I'M FAMOUS!

Sort of. ... When Matt was here and we went to a Baseball game an American journalist approached us and asked a few questions about the game. We never did find out why he was actually in Seoul ... but he talked with us, gave his card and then went on his way. And I kind of forgot all about it. Well, while trying to escape hours of boredom and the vicious Korean humidity I was surfing the internet tonight and googled myself (Don't judge, you know you've done it). And after a few hits about some lawyer from Boston, and my facebook page, I saw something about Korean baseball... I clicked and found this:

(find the original article at: http://www.fallight.com/entry/Baseball-Korean-style-more-exciting-for-fans-than-players?category=0)


ATLANTA INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Baseball, Korean style, more exciting for fans than players
Rhythmic cheers, sing-alongs, jumping in the stands all part of the game

By KEN HERMAN
Cox News Service
Published on: 06/27/08

SEOUL, South Korea - The fans on the first-base side of the stadium are on their feet, singing and dancing and generally having more fun than one should have in public with strangers.

It sounds and feels like the bottom of the ninth, tie score, seventh game of the World Series.

But it's not. It's an early-season contest, not much at stake. And this is during a rain delay.

Welcome to baseball, Korean style.

"It's just pure craziness," said Matt Tennyson, a San Diego archeologist visiting his sister here and attending his first Korean Baseball Organization game.

It's the home-standing Doosan Bears and the visiting Lotte Giants on a Thursday night at Jamsil Baseball Stadium, and it's constant, controlled pandemonium.

The excitement greets fans outside the gate, where vendors hawking local delicacies compete with KFC's "Home Run Box" and Burger King's "Happy Together" promotion.

There's a short line leading to a friendly attendant at the ticket window who hands over a ticket. Ten thousand won (about $10) gets you a reserved seat, but there's nothing reserved about the fans in those seats.

Other than the team logo, the only English on the ticket is this year's Bears' team slogan: "2008 Jump! Hustle Doo!"

And doo they ever jump and hustle — the fans, that is.

A half-hour prior to first pitch, the Bears fans, whipped up by their male cheerleader, are well into the action, though there is none on the field.

Same deal in the third-base stands, where the Giants fans are also getting into it as their male cheerleader — sporting a team shirt, white gloves, white pants and white, lace-up knee-high boots and moves that bring to mind late Queen front man Freddy Mercury — exhorts them.

It continues into the game as it becomes clear that the fans are getting far more exercise than the players. In addition to rhythmic cheers, there are songs, including some recognizable tunes that span the spectrum, including "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," "La Cucaracha," "If You're Happy and You Know It," Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" and the rousing strains of "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

In addition to the lone make cheerleader per side, each team has four females who work from their seats and occasionally jump up on the stage with the male.

The difference between Korean cheerleaders and American cheerleaders? Korean cheerleaders actually lead cheers.

Many of the rhythmic cheers include the player names, a task made easier by the fact that every player on both teams (as well as just about everybody in South Korea) has a three-syllable name — save, of course, for the two Americans allowed per team.

Former major leaguer Karim Garcia, a first-year player here and the leading vote-getter in fan balloting for the Korean all-star game, is hailed by Giant fans with a song that repeats Gar-ci-a over and over again.

Also in the Giants' dugout is former major leaguer Jerry Royster, who, as the Giants' skipper, is the first American to manage a Korean team.

"I'm having a blast," Royster said. "I'm having an absolute blast."

Royster loves the enthusiasm and respect in the stands but is trying to get his team to play more aggressively, which is somewhat out of character in Korea.

"The approach that the players have here is quite different than what we are used to in the United States. It's not very aggressive baseball and they are very respectful of each other. That comes into play quite a bit on double plays. They don't break up double plays. And when guys get hit (by a pitch) there is somewhat of an 'I'm sorry' kind of attitude for hitting you," he said.

The Korean league, now with eight teams playing 126-game schedules from March through August, was formed in 1982, long after baseball was brought to the nation by U.S. missionaries in the early 20th century. In 1994, pitcher Chan Ho Park became the first Korean to play in the U.S. major leagues.

On the field, the play is solid and entertaining, but nowhere near as intriguing as what goes on in the stands.

It's four hours of wonderment for Tennyson, his sister Erica and her two American friends, who, like her, teach English here.

"I'm a big fan of the cheerleaders and the guy who actually leads cheers," Tennyson said. "That's a great job. We need that back home."

"They all know every song, every dance move," Erica Tennyson said as fans around her sang and danced.

Could this work back home?

"It would be amazing," said Andrea Mullen, a Greenville, S.C. native. "I would go to more games if this happened."

Asian baseball fans make hyped-up Yankee bleacher fans look like slackers, and ill-mannered slackers at that. There is no booing here. And there is polite applause — led by the cheerleaders even when a hometown player strikes out — for all efforts.

There is no screaming between the fans. When the Giants are up, so are their fans. When the Bears are up, so are their fans. They do not cheer simultaneously.

In addition to their lungs, most fans are equipped with home-made pompoms they fashion out of newspapers, a potentially positive sign for the future of a once-great industry now in decline.

Embedded in the unfettered joy of the cheering is solid commercialism. Doosan is a company — a mega-conglomerate involved in everything from heavy equipment to the KFC and Burger King items sold outside the stadium.

Ditto for Lotte, a Korean-Japanese conglomerate that sponsors the Busan-based Giants. In Korea, the teams are named for their sponsors, not the cities they represent.

Same thing in Japan, which helps explain the world's greatest name for a baseball team — the Nippon Ham Fighters. The Ham Fighters do not fight ham. Nor is it a team of rabbinical students battling the forbidden meat.

The team name is the Fighters, and Nippon Ham, a meat-packing company, is the sponsor.

The sponsorship deals — combined with the organized cheerleading — guarantee that the sponsor names are seen, sung, shouted and chanted for nine innings or more (though no more than 12, the maximum allowed in Korean baseball before a tie is declared).

It's the equivalent of a U.S. baseball team wearing uniforms with General Motors emblazoned across the chest or fans repeatedly chanting "Bed, Bath and Beyond."

On this night at Jamsil, the corporate names of Doosan and Lotte filled the air for four hours. The excitement continued until the final out as fans of the visiting Giants held up lighters, much as concert-goers do when they don't want the show to end.

But end it must, and the Bears — fueled by a six-run fifth inning — prevail by a 9-4 score that sends the fans out the gates and to the Korean form of tailgating, post-game food and drink on mats outside the stadium as the excitement continues.

Jump! Hustle doo!



Too bad he writes all about Matt! Oh well, I guess Andrea and I didn't say what he wanted to hear. ..,and for the record, I DEFINITELY prefer MLB to Korean baseball. It's fun to go here - but seriously - it's not *baseball* ... it's just not.