My First Baseball Match

I never thought I would ever go to a baseball game, least of all in Korea, but they just love it here.

It was a blistering 32 degrees and I had already agreed to go and see the baseball with a Canadian friend. It turned out to be a pretty big game. Daegu's Samsung Lions versus LG Seoul.

My first impression was mild disappointment. Not only was the stadium pretty small for a guy used to a regular 60,000 attendance at his local football game, a mere 10,000 here, but also the size of the field was pathetic. Whenever I caught a glimpse of baseball on American or Korean TV I thought the field was huge, at least the length of a football pitch. Instead it looked like I could hit a 'Homer' given the right 'pitch'.

It was filled to the max however. The atmosphere was of festivity and it seemed like a mix between a family day out and a drinking competition. Now this I could enjoy. I stocked up on some nice cold beer and sat in the sun listening to the intricacies of baseball being explained to me by an avid fan. It was actually pretty interesting. So much so that I enjoyed watching it. It's a sport were you spend most of the time sitting, drinking and talking. Occasionally paying attention when the bases are 'loaded' or a star player is about to bat. Which for Daegu was a 39 year old playboy / fan favourite who seemed to just 'bunt' the ball and woddle off.

Between all of the 'innings', whatever they are!?! There were drinking, dancing and kissing competitions where people made a fool of themselves for a chance to be on the big screen. This is pretty unusual and you can't even bring a beer into a stadium back home never mind hosting a down-in-one competition sponsored by that teenagers' favourite boy band 'Big bang'.


I was asked about cricket and I did my best to explain the rules but politely stated that cricket was about as popular in Scotland as Thatcher. That didn't clear things up much.