Monday, April 26, 2010

KIA Tigers vs Nexen Heroes

"Best baseball game ever," was the verdict of fellow traveler to Mok-dong Stadium Andy, who attended last Friday's match along with me, Nick and Jeremy. Chris and Max begged off--a big mistake! You will see why.

The game itself was exciting, as it was the first extra-innings game I can recall going to (2 - 2), and so therefore it was the first extra-innings game in which both teams scored in the added time.

The game was between cellar-dwellers Nexen (aka Seoul Heroes, Woori Heroes, Hyundai Unicorns, Taepyungyang Dolphins, Chongbo Pintos, Sammi Superstars, et al.) and the league's reigning champion KIA Tigers, so the result was unexpected. In the top half of the tenth, the visitors scored, but the Heroes pulled even in the bottom. Nexen reliever Son Seung-rok sat the KIA batters down in a hurry, and the Tigers' closer Lee Dong-hyeon started throwing a little wild, with passed balls allowing the winning run to advance to third then scamper home.


Nexen won 4 - 3, but not only that, they whitewashed KIA for the three game series to leap over Lotte into seventh place in the standings. This is all good, but it is not why "best game ever." This is:


We found seats, led by Jeremy, in the third row, right next to the Heroes cheerleaders. We had an up-close view of the action, in more ways than one (if you know what I mean, har har).




So, Mok-dong Stadium is awesome, and its amenities are very nice, as well. On the one hand, it is practically the only stadium that does any kind of security check; but on the other hand, it is the only stadium I've been to with the 1000 cc beer bottles for 6000 W! One full liter, that's big! How big? Look, it's the same size as Hyperion Tower, the tallest building in Korea!


ADDENDUM: My friend Mr Hwang tells me that he saw me cheering at the end of the game--he watched his Samsung Lions play Doosan via streaming video on naver, then switched over in time to catch the last of our game. And there I was.

8 comments:

Max said...

On the Lotte vs SK front, things did not go so well (for Lotte anyway). But the fans singing "Busan Galmaegi" at the end at least made it seem less like Dachau and more like a viking funeral.

I'm not good with analogies.

Tuttle said...

Yeah, I think Jerry Royster's probably surfing the net for the best price tickets home about now...

Andrew Lasher said...

I don't want to bust your chops (ok, I do), but we have had this discussion before. The Hyperion tower isn't the tallest building in Seoul...You've got Tower Palace that comes in higher, and the recently topped out Northeast Asia Trade Tower in Incheon that are both taller.

On a less chops busting note, this most certainly was the best game ever. It was leaps and bounds ahead of any other game I have been to.

Tuttle said...

Andy: Ha, yeah! So make that "the tallest building in Korea I've seen and know to exist." Someone could be making up all that Samsung Tower Palace stuff, and as for Incheon--seriously? I never even heard of it!

Andrew Lasher said...

To be honest, the Incheon building surprised me, too. They have been talking about it for at least as long as I have been in Korea, so I was under the impression it was all a pipe dream. Of course this meant that I belittled it at every turn.

Imagine my surprise when I was checking Wikipedia and found out that the building was nearly finished...oh well, I'm going to move on to insulting the Busan Lotte Tower, which has been talked about for just as long, and I know they haven't broken ground on that one yet.

Anyway, the Incheon tower isn't finished yet, but the observation tower is open, so what do you say we head over there and spit on some people?

Tuttle said...

I'd rather drop 10 won coins, but I guess those are all busy contaminating snack foods...

Maybe a day trip during exams to Incheon is in order here?

Andrew Lasher said...

Can I spit on the coins first? If so, I am in.

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