Busan

On Conspicuous Consumption

Sajik Baseball Stadium, 2012

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Hanwha Eagles vs. Lotte Giants
Sajik Baseball Stadium
Korea Professional Baseball
Busan, South Korea
6:30 PM


Outside of the Game:
I had lost my senses and booked a train later than 8 AM, so I had some time to myself in the morning, which I used to leisurely wash and pack up, and then head off to Dondaegu station, where I had a leisurely breakfast before the leisurely train. It was just a quick ride to Busan, and the track I arrived on even dropped me off right next to the tourist office, where I confirmed my directions and got my obligatory map of the city.

Most important meal of the day

Busan's the second-largest city in Korea, so it's subway system was more extensive than the one- and two-line operations in most of the other smaller cities. Getting to my hotel by the convention center involved making a transfer, but I traversed half the city in less than a half hour. The business and convention area of my hotel was built up, but it was nearly impossible to miss the hotel, which had its name written in huge letters on the imposing structure, and it was just slightly smaller than the Trump building behind it. I had to leave my bag for the official check-in, so I headed out for some sight-seeing.

Symbolism

The weather wasn't great. It was constantly misting and windy, and after nearly dying of heat stroke for the majority of the trip, I began to wonder if I was going to slowly freeze to death here. Not having any agenda as per usual, I was just wandering around, when I ran across Shinsegae Centumcity, which proudly proclaims itself to be the largest department store in the world, thus establishing another running theme for these trips. Now, it said the largest department store and not mall, and the Mall of America had been overtaken by that place in Canada by the time I got there, but they had an official Guinness World Records seal and everything, so they can't be lying.

Proof

I took a stroll through the place, eventually having lunch at the food court in one of the countless sub-floors. It actually took a bit of orienteering to get me outside of the building again, into the increasing damp of the day, with the misting officially being upgraded to a drizzle. Since I was in Busan, I figured I might as well head down to the coast, and a short subway ride dumped me in the general location I wanted.

I walked towards the coast, and decided to stop at Dongbaek Park. There's a huge hotel right at the entrance, which at least made it easy to find. Despite the inclement weather, the park was filled with older Koreans, presumably having their constitutionals. The park had a large hill in the center, which led to a pavilion and statue of the philosopher Choi Chi Won, and all around the edges of the park were various walkways and boardwalks out by the ocean, emphasizing that there was no further south to be had here. The APEC House was at the end of the walkways, which was important for some reason I never discovered. Because it eventually got to be time to go to the game, and I headed back to the hotel to check in and grab a hot shower to get the damp out of me and hang up all the drippy clothes.

The edge of things

The subway ride to the stadium was uncontroversial, if damp. Finding the ballpark in the huge complex of stadiums it shared was a bit of poking around, but nothing serious. Getting back to the subway after the game was a bit of a muck-up, as signage was a little scarce and retracing complicated paths in the dark is not as easy as it sounds. Since the stadium was equidistant to two subway stations and there were a number of parking lots scattered all around, it was not just as easy as following the crowd to the obvious destination. I boldly set out in what I thought was the correct direction and ended up following a group of fans to a car park, until a kind soul in one of the groups set me back in the correct direction. Outside of being packed in, once I got to the subway, it was smooth sailing back to the hotel.


The Stadium and Fans:

Center field to home plate, Sajik Baseball Stadium

After what had been a string of little bandbox parks in the smaller cities in Korea, the second largest city in the country also delivered a larger type of stadium. Sajik Baseball Stadium would have fit in perfectly in Japan, and might not even seem too out of place in the MLB. After a run of mostly single-tiered parks wedged tightly into their surroundings, a big concrete stadium with some room to breathe was quite different.

Although there wasn't much in the way of "official" concessions outside the stadium (the standard array of food carts huddled on the periphery, along with actual restaurants on the streets surrounding the stadium), it did feature an actual stadium facade, and in the front of the stadium was a full-sized stadium store, the team offices, and, unique to my experiences in Korea, a team museum.

The Giants Museum was about what I'd come to expect from similar items in the US and Japan. There's the history of the team, the hall of fame, and areas talking about great achievements by teams or players in the history of the franchise. There was also a rather extensive section on the development of the mascot and team fonts and typography, which was certainly a little different, as well as interactive exhibits that let visitors pitch and bat and sit in the stands, which one expects they'd be doing anyway.

I always wanted to be an announcer...

While I was in the museum, one of the staff quickly came up to me and asked if I was American. When you travel a lot, you learn to treat that question with a bit of skepticism, because you never know what was going to come next. However, he was just really enthusiastic about seeing an American come visit the museum, and we ended up talking about baseball for a while. He gave me some extra brochures and sent me on my way.

As I mentioned, Sajik Stadium was one of the bigger parks I had been to in the course of the trip this far. It had an interesting "flowing" layout, with four levels of seats above the field behind home plate, tapering out to three rows of seats above the field along the baselines, and then only two rows of seats above the field in the bleachers. Along the baselines, there was also a row of seats on field level, and, as per Japanese fashion, a row of seats on the field itself in foul territory. There were the home and away stages by the dugouts, but they were located above the row of seats on field level on both sides. You could walk all around the park, with the exception of the area behind home plate, which had tickets-only admittance for all the levels of seating.

Awards

There was one interior walkway circling the entire building, with various concession stands build into the passage. There were more familiar Western fare like KFC, as well as Korean standards such as Loteria. (I had a "Bulgogi Burger" for dinner.) There was even a full-scale kids area located along one of the baselines.

Lotte fans are well-known for being passionate, and wherever they play in Korea, there always seems to be a large contingent of Giants fans in attendance. In their home park, they were out in force, mostly filling up the place, although there were a small troop of Eagles fans in attendance as well. The Giants fans dominated the proceedings, however, and while it was heartening to see such support for a team, it did lead to some unmentionable horrors, such as the wave being instigated by the Giants MC that swept around the oddly-shaped stadium. To be fair, they did some interesting things with it, at least. They started with a regular wave, and then they did a super slow-motion wave, and then a super-fast wave. Everyone was pretty lit up anyway, so the fact that they were able to coordinate something that complicated is worthy of some appreciation if only for that.

Yeah, about this...

Another late-inning tradition that I did not quite understand was the bags on the heads. Towards the end of the game, the fans all blew up Giants' plastic bags and then tied them to their head, anchored on their ears. They left them there was most of the remainder of the game, cheering along like it was all perfectly normal. Who am I to judge, really?


At the Game with Oogie:

Bulgogi Burger

The wait on line to get tickets was extremely long for some reason. They didn't open the ticket windows until about an hour and a half before game time, and by then I was in the middle of line extending back out of sight, and I was at just one of the ticket windows for the facility. To their credit, once the windows did open, the line cleared out within minutes, so points for efficiency.

Being a single, I had managed to score a seat down in the home cheering section on the first base line, right in back of the on-field seating. On three sides, I had groups of twenty-somethings out for a good time, and to my left I had two older businessmen out for a good time.

As was becoming common, one of the men started watching me doing the scorecard, and then the curiosity got the better of him as he tried to ask what I was doing. Between some rudimentary Korean, gestures, and examples, I managed to convey the purpose of the thing. He nodded and offered me a beer. If that wasn't Korea in a nutshell, I don't know what is.


The Game:

First pitch, Eagles vs. Giants

This one wasn't even as close as it seemed, especially given how it started. The visiting Eagles walked the bases loaded with one out in the top of the first, and then managed to get nothing of it, going down meekly back-to-back to end the inning. The Giants were not so accommodating. A leadoff double was sacrificed to third and then driven in with a single. A walk, an out, and two singles followed, driving in two more before a pop-out to second ended the inning, 3-0 Giants.

The Eagles only managed a walk in their half of the second, and the Giants only had a single in their part, erased on a steal attempt. The Eagles did get on the board in the third. A one-out single and hit-by-pitch got driven in with a two-out double, making the score 3-2 Giants, marking as close as this one would get. Two singles and a sacrifice fly got one back for the Giants in the bottom of the third, leaving it 4-2 Giants.

A leadoff double and a walk went for naught for the Eagles in the fourth, but the Giants were not done. A leadoff single was sacrificed to second and then went to third on a long fly out to center, but a liner home run out to right made the base movement irrelevant, notching the score at 6-2 Giants before the end of the inning.

Things settled down for the fifth, with the Eagles scattering a single and the Giants getting nothing out of a one-out double. The Eagles then did nil with back-to-back walks with one out in the top of the sixth, but the Giants tacked on another one in their half with a one-out hit batmsman stealing second and being driven in on a two-out double, leaving it 7-2 Giants.

The Eagles only managed an infield hit in the seventh, while the Giants kept the train rolling. A leadoff single and walk were both sacrificed over to second and third with one out and were promptly driven in by a single to right, making it a laugher at 9-2 Giants. A single hit sacrificed over to second were all the Eagles had in the eighth, and the Giants went in order.

Another leadoff single made it to second on a fielder's choice, but the Eagles could do nothing else in the ninth, leaving it 9-2 Giants as the final, in a somewhat lengthy three-and-a-half hour game.


The Scorecard:

Eagles vs. Giants, 06/27/12. Giants win, 9-2.

Another fairly straightforward game, and outside of a lot of assists from the left side of the Giant infield and a metric ton of walks, there wasn't anything really out of the ordinary. One variation I went with this game was changing from alphanumeric notation for hits (1B-9) to linear (_/). Given the limited amount of real estate in the boxes on the BBWAA scorebook, I decided to see if it would increase the clarity of the cards. I think the experiment was a success and continued to use it for the remainder of the trip.


The Accommodations:

Centum City Hotel

I don't remember ordering this room, but I do have to wonder what I was thinking. The Centum City Hotel was right next door to Busan's largest convention center, and it was one of the poshest places I've ever stayed. There was a Lions International convention in town, so it was full of Westerners, which was the largest concentration thereof I had seen since I arrived up to that point.

The hotel itself is part of a larger mall complex, and it is somewhat built in to that structure. They were strict about their check-in time, so I had to leave my back with the concierge while I did my wanderings around before check-in. Once I came back at check-in time, there were lines twelve deep to check in, a process that took a good twenty minutes, but eventually ended.

When I got up to my room on the executive suites level, I really started wondering what I was thinking when I booked this place. My room was a huge suite, with a separate living room, bedroom, bath, and kitchen. Kitchen. This place had a damned kitchen. At this point, I went to check my book to see how much I paid for this luxury apartment, and I remembered why I probably did this: because the room just wasn't that expensive at all, especially for a room that had a direct view of the convention center plaza next door.

The bathroom was a little problematic because there did not seem to be any way to use the shower that did not immediately flood the bathroom. Now, there were signs warning to be careful of slippery floors, but I'm not sure this was what they had in mind. I'm a reasonably smart person. There weren't any hidden doors or the like I could find. I was utterly baffled by this arrangement since the room was so well thought-out and opulent.

For all its relative benefits and demerits, I spent a grand total of two hours in it awake.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2012 Korea

Daejeon

On This Is Why We Have Drills

Deajeon Baseball Stadium, 2012

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Doosan Bears vs. Hanwha Eagles
Deajeon Baseball Stadium
Korea Professional Baseball
Deajeon, South Korea
5:00 PM


Outside of the Game:
And thus began my routine of waking up early to drag all of my crap around to a new hotel and go to a game and come back to pack to get ready to get up early the next day and do it all again.

I had a relatively early train this day, and I wasn't entirely sure how long it would take to get back to Seoul station from my hotel, so I tried to give myself extra leeway, yet I managed to utterly unanticipated the amount of time and effort it would take me to make two subway transfers with all my crap. I managed to miss my train. But that ended up being for the best, and I quickly got a ticket for the next train out and was able to go grab some breakfast and catch my breath.

On the entranceway to the departing train tracks, there is a sign informing that ticketed passengers only are allowed in this area, but it is okay, they trust us. That is really nearly verbatim what the sign said. Oh you wacky, South Koreans. You can't just go around treating people like adults. Where will that get you?

It was a short train ride down to Deajeon, most of which I spent unconscious. It was a short subway ride to my hotel, which I took grumbling all the way while dragging my bag with me. The Deajeon subway system is not nearly on the scale of Seoul system, and instead of RFID smart cards for single trips, they use RFID chips that are about the size of a casino token. You get one when you pay, and then you deposit it in the turnstile at the end of the trip. Altogether a pretty nifty way of handling things, though frequent users seemed to prefer a traditional smart card that you can reload or get unlimited passes.

I dragged my bag around the street looking for my hotel for a little while, as the hotel was located in the restaurant section of town among an infinite amount of little streets. I eventually found it, and they were good enough to let me check in early. I spent some time getting everything ready for tomorrow, as this would only be one-day stay, and I was off early again tomorrow morning. Since it was a slightly earlier game today and I had learned yesterday to get there as early as three hours before the game, I didn't have a lot of time before I had to set off again.

On the way out after dropping everything off at the hotel, I asked one of the staff about directions to the stadium. He turned out to be an Eagles fan and was surprised at two things. He was firstly surprised that I was going to a game. He was additionally surprised that I thought walking the 20 minutes to the stadium was something I was going to do. He very patiently gave me directions, and even wrote down the name of the stadium in Korean (so I could ask people as I went). But even with that, he gave me the second, "Well, good luck, round eye" I had received so far in the trip.

After a few turns from the hotel, the walk to the stadium was a fairly straightforward run. It was all one long street, so I was in no particular danger of getting lost, though I was in very real danger of being baked to death. It was after the worst part of the day, sun-wise, but it was still hot, and while the direction I had to walk for the stadium wasn't complicated, it also didn't have any shops on it for most of the duration. I nearly passed up one in the early going, but had the prescience to grab a bottle of water.

I have a fairly simple and easy-to-follow flow chart on water consumption during the day for these trips: Are you drinking water?
- Yes? Good. ^
- No? Drink water. ^^

But my problem was that for the rest of the walk out there, there were just no stores I could find along the way. I figured that once I got the stadium area that there would be shops to service the sporting fans, but whether it was because it was Saturday or because it was so early before the game, none of the stores were opened. And boy, it was hot, and boy, I was not following my simple and easy-to-follow flowchart.

After a little walking, I found a coffee shop that had just opened. I bought a cookie and they sold me a bottle of water that they had in a cooler for sale to fans later. I stayed inside re-hydrating in the AC out of the heat for as long as I could before it got awkward. I then went to check on the stadium, and the ticket windows were still far from opening, so I went into a sporting goods store down the street to get stay out of the heat for a while.

Eventually, the ticket booths were primed to open, so I headed back to buy my ticket and start taking my pictures.

The way back to the hotel was a little tricky. (Spoiler alert, for anyone who cares.) It was still coming down in buckets, but I was already decked out in my clear raincoat (though I had left my umbrella back at the hotel, for some reason). I managed to get turned around and walked the wrong way down the main street for a while before I realized my error and set back off in the right direction.

Televised StarCraft

Walking into the hotel bedraggled and soaked, I probably validated every misgiving the hotel clerk had about me earlier in the day. Utterly exhausted, I went back to the room to take a hot shower and soak, hung up the rain slicker and the rest of my clothes to dry for the night, and then went straight to bed. Turning on the TV, I found out there was an entire channel dedicated to competitive video games. (South Korea has a professional video game league.) And even though I couldn't understand nearly any of it, I had to stay up to watch a Starcraft match televised, because how couldn't you, really?


The Stadium and Fans:

Center field to home plate, Daejeon Baseball Stadium

In most of the smaller cities with teams, the baseball stadiums were also correspondingly smaller than in the big cities. And many of them, as can be the case in Asia, were wedged into tiny spaces in larger athletic complexes. Daejeon Baseball Stadium was the first of these that I encountered, and it fit the bill to a tee. It was about the size of an American AA park, with one row of seats that went around the entire stadium, with a second level of seats between first and third. The premium seats behind home plate were closed off from everything, but a walkway went around the entire rest of the stadium, including the bleachers area. You can even walk behind the batter's eye and main scoreboard. There's a special Eagles fan club area in center field, presumably for members of the club.

The stadium itself was really wedged in there, and there was the tiniest of walkways that went around it in many places. And it was right up against the surrounding buildings, to the point where you could probably easily hand someone in the stadium something from the window of the building next door. I have to wonder if they ever get any noise complaints.

As with the other stadiums in Korea, you could bring your own food in, but there was a limited selection of concessions in the front and the outfield. I decided to chance it and eat inside the park. At the very front of the stadium, they had a number of concessions that included an Austrian hot dog place, which made it pretty much a gimmie for me. I bought an Austrian hot dog at a Korean park, and then promptly got a mustard stain on my shirt at a ballgame half way around the world.

Similar to Japanese teams, they do an elaborate pre-game show for the fans outside the stadium. It is run by the team MC, the cheerleaders, and the mascots. It involves dancing by the cheerleaders, and the MC and mascots leading fans in several silly games. One of them this day was a water balloon toss, which is always good for some laughs.

Pre-game dancing

Though the Bears did have some fans in attendance, it was a Eagles crowd for the most part. They were passionate and loud for most of the game, as per normal. But what really struck me was how prepared they all were when it started to rain. Anyone who's been to an American game when there's the briefest of showers knows that it is usually the cue for nearly half of the crowd to head for cover. When it started raining enough to be noticed, most of the fans just pulled out rain slickers the same way I did and continued to watch the game. Nearly no one left their seats. Even when the big downpour started, most people did not leave their seats until the umpires suspended play. The way the stadium was constructed, there was precious little places under cover from rain, so the crowd pretty much smushed in and huddled up until the rain let up.

Hiding from the rain

And when it did, the same number of seats were filled as when the rain started. It didn't seem to occur to anyone to go home. Play resumed, and the crowd leaped on right at it.


At the Game with Oogie:

Scoring in the rain

Without my Korean friend from the day before, I was on my own to get tickets for the first time. There were actually a couple of Caucasian girls two lines over from me, so I felt a little less nervous about it. Working out how I was going to ask for a ticket gave me something to do for the time I was waiting on line for a ticket. I considered the many options available to me. These eventually ranged from being a complete American about it and just holding up one finger and hoping for the best (or someone who spoke a little English), to trying out what limited Korean I had available to try and say something such as "first-base seat." As the ticket gates finally opened, I opted for something awkwardly in the middle, which was a hand-drawn infield and stadium, with seats drawn behind first base. Although this ultimately worked, it was helped by a seat map she had behind her so I could point to the appropriate section and hold up one finger for the number of tickets, and she held up fingers for how much (in thousand won) the ticket cost, and I was the proud owner of a Korean baseball ticket.

And a real hot dog

It is important to note how stupidly cheap these tickets were. The most expensive seat I had in the whole of my trip was about 18,000 won (~$15), and I was exclusively sitting between home and first for the whole trip. I can see how baseball stays so popular in Korea: It is extremely affordable. Because, remember, these were the (relatively) expensive seats (though the home plate seats at most of the stadiums were between $25-$55 dollars), and decent tickets could be had for a couple of bucks, and bad ones for next to nothing.

I was sitting again on the home-team first-base side of the field, right between first base and home. It was another packed house, and it was families everywhere, perhaps because it was a weekend. I experienced people trying out their English on me for the first time. In Japan, it is pretty obvious you're a foreigner, but socially, the country is more conservative, and people don't want to risk embarrassing themselves by making a mistake when speaking with strangers.

Boy, is that not the case in Korea. People are more than happy to use you as an opportunity to practice their English, and they are not shy about it. Not to say Koreans were obnoxious or anything, but they were not afraid to come right up to you. Which is disconcerting for me, because I know for a fact that I don't know anybody in the country, so I'm not expecting anyone to be talking to me, and it is disorienting after just getting used to hearing everything in a foreign language to suddenly get dealt some English.

Which is why it must have looked like I was ignoring one of the people sitting next to me when they kept saying "Hello" to me. I just wasn't expecting it. Eventually, I realized what was going on, and said, "Hello" back. "Nice to meet you." "It is nice to meet you, too." "Goodbye." "Goodbye. Anyeonghi haseyo." (Which was kind of weird, because Korean has a goodbye to a person staying and a goodbye person leaving, but I wasn't quite sure what to whip out when both of us were staying.) I had dozens of those conversations, or something very similar, all throughout my stay.


The Game:

First pitch, Bears vs. Eagles

This was a quick-moving little game that would have ended even faster without all the rain delays. Both sides had first-inning threats that went nowhere. The visiting Bears started the game with a single and a stolen base, but except for a one-out walk, they left the runner is scoring position. Thr Eagles did them one better with a leadoff double moved over to third on a fielder's choice, followed by a walk, who both got stranded with a shallow pop-out and a strikeout. The Bears went in order in the second, but the Eagles had a leadoff single moved over on a groundout. At this point, the misty rain that had been falling turned into a downpour, and everyone flocked to the minimal cover available as gameplay was halted. The rain delay only lasted about fifteen minutes before they started the process to play again in the now-lessened rain, where the Eagles had two quick outs to finally end the inning.

Again in the third, the Bears went in order, and the Eagles did them one better by striking out looking for their entire side. Keeping to form, the Bears went in order again in the fourth, but the Eagles finally broke through. A one-out walk was followed by a single, and a two-out walk loaded the bases before another single brought in two runs and left it first and third, with the Eagles up, 2-0. A bizarre steal attempt ended the threat.

Breaking the streak, the Bears managed a single and a stolen base in the top of the fifth with nothing to show for it, while the Eagles answered with a hit batsman and a stolen base. The Bears kept this party going with a bunt single and a stolen base in the sixth, erasing everyone with a double play. The Eagles did slightly better in their half of the inning, with a single and error on the third baseman putting two runners on with two outs, but a weak fly out to center ended the inning.

The anemic Bears managed a single and a walk in the seventh with nothing to show for it, but the Eagles jumped all over a new Bears pitcher in the bottom of the inning. Back-to-back walks resulted in another pitcher being brought in to promptly give up a double to clear the bases. He almost got out of it, but gave up another two-out double to make the score 5-3 before a pop to left ended the scoring.

The Bears got a single in the eighth before the Eagles tagged on another run with a one-out walk, a double, a ground-out put the score at 6-0. The rain began to fall again in earnest in the top of the ninth, but the umpire crew seemed determine to finish up the game. The compliant Bears went in order to seal the 6-0 Eagles victory. A soggy on-field celebration followed.


The Scorecard:

Bears vs. Eagles, 06/23/12. Eagles win, 6-0.

Besides the rain, most of the game was pretty straightforward. There was another strike-'em-out-throw-'em-out double play in the top of the sixth, and the Eagles all struck out looking in the bottom of the third, but the only really weird play was in the bottom of the fourth. With first and third and two outs, something happened. The runner on first took off to second, drawing a throw, but when the runner at third made a break for home, he got caught in a run-down, leading to a run-of-the-mill 1-4-2-5-3 caught stealing put-out.


The Accommodations:

Dealim Tourist Hotel

I think I splurged a little when I booked this hotel, but I can't really remember all that much since it was months ago. It was definitely a business hotel, despite the inaccurate name of "Dealim Tourist Hotel." Perhaps it meant it in the "American Tourister" usage of the word.

At any rate, the place was aspiring to higher pretensions than the name would suggest to the average American. It had its own restaurant and a lavish Western-style foyer. They checked me in as early as I had shown up, and my room was a combination of Western size in Korean style. There was the traditional entry room where you have to ditch the dog wrappers, and then there was huge room with traditional wood flooring and low beds. The bathroom was a larger version of the PLEX bathroom, with a full-sized tub and free-standing sink instead of the abbreviated versions in my previous hotel. For some reason I had two beds, but that was no doubt due to my not paying attention when booking the room. There was also a larger version of the communications/beauty stand from the PLEX hotel, with a tremendous thin-panel TV on one side, a full PC DVD station in the middle, and the beauty/toiletry station on the other end.

Outside of my necessary soak in the tub after the game to keep all the parts moving, and the pit stop once I checked in to get everything ready for the next day, I didn't spend a ton of time in the room, but I enjoyed what time I did spend.

Click here to see all the photos from this trip.

2012 Korea