Monday, October 14, 2013

Take me out to the ballll game....

Props to Whitney for writing about our ballgame adventure on her page...so I could just copy it onto mine :)

In the beginning of June we went to a Korean baseball game for the first time  It was a game between the LG Twins (Seoul) and the Lotte Giants (Busan).  It was quite an experience, to say the least!
It all started off as a usual baseball game starts.  There were large crowds outside the stadium, we scalped some tickets, and went to take our seats.  Only thing out of the ordinary so far was the odd snacks they had for sale outside of the stadium: dried whole squid and fried chicken!







Me and Whitney waiting for the game to begin!
The teams did group stretches out on the ball field before the game started…had never seen this in the States before!


LG Twins

Lotte Giants …STREEETCH!!

Then, the game began.  The teams took their places and got a few cheers from the crowd.  Then, the team cheerleader came out and got a million hoops and hollers and screams and claps from the crowd! We had no idea what was going on! But, this man created more of a hype with the crowd than the teams that were playing did.  He was even wearing a cape!



Do you see how excited these people are?! Then, he threw his cape off!



The baseball game proceeded, and all throughout the game this man was rallying the crowds!  Usually, in American baseball people are quiet during the plays, and then make a ton of noise and sing songs or something during breaks. Not here. They sing songs and cheer all throughout the game!  You barely even notice that there’s a baseball game going on, at some points.







All of the songs that they sang were in Korean…but we recognized most of the tunes.  You will be astonished at what they sing at BASEBALL GAMES!  Some of the songs included:

Singing in the Rain, My Life Would Suck Without You, It’s a Small World After All, I Love Rock and Roll, Obladi (Beatles), If You’re Happy and You Know It, I Don’t Care, We’re Not Gonna Take It, Pretty Woman, Glory Glory Hallelujah, and I Don’t Want Nobody But You

In about the fifth inning, workers started passing out orange plastic bags.  We thought they were being helpful and providing garbage bags for people to clean up their trash.  Nope. They were their rally caps!  Everybody knew exactly what to do with them…so we followed what they did.  Blow them up with air, twist it up, put it on your head, and put the handles around your ears!








We all rallied for the Giants!



Look at all those Giants rally bags!!



The Twins’ rally method wasn’t as cool! They just held up yellow cards.
Some of the girls were making their rally bags into giant bows, so Whitney and I decided to try that out, too.  Korean young ladies are OBSESSED with giant bows at events!




So, after all that excitement…the LG Twins ended up winning.  We were sitting on the Giants side. Oh well.  It was a great experience; and it ended with a beautiful sunset!