Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Daegu

On Steve Trachsel's Slower Brother

Daegu Baseball Stadium
Daegu Baseball Stadium, 2012
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
SK Wyverns vs. Samsung Lions
Deagu Baseball Stadium
Korea Professional Baseball
Daegu, South Korea
6:30 PM


Outside of the Game:
So having gotten myself to the furthest south island in Korea, I was then required to get myself back to the mainland in time for a game later that day. That involved yet another relatively early morning in Seogwipo, where I dragged all my stuff out of the hotel and down the street to get the limousine bus back to the airport and get another brief glimpse at the ecological wonder in the center of the island that I only glimpsed briefly in two bus trips.

Jeju International Airport
Jeju International Airport

Jeju International Airport seemed much larger on the way out than the way in. I was able to check-in for my flight and divest myself of my large bag early on in the process, and I had quite a lot of walking around time in the spacious airport. I got some breakfast and bought some cheesy souvenirs, as is my wont, had a breakfast of some more of that black-skinned pork, and then took off exploring to kill some time.

I found a solution to my time killing process fairly quickly, as on a large flat screen near one of the departure gates, they had the day's Yankee game playing to a packed crowd of onlookers. I wrangled up a seat and watched a few innings of the game and headed off to my gate after seeing back-to-back Yankee home runs. As it happens, my plane was slightly delayed (they handle the increments of delays in five minute intervals), so I wandered off for ten minutes and came back to find them boarding.

Yankees game
The inescapable Yankees

Well, sort of. When we walked onto the jetway, we were actually being taken to a bus. They loaded us all in (no word on what would happen for stragglers, to be honest), and then we had a short bus ride out to the tarmac, where we boarded the plane. It was an early-morning flight to one of the less-important domestic destinations, so the plane was about half full at best. I had a row to myself. We eventually got going and took off in short order.

I'd like to tell you if the entertainment was more YouTube videos, but I was out like a light for the flight. When I woke up, I found that the stewardess had put a sticker on my seat saying that they didn't want to disturb me while I was sleeping and if I wanted the snack allowed to me on the flight, just flag them down when I woke up. Asiana Airlines, everybody. That's some quality customer service.

After a really short flight, we put down at Daegu International Airport. It was a smallish little place, although we didn't have to take a bus back to the gate, at least. I got off the flight and got my bag in short order (it was one of about three on the entire flight), and, as per normal, I headed off to the tourist information desk to figure out how to get into town.

Except there was no one at the desk when I got there, so I went to get some more breakfast in me, and by the time I was back, the counter was staffed. I got my map and my bearings, and the counterperson suggested I take a cab to the hotel since it would be a bit of a walk from the airport to the subway line. Tired and sick of dragging this damned bag around, I took her up on the suggestion, and I managed to somehow land a luxury limo cab, but since it cost about $5, I didn't worry too much. In the relative lap of cab luxury, I went out to the hotel, dropped off my bag, and set out into the world.

I had nothing resembling an agenda for Daegu, so I set off for a park that was near where I needed to go for the game that housed the big tourist information center. A brief subway ride later, and I was there. On the way to the park, I came across "e World," which was some manner of Disneyland-eque amusement park that had teddy bears instead of rodents as the mascots. As I only had an hour or two to kill, I didn't go inside, but I almost wish I had just to see what it was like. Oh, well.

e World
e World

I went on to Duryu Park and walked around for a while. I stopped in the visitor center, which gave me a bunch of great ideas for things I did not nearly have the time for, and it had a huge craft arts shop next door that I stopped in to get some things for myself and others. After that, I just wandered around the park for a while, going through the statuary garden and watching older men play various board games in the park. After any plane flight, I find a good ramble in a park helps to shake it out of me.

Eventually, I had to go back to the hotel and get my stuff for the game. I took the subway back to the hotel and checked in. I went back to the room and got all my stuff ready for the next day, grabbed my game bag, and went back out to the park.

The stadium was a little hard to navigate to from the subway on the way out. After the game, even though it was night, it was fairly obvious where most of the crowd was headed, so it made it easier to get back to the subway and the hotel.

I puttered about in the room working on my scorecard and watching Starcraft matches on TV before getting to bed for another day of the Men's 15,000 Meter Luggage Dead-Lift and Carry.


The Stadium and Fans:
Home to center, Daegu Baseball Stadium
Home plate to center field, Daegu Baseball Stadium

Daegu Baseball Stadium was cut right from the mold of the smaller ballparks I saw in Korea. It was one circuit of seats all around the stadium, with the seats behind home plate and the bleachers sealed off in their own section, and an extra row of seats between first and third. It was part of a larger sports complex, but it wasn't quite as wedged in as some other examples I came across in my travels. There were few concessions in the stadium itself, and walking around inside the stadium was via really cramped walkways. I found an extremely tiny path that connected the first- and third-base sides of the field, and there were some stealth concessions located in the junction.

The fans were up to what I had come to expect of the Korea standard of enthusiasm. There was a rather small visiting team contingent and a lack of MC and cheerleaders, but I do not know if it was because of the relative distance of the opposing team, which was about as far away from Daegu as you could get in Korea. The Lions had won the championship last year, so their motto this year was the somewhat naggy, "Yes, One More Time," which I thought put a little too much pressure on the them, to be honest. The Lions had a squad of four or five mascots instead of the one or two that most other teams had, but they were sponsored by the largest corporation in Korea, so I suppose it made its own sense. They were more involved than other mascots in the various festivities before and during the game, which makes sense since if you have the guys dressed up in the animal suits, you may as well use them.

Mascots
Pre-game conference

There was the regular between-inning dance numbers by the cheerleaders, but they did have one thing that was unique to my experience in Korea: a limbo contest. Instead of a cheerleader dance, they had a group of fans come out to the dugout stage and compete in what turned out to be a rather hard-fought limbo extravaganza, as the fans they chose turned out to be much better than your average person at limbo. The contest went longer than the between-inning break and continued on for nearly the entire half-inning the opposing team was batting before there was a single champion who could shuffle under the bar successfully.


At the Game with Oogie:
Riding pine
Visitor's side

I had two odd experiences before I even got to the ticket window here. As I was wandering out taking my pictures of the stadium, one of the older women running the peripheral concessions got very angry at me having a camera near her. I'm not sure if it was because of the dubious legality of what they were doing or something else, but she yelled at me until I went away. Discretion being the better part of valor, I gave her a wide berth when I was photographing the rest of the stadium.

Also on the outskirts of the stadium, I ran into quite an odd site. There was a taco truck run by two Canadians. Apparently, they run a Mexican restaurant in town and were coming out to the game for the first time that day to see if the endeavor was worthwhile. I was talking to them for a little while, when one of the Caucasian pitchers for the Lions came out and got some tacos. One of the staff of the team had told him about the truck, so he was out to try the wares. His translator had gotten separated from him, so amusingly, he didn't have any money to pay them, so he gave them an accepted IOU for later.

While I was on line for tickets, I was inadvertently rude to another person looking to practice their English. I was daydreaming in line, until I realized that there was a man saying "Hello" to me gradually louder and louder until I heard it. I had to apologize and go through the start English practice drill with him.

I managed to successfully buy a ticket using my regular method, but as it turned out, the Lions were one of the teams that switches it up (at least that day) and has the home team rooting section on the third base side. I had no way of knowing that until I was inside, but as a control set for the trip, I figured it would be good anyway to sit with the visiting team for once.

It turned out that the visiting SK Wyverns did not have much of a presence at the game. They did not send their MC or cheerleaders, and there was just a handful of Wyverns fans on the first base side of the field. In fact, I was sitting right next to two teenage Lions fans.

Their curiosity got the better of them, and they eventually asked me what I was doing keeping score. It was an interesting experience, as both of them knew a lot of baseball and a little English, and between the tag-team of them, and my now-practiced show-and-write version from Gwangju, they eventually grokked what I was doing well enough.


The Game:
First pitch, Wyverns vs. Lions
First pitch, Wyverns vs. Lions

There is one fair and cogent criticism that you can raise against Korean baseball. It is that the Korean game can get awfully slow-paced once runners get on, as pitchers will do everything up to selling their fielding arm to keep the runner on the base and not get sacrificed over or steal. It can be fair enough in a tight situation or when the score is extremely close, but this game just about took the cake. A Western pitcher was on the mound, and even staked to an early lead, the game just about made time go backward whenever there was a man on base. Before he got pulled, we were on a pace for, no kidding around, a five-hour game. Once he got mercifully replaced in the sixth, the remaining relievers managed to tie the game up in just over three hours, but that just puts how slow the first part of it was in context.

The game started with a walk for the visiting Wyverns, but a strikeout and double play would end the threat. The Lions went to work early, and for the most part, did not stop. A leadoff walk was followed by an error and another walk to load the bases. A one-out single drove in one, and a sacrifice fly to center plated another. Then another single made it 3-0, before a walk and a flyout ended the inning.

The Wyverns started the second with another walk and then promptly closed the game to 3-2 with a two-run homer to center before going in order for the rest of the inning. The Lions only managed a walk in their half of the second, and the Wyverns only scratched out a single in the top of third. A two-out rally in the bottom of the third with a single, double, and another single gave the Lions some breathing room at 5-2 at the end of three.

The Wyverns had something in the top of the fourth, with back-to-back singles making it first and third with no outs, but the rest of the inning went in order. The Lions only managed to get a hit batsman in the bottom of the inning. The Wyverns went in order in the fifth, and the Lions only managed a single.

The Wyverns again went in order in the sixth, but the Lions clearly decided to put it away. A lead off single and a stolen base came home on a one-out single that made it to second on the throw home. A walk and then a single brought another run home and left it second and third with one out as both runners advanced on the throw to the plate. A sacrifice fly brought in another run before a ground-out ended the inning, with the Lions in possession of a commanding 8-2 lead.

The top of the seventh went it order, and despite a leadoff single, the Lions did nothing in their half of the inning. The eighth was a repeat of the last three innings for the Wyverns, and the Lions jumped on the bandwagon to go in order in the last of the eighth.

Then things got a little interesting. A new pitcher for the Lions promptly gave up a bomb home run to center to start the inning. The next batter hit another monster blast to center, making the score a more respectable 8-4. The next three went in order to preserve the Lions' 8-4 win.


The Scorecard:
Wyverns vs. Lions, 06-26-12. Lions win, 8-4.Wyverns vs. Lions, 06-26-12. Lions win, 8-4.
Wyverns vs. Lions, 06/26/12. Lions win, 8-4.


After the myriad weirdness I'd encountered so far, this was a rather straightforward, if s l o w  p a c e d, game (at least until the starters got out). There were a few oddities, such as an L-5-4 double-play in the top of the first to start things off and the 5Ut in the top of the first on a one-hopper to third to get the runner on third off base, but nothing to match the craziness I'd encountered to this point in Korea.


The Accommodations:
Eldis Regent
Eldis Regent

I stayed at the Eldis Regent for my one day in Daegu. It was a mid- to high-end business hotel, and once again, probably more hotel than I really needed, but it was in a very convenient location and had a great rate for some reason.

It was the first hotel that wouldn't let me check in early, although it wasn't much of an issue. I just left my bags at the hotel and set off into town and did my thing.

The room was on the smaller side, but very nice. The entry hallway had the (tubless) bathroom on the right, and the bedroom had a big TV on the wall opposite the bed, a small wardrobe, and a desk and cabinet next to the bed. It was all very nice, but once again, I spent maybe two or so hours there awake.



2012 Korea

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