Baseball's Opening Day, 2012 Edition

On Saturday, I joined a number of friends at Jamsil Stadium in Gangnam for Doosan Bears vs. Nexen Heroes, my fourth consecutive Korean stickball inaugural:


I started from my local subway stop, making my way to Sports Complex on the Green (#2) Line. As one comes out exit 5, collect a free tip guide and fishwrapper:





There is a wide plaza in front of the stadium filled with vendors, hawking snacks like dried squid and kimbap, beer, chicken and donuts:





There is an election coming up on Wednesday, so the Seoul election council or something was out in force to remind us to vote.


They even had some variety of election mascot on hand for photo ops:


And someone else urging us to Go to Hell, or something:


Opening Day is a legitimate local newsstory, and I snapped a reporter interviewing some young fans:


Before going in, I got a shot of my friend Sally, posed in front of the stadium, and a pair of policemen, showing what a nice day it was for a game:


Our seats were in the reserved section (10,000 W) behind home plate. You can see a fine view and a fine day, but a field which needs some work:


One of the features of a Korean stadium is the availability and price of food and beer, which is the same inside the stadium as out:


In the actual game, Doosan went up by a run in the second, but the Heroes fought back, going up 2 - 1 in the top of the fifth. Here is the go-ahead run being scored off a base hit by DH Oh Jae-il:


The Heroes scored three more in the sixth. Here I am taking a potty break during the sixth when I encountered the Bears mascot. I had gotten a score update on my iPhone app for KBO. I'm smiling because I just told him, "I'm a Heroes fan, and we're kicking your bear ass 5 to 1, ha ha!" He's smiling because he's a mascot, and because he didn't understand anything I said:


Final score: Doosan Bears 2, Nexen Heroes 6.