Finding a New Baseball Home in the KBO

July 10, 2019 8:50 AM

Last week, I sat down with four of the foreign-born players in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) to discuss their experiences playing in Korea. - Sung Min Kim
posted by Think_Long (13 comments total)

I hadn't thought about it before, but one of the things they cover (right at the end) is quality of life in travel time. Your family can come to every away game, if they want to. (I feel like cultural isolation of the wives, more than the children, is not covered properly here -- they must be brave.)
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 9:26 AM on July 10, 2019

"They don’t even have to go outside since they can go to an underground mall"

Egads.

I wonder if they feel free to say anything that's not positive? People can be tetchy about foreign guests suggesting that there's anything they don't like about the host country.
posted by 1adam12 at 9:33 AM on July 10, 2019

As far as in-game differences go, I feel like much is explained by the fact that a few years ago, instead of a Home Run Derby, the KBO put together a precision bunting contest, which is honestly pretty cool and something I would strongly support MLB getting in on.
posted by Copronymus at 9:35 AM on July 10, 2019 [7 favorites]

Grepped this thread for my name, leaving disappointed.
posted by Kibo at 9:52 AM on July 10, 2019 [3 favorites]

I'd be interested in hearing more about how playing in South Korea compares to playing in Japan. This was mentioned, but just in passing.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:24 PM on July 10, 2019

Not Korea, but for an amazing, book length dive into being a foreign baseball player in Japan, read You Gotta Have Wa. One of my favorite books.

I'm very jealous of the stadium atmosphere that seems to exist in Korean and Japanese leagues. I'd love to go to a game there. Last week I ended up going to one Seattle Sounders soccer game, and one Seattle Mariners game, and I literally brought a book to the Mariners game, just to be safe. There's a time for that kind of very laid-back sporting event, but nothing compares to a whole stadium booing - boisterously, in unison, like 35,000 foghorns - every time the opposing goalie got the ball because he was the villain for the day. Baseball needs more of that.

Somebody did streak at the baseball game, though, so there's hope.
posted by Corduroy at 12:45 PM on July 10, 2019 [2 favorites]

Grepped this thread for my name, leaving disappointed.

Sorry, I left it on my skiboat.
posted by cortex at 12:53 PM on July 10, 2019 [1 favorite]

I'm very jealous of the stadium atmosphere that seems to exist in Korean and Japanese leagues. I'd love to go to a game there.

Yeah, that's always one of my takeaways from reading about the Korean league especially.
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:08 PM on July 10, 2019

I just love the idea of a professional league ballplayer hopping the train to "work" along with all of the downtown suits.
posted by Think_Long at 1:40 PM on July 10, 2019

Hearkening back to the early days of the sport when players all lived in the city they played in, and worked off-season jobs, too.
posted by Chrysostom at 2:01 PM on July 10, 2019

With the distance thing, I expect you'd get even more games with lots of fans from both teams (alluded to in the article). Even in Japan that can be tough (travel distance is a lot further), so it's mostly hardcore supporter teams from what I've seen. But in Korea an "away" game could be less of a commute than me driving to one of the "local" teams in traffic.

["the place is split right down the middle between Doosan and Hanwha fans" --- to go from Daejeon to Jamsil stadium is a 1.5 hr train ride according to Google Maps]

On the flip side of this, there are currently 5 KBO players in MLB. I imagine cultural issues there vary widely by location, in LA we have Hyun-jin Ryu on the Dodgers, who play very close to the largest Korean population in the US.
posted by thefoxgod at 2:38 PM on July 10, 2019

I'm very jealous of the stadium atmosphere that seems to exist in Korean and Japanese leagues. I'd love to go to a game there.

I was able to go to a Hanshin Tigers game in Japan and it was a much different (and better) experience than any baseball game I've been to here in Toronto. We were sat in a cheering/supporter section where there was an expectation that we'd be singing and cheering the whole time and the cheerleaders were people who instead of trying to impress us with their dance moves and physique were actually involved in leading the cheers. I have sat in the supporter section for a couple of Toronto FC games and the atmosphere was better but still nowhere near as good as at that baseball game.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:22 PM on July 10, 2019 [2 favorites]

This is a picture I took of one of the cheerleaders. The sign in front of him is letting people know which cheer we'll be doing.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:34 PM on July 10, 2019 [2 favorites]