if that's stupidity, or if it's admirable. It's strikingly different to how Americans would handle it. As I explained to my girlfriend, in Philadelphia we'd probably be throwing bags of piss on the field in this scenario. One explanation for their sunny disposition is that they save their sports outrage for the national stage. They can definitely get fired up during the World Cup or the Olympics, when they have some national pride at stake. But with local sports, I think it's more of a fun diversion from their dull, workaday lives. It's something they can do on the weekend; go to the stadium, drink some beer, slam some thunder-sticks together for a few hours and unwind. Who wins and who loses is largely irrelevant, because they're all Koreans. Their nationalism mitigates fervor on the local level. Hell, at the end of the above clip, after the third out is recorded, you can hear them break into song, the lyrics of which are:

Na-neun haengbok hamnida. (I am happy)

Na-neun haengbok hamnida. (I am happy)

Na-neun haengbok hamnida. (I am happy)

Hanwha ra-seo haengbok hamnida. (I am happy because of Hanwha)

Now, the more cynical side of me has another take on it. It tells me that these people are suckers, coughing up their hard earned money to watch a bunch of scrubs take the field, while the ownership makes money. Hanwha has the lowest payroll of any team, even though last fall the LA Dodgers paid them over $25 million for the rights to pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin.

But hey, baseball is supposed to be fun, so I can't denounce the fun they have. We even went back the next day to watch another game. Hanwha lost that one 8-0, dropping them to 0-13 on the year, and earning me another dinner.