South Korean police join @LAPD baseball invitational, loses to @NYPD 7-9 http://t.co/dhVEyCJcYq #LAPDbaseballteam pic.twitter.com/1NwXrCsLMe
— The Korea Times (@koreatimes) September 9, 2015
South Korean singer Yangpa performs during a baseball match between the Texas Rangers and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas, on June 15, 2015. She sang the national anthems of South Korea and the United States consecutively, winning the applause of spectators. (Yonhap)
With all the news around how 8 Kansas City players could start on the American League All-Star team due to a surge in online fan voting this got me wondering if South Korean netizens were behind this? I ask because the Kansas City Royals are a popular team in Korea now due to their SuperFan Lee Sung-woo. If anyone knows how to get out the vote online it is South Koreans netizens. So is this online voting surge just a coincidence or has anyone seen anything in regards to South Koreans getting out the vote for the Kansas City Royals?:
– In every corner of the Kansas City Royals‘ clubhouse, they revel in the chaos, each player’s face contorted into something that resembles a Guy Fawkes mask. Somehow, the American League All-Star team’s lineup as of today consists of eight Royals and the best player in the world, and this, to them, is the most glorious kind of anarchy, one everybody involved wants to believe is built on the back of pure passion.
It may well be that the 25th-sized market of Major League Baseball’s 26 mobilized, rocked the vote and did so without the help of a sneaky Python script or an undetectable Perl script or any of the ways around the system that for the first time has gone online only and seen itself turned completely on its head. Because right now, the single worst offensive player in baseball is the AL starter at second base and the single best offensive player in the AL is not starting and the entire thing is like a coastal fever dream in which the Midwest rises up and fights back for all those years of flyover jokes. [Yahoo Sports]
You can read the rest at the link.
Just when you thought you have seen all the stupid incidents a soldier could cause in Korea someone finds a new level of stupid:
Police say a U.S. soldier was detained after rushing onto the field during a professional baseball game in Seoul in what they called a “heroic” attempt to impress his girlfriend.
The soldier, identified by South Korean police as a 30-year-old corporal, rushed onto the field of Jamsil Stadium around 7:30 p.m. Saturday during a nationally televised game between the Doosan Bears and Hanhwa Eagles.
Doosan security guards nabbed the soldier, who was attending the game with friends, as he ran toward second to first base. Officials suspended the game for about five minutes following the incident.
8th Army spokesman Col. Shawn Stroud said the soldier has been released to his unit and is being investigated by South Korean police. A Jamsil police officer said police could smell alcohol on his breath. His name was not released.
The soldier is expected to be charged with obstruction of work, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison and a fine up to 15 million won (about $13,700). The officer said the soldier is unlikely to receive the stiffest punishment, and similar disturbances have resulted in fines or suspended sentences. [Stars & Stripes]
Ryu Hyun-jin ‘dates hard’ in offseason http://t.co/pZNEMvGRMO #RyuHyunJin pic.twitter.com/gfPENH1eZm
— The Korea Times (@koreatimes) January 20, 2015
Via the Marmot’s Hole comes this interesting story about a Korean superfan who has become the face of the fanbase for the Kansas City Royals baseball team that will take on the San Francisco Giants in the World Series:
The Irish have the Blarney Stone, the Chinese rub Buddha’s belly and the Kansas City Royals have Lee Sung-woo.
They have who, what, huh?
Okay, so the story goes that in the middle of the American major league baseball season the Kansas City Royals were just an average team in a small market with average talent, having yet another ho-hum average season in their bland 45 year history (playoff-less in the last 28 of those 45 years). That was until a foreigner named Sung-woo Lee from far away South Korea came on the scene. Through social media, Sung-woo was a regular fixture on Royals’ fan sites and blogs and exhorted Royals’ fans to persevere, which helped to inject much needed enthusiasm into the traditional fan base. Interestingly enough, Sung-woo’s online participation started as an attempt to learn English by consistently conversing with American baseball fans. [Marmot’s Hole]
You can read more at the Marmot’s Hole link, but if they win the World Series this is a Disney feel good story in the making. In fact a filmmaker is already making a movie about Lee:
That would be OK, but… what if SungWoo could come back for the World Series in Kansas City?
It appears to be happening. Due to a viral effort by bloggers and a filmmaker named Josh Swade – who is in Korea right now — wants to document the story, several people close to the situation are reporting that Lee will be returning for the first Fall Classic in Kansas City since 1985. Andy McCullough in the Kansas City Star reports that Swade is talking with Lee’s employer in South Korea to make it possible for him to get away. Announcements have been made elsewhere. [Yahoo Sports]
Guess who's coming to game 1?! #SungWooSeries @30for30 @Royals @MLB pic.twitter.com/lKiofQKFr7
— Josh Swade (@JoshSwade) October 17, 2014
You can read more at the link, but what an incredible story.
This is probably the first time I have heard of Koreans unhappy with one of its national teams winning a gold medal:
The South Korean baseball team Sunday clinched the gold at the Incheon Asian Games, but a lot of people here seem to have more reasons to mock their achievement than celebrate or be proud of it.
They think players will enjoy greater benefits than they deserve — exemption from the country’s mandatory two years of military service. Ironically, their gold has also led to fierce discussion about abolishing such rewards to athletes.
“I wish they lost the game,” 29-year-old baseball fan Park Tae-yang said. “I do not understand why Korea, in the 21st century, still has to give military exemption for athletes on the grounds that they help promote the country.”
Such harsh feelings against the national team are also based on the fact that South Korea is the only country that sent professional baseball players, who appeared desperate for a military exemption, and let them compete against teams consisting mostly of amateur players. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but it does seem kind unfair to all the other males in Korea that they have to do their mandatory service obligation while these professional athletes now will get out of it because they blew out a bunch of Asian amateur baseball teams.
Via a reader tip comes the below YouTube video that shows how the Korean professional baseball team, the Hanwha Eagles have developed “Fanbots” to allow people who cannot physically be at the stadium to attend the game and cheer on the team. It is kind of cool and creepy at the same time:
With Korea’s loss to Japan in the World Baseball Classic the conspiracy theories are already beginning and most of them have to do with why Korea gets eliminated after only one loss:
Some of the players were still not content and the reasons for that included a weird bracket of the tournament, where the top two teams in the second round group meet again in the semifinals.
“We aimed to go to the semifinals and made it in the end. I’m satisfied. We’ve already won twice so I don’t think we lost to Japan,” Lee Seung-yeop of South Korea said. “We did our best but I’m afraid there has been something not proper about the rules in the event, as long as we went 6-1 and still have to be eliminated.”
This has been a common sentiment not only with players but also with Korean fans:
“It is a pity to lose the game, but I highly recognize the national team’s efforts. It is also regretful that we could not gain a good result despite fine plays because we had to fight the Japanese team three times due to the U.S.’ abnormal game schedules,’’ Park Sung-soo, 31-year-old Seoul citizen, said.
It is called single elimination people. Your pool play record means nothing when in a single elimination game. Koreans should know this from watching the World Cup every 4 years where the same system is used. It is not a black helicopter US CIA conspiracy to hold back Korea.
I will use an NFL example to better make my point. You do not see the Indianapolis Colts complaining about losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the NFL Playoffs even though they had a better season record and beat Pittsburgh during the season? The fact is that it was single elimination and they get beat, that simple.
Some people think the semi-finals should have been a three game series, but all the teams that entered the WBC new the format and rules and signed up for it anyway. I don’t think it is proper to complain about the rules and format publicly afterwords after you voluntarily signed up to play in the tournament to begin with.
The Korean team had a great run and have a lot to be proud of. I expect the WBC will make some format changes in 4 years, but the black helicopter CIA conspiracy theories have got to go.
Of course head over to the Marmot’s Hole to hear all the latest conspiracy theories.
It’s over, the Japanese pitcher struck out the side in the 9th to put Korea away 6-0. Ichiro seems really happy because he will not have to eat his words after all. Like I said before championship caliber teams can rise above bad calls like the one Japan had against the US and they did with a little help from the US by losing to Mexico.
So far no signs of outrageous nationalistic celebrations from the Japanese like the Koreans had after their second defeat of Japan. The Koreans did come out of the dugout and give a bow to their many fans in Anaheim though which was a classy thing to do.
The Cuba vs Japan final should be a great game.
It was a good run by Korea and hopefully the Korean media doesn’t ruin it by claiming that the WBC is flawed by having Korea eliminated after only one loss especially when they have defeated Japan twice already. I can understand the sentiment because the WBC’s format is a little strange but the Koreans signed up for the WBC and the rules format that comes with it.
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Ichiro just popped up to end the top of the ninth and the third baseman for Korea Jung who caught the ball just flicked it back at Ichiro. To Ichiro’s credit he did not react to the provaction. If I was him I would at least tell the guy to look at the scoreboard.
Well Korea has one more chance to put some runs on the board and the first batter has already struck out. Not good.
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The ESPN announcer just butchered the Korean fans chant of Dae Han Min Guk. Quick somebody call Vank on him. The rain delay is over and the Japanese bats are still hot with them getting yet another hit. Instead of planting the Korean flag on the pitcher’s mound the Korean team may want to plant a white flag now because it is going to take a miracle to make a come back.
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It is still raining out and the game continues to be delayed which is just prolonging the inevitable that Korea has gotten stomped by Japan. Any bets if Ichiro will plant the Japanese flag on the pitcher’s mound?
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Okay this is getting out of hand right now. The Japanese are hitting the ball all over the place now. Japan is now winning 6-0 in the 8th inning. It is now raining pretty heavily and the game is being delayed which is only prolonging Team Korea’s misery of getting stomped by Japan. It is looking like it is going to be a Japan vs Cuba WBC Final.
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I think it safe to say that Kim Byung-hyun is now the most hated person in Korea. He just threw a wild pitch advancing a runner and then gave up a double allowing the runner to score a third run off of him. Why in the world did the Korean manager put Kim in? You do not use Kim in a tight pressure packed ball game. Ask Tino Martinez.
I have long posted on how much Kim sucks and I have been proven right again. They finally took him out. Why did he take Seo out? Seo was cruising and had only given up three hits. Hopefully this next pitcher can stop the bleeding and at least keep it from becoming a blow out.
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Japan is now threatening with a runner on second with no outs. The starting Korean pitcher Seo was taken out for I guy named Jun who pitched one good inning before giving up the double. Kim Byung-hyun Kim is now in and he just struck one batter out. Now Kim just did his best 2001 World Series imitation by giving up a two run home run. Japan is now winning 2-0. Is anyone now wondering why Seo was taken out of the game now?
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Peter Gammons just got done interviewing Hines Ward who is at the game supporting Team Korea. Ward just commented on how well the Korean community supports there sports teams. Gammons did ask him how he thought he would be received when he travels to Korea for the first time in April. Ward thought he would be treated well and was looking forward to going.
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It is now the 5th inning and the game between Korea and Japan is still stuck at 0-0. Both pitchers Uehara from Japan and Seo from Korea are pitching well and both teams have made some great defensive plays to keep the game scoreless. Ichiro has made a couple hits and stole two bases, so he has gotten off to a good start but has nothing to show for it yet.
