Lotte Giants!!

A few weeks ago I took Kelsey to a Lotte Giants game. The Giants are the professional baseball team in Busan and while being the worst team in the Korean Baseball League, they have the biggest stadium and the most dedicated fans. This was her first baseball game, pro or not so I was excited to introduce her to my favorite sport. Koreans love baseball and they are very passionate about whichever team they support. There were quite a few noticeable differences between a Korean baseball game and a Major League Baseball game. The first difference I noticed (which didn't shock me at all) was the stadium food. As we walked to the stadium we had to pass a long line of vendors that were selling beer, jokbal (steamed pigs feet), beer and soju (Korean's adult beverage of choice), all of which (and anything else you want) can be brought into the stadium. Instead of hot dogs and nachos, the vendors were hawking squid jerky, rice and fish cakes. A beer in the stadium (not that I drank any) cost 3,000 won ($2.50) compared to $7 at a Braves game. Each player has their own cheer when they come up to bat. I wish I would have taken some video becuase they were fantastic. There is also many team cheers that the crowd would sing throughout the game. By the time I realized what was being said, the cheer was over and I had to wait until that players next at bat to participate. All of the fans brought big stacks of newspapers and made homemade pompoms to cheer with. By far the most surprising event of the night took place in the 8th inning when the ushers came out and handed each fan an orange plastic bag. I initially thought the bags were supposed to be used to clean up your area of any trash, which would not have surprised me since Koreans are very clean. However, the bags were not used for trash cleanup, but were instead used as decorative items on everyones head. Some people wore the standard bag of air on top of their heads, some made their bags into mickey mouse ears and some fashioned their bags into masks so that only their eyes and mouth were visible. It was quite a sight to see 25,000 people with orange plastic bags on their heads and one that I will not soon forget and qutie frankly look forward to reenacting. About 5 minutes after the game ended, all of the light in the stadium were cut off to keep people from hanging around. By the way, the hometeam won so all in all it was a great experience.