Opening Day 2015

The 2015 KBO baseball season got underway yesterday, and I was there. In fact, I have attended Opening Day every year since I have been in Korea, so this was my seventh. I went to Mok-dong Stadium to support my team, the Nexen Heroes. The Heroes mascot is the best in the league, in my opinion, Mr. Stone Jaw, 턱돌이:


There are 10 teams in the league this year, which has sparked some changes in the rules, as well as an increase in the schedule to 144 games. You can read a pretty decent pre-season round-up at the JoongAng Daily.

One "new thing" I noticed was a concern about "safety" in the stadium, which seemed mainly to be expressed by these stickers put up all over everywhere:


However, at Mok-dong, at least, they still have the Smoking Area:


Baseball is, of course, an American invention, and food favorites at the ballpark include such traditional American fare as hot dogs and fried chicken. This is the case in Korea, too. But other favorites include dried squid, mandu (Korean filled dumplings), kimbap, and new to the stadium this year, "Ciao Chips". "From Italy!"


No visit to the ballpark is complete, at least for the adults, without a beer or two. And Koreans do enjoy themselves some beer. Within a few steps of my gate to the seats were three places to get beer:


There are two new rules this year regarding alcohol, at least theoretically. First, no bottles or cans allowed in the stadium, so the lines are substantially longer as the clerks have to pour the beer into plastic cups (a FIFA rule for ages):


Second is a rule prohibiting its sale after the seventh inning. This was certainly not the case at Mok-dong on Opening Day.as i bought a beer in the tenth inning.

Okay, fans, we have our food, we have our beer. Just one more stop before we go to our seats: we need to fill up our noisemaker things with air. There are several air pumps on the mezzanine with free air:


Time to find our seats. Well, actually, I had general admission tickets, 13,000 W (an Opening Day discount of 4,000 W) so I staked my claim with plastic bags slid over the back of the seats before I went out and took the photos above. Andy van Hekken throws the first pitch at 2:01, a swing and a miss, for the first strike of the season:


The game itself was very exciting. The Heroes, second place last year in both the regular season and in the post-seasonm fell behind the Eagles (perennial bottom-dwellers) 2 - 1 by the bottom of the third, and gave up two more runs by the sixth. But through it all, the fans kept up their high level of cheering, led by cheerleaders and cheer-dudes.


In addition to general team cheers, each batter has his own cheer or song, which the fans know off by heart. Some of them are chants, but others are tunes from pop culture sources, including this year, ABBA--"Waterloo" for, if I remember, 이택근, Ee Taek-geun. But Waterloo has three syllables, so you could use it for virtually any Korean.

Anyway, the Heroes fought their way back into the game with two in the bottom of No. 7, and the leveler in the eighth. They have always had strong offense, but quality defense was a long time coming. They still slip back into those patterns, as, for example, what would have been a nice sliding catch by the left fielder popped out of his glove. A couple innings later, SS and 3B performed a textbook Alphonse and Gaston, wherein they collided over a pop fly, the short stop knocking the ball from the third baseman's glove. Both were costly errors, though typically, neither was counted as such by the official scorer.

The game went to extra innings, and the supporters kept up their constant singing/chanting/cheering.


This was the first extra-inning game of the season, ad it went the distance, as twelve innings is the max in KBO rules. Finally, with one out in the bottom, Seo Geon-chang 서건창 soloed a walk-off homer. He is Nexen's lead-off hitter and was last year's KBO MVP, the first player to break the 200-hit barrier, with 201.

Here is my hero, 턱돌이, cheating on me with some other fans in celebrating the 5 - 4 win!


And finally, a shot of the scoreboard:

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.

Let's Get [a] Physical!

I spent the better part of the morning at Mok-dong Hospital (my Thursday schedule gives me free periods from 10:30 to 2:10). Never fear: me, flu? No! I was there to get a medical exam as required biennially by my school--totally different than the medical exam required by SMOE for my contract renewal back in early August.

In addition to a standard work-up, employees in my age group have to be tested for gastric cancer. I assume that next time it will be for a different cancer. The regular check-up is free, but the public health insurance only covers 80% of the cancer thing. Miss Lee was so apologetic when she told me about this, I made sure to have lots of cash when I went in.

Well, my 20% came to W9,320 (about USD 8). I only mention this for the context it provides my friends in America who fear the single-payer system (hell, looks like we won't even get a robust public option). I pay 4.5% of my salary matched by the employer, plus co-pays like this, for modern medical care--computers, X-ray machines, lab coats, that hospital smell. A complete physical took about 2:15, including the exit interview. I finished up Life of Pi while in the waiting areas. Riveting read, awesome ending!

My results? Well, they will mail the full report to me in "less than two weeks", but I did see some of the results when I talked to the doctor.
Bad news: I am overweight, have high blood pressure, and drink and smoke too much. Not that that's news...
Good news: my weight is down 3 kg from August, my systolic BP down 15 points, and the doc informed me the ideal amount to drink is 1 to 2 bottles of beer per day.
Best news: he didn't specify what size of bottles.

Korean Baseball, Week 3

Three weekends, three baseball games. I know I said I wouldn't go this weekend, but you gotta understand--it's really inexpensive, convenient, and fun. With the usual suspects, I attended the Lotte Giants (from Busan) hosted by the Seoul Heroes, in Mokdong. Just a hop, skip and a jump from Deungchon-dong.

A quick cab ride to Dangsan Station (W4000), one stop to Yeongdeungpo-gu Office, transfer to the blue line for two stops to Omokgyo (W900), then a short walk. Well, not all that short, about fifteen minutes. General admission ticket, W9000. 16 oz beer, W3000. Total cost, up to first beer: W16,900 (USD 12.31). Even cheaper if I take the bus instead of a cab.

Compare that to a Braves game--and believe me, I'm not knocking the Bravos, or the Ted, here: 40 mi. drive by car @$0.35/mi. (USD 14.00). Parking, USD 5.00. Aggravation, priceless. Fifteen minute walk, if you find a really close lot. Cheap seats, USD 8.00. 16 ouncer, USD 6.00. Total cost: USD 33.00. And the price differential escalates with each additional beer, should I choose to have more than one, that is...

Now, you can argue that the quality of play is much better in the States, and of course it is. But whenever you have two evenly-matched teams, there will be some excitement. The Heroes are leading the league at the moment, and did not disappoint, as their bats awoke in the bottom of the third and drilled in four runs, sparked by a two-RBI stand-up triple down the first base line. Or so I'm told, as I chose the ten minutes of these events to take a smoke break.

Mokdong stadium holds 15,000 fans, home of the Seoul Heroes. They were the Woori Heroes last year (and the Hyundai Unicorns the year before last), but the company (the tobacco Woori, not the financial Woori) dropped its sponsorship for this season. Korean baseball teams are unabashedly controlled by the 'chaebol' that run things here--LG Twins, SK Wyverns, KIA Tigers, etc.

Salaries are pretty stable across the board, but are very low, in relative terms. This Korea Times article brags that over 100 Korean players will earn "nine digits" this season--the high figure quoted in the article is about USD 175,000; the average player makes around W85 million (USD 62,000). In comparison, the average player in the Japanese league earns 17 times more. This Chosun Ilbo story complains that at USD 375,000, the foreign player cap is set too low--each team is allowed two foreigners in the line-up.

I am not arguing that pro athletes should make more money--far from it. In fact, the absurd money "earned" by American athletes is a clear symptom of our American decline. And I see no reason that the American taxpayer should subsidize it--we do, you know. Our municipalities build stadia that will never pay for themselves and give hundreds of millions in tax breaks to the billionaire owners of our teams, which they can use to pay the athletes obscene money--the American sports market is totally socialist. Leave Obama alone and go after the Falcons/Yankees/Lakers!

Indeed, it looks to me like the Korean remuneration system has it about right--the baseball league has a parity that the Americans can only dream of: each of the eight teams has won the championship at least once (and all but the Hanhwa Eagles twice or more) in the league's quarter-century of existence. Eleven of the fifteen K-League soccer teams have won the title since its 1983 inception.

The downside of this is that the best Korean talent makes its way overseas. Man U is so popular here largely because 박지성 Park Ji-sung plays right wing at Old Trafford. Last week, the faculty lunchroom had a Japanese baseball game playing--I wondered why, until I learned there was a Korean pitcher in the game!


The Heroes are a little bit disorganized, and perhaps underfunded, as the fans had virtually no noisemakers at the start of the game. By the middle of the second inning, however, someone had noticed this and started giving away inflatable noisemakers. You can see the pair I snagged in the photo above. You can also see Andy and Nick. You can further see the tall building in the background, Hyperion Tower A, which is the second tallest building in Korea. 63 Building is NOT the tallest building in Korea, it is only the third tallest, despite what you will hear from almost everybody.

Budae Jjigae in Mok-dong

Budae-jjigae is an ancient Korean traditional food dating all the way back to the 1950s. Okay, so it's not ancient, but it is traditional. It's also really yummy.

During the lean war years and after, meat was hard to come by, so many Seoulites augmented their diets with SPAM, sausage, hot dogs and whatever else they could scrounge from the US Army bases; together with gochujang (red pepper paste), vegetables in season, beans, ramyeon noodles or rice, it's all piled into a hot pot and cooked up in some vegetable stock.

Budae-jjigae literally means "army base stew" and is also called Johnson-tang. It should be fairly easy to replicate at home; there is a recipe here. But if you don't have any particular thing, just go ahead without--SPAM is probably the only absolute essential (never thought I'd see that in print, much less write it myself). While it arose from needful times, today, I went with Karen to a nice restaurant in the basement of the CBS building in Mok-dong to give it a shot.

The restaurant was busy, with numerous middle-class families sitting around the hot pot, paying good money to eat what was survival food for their grandparents.

Step 1: set the jjigae on to cook. Ours had the usual suspects, plus potatoes, mushrooms and salami; unlike a western stew, you don't cook it for hours to let the flavors meld, you just get everything cooked through.


Step 2: The waitress comes back and removes the lid to reveal the finished jjigae.


Step 3: Ladle some into your bowl. With this particular style, you add rice from the standard metal rice bowl. In other styles, the waitress will drop in ramen noodles at just the right point before completion.


Step 4: Repeat.


As you can see, it was seriously delectable.

What I Did On My First Day

1) Woke up about 8:00 in my new, very sweet flat, watched Korean TV for a while. The program appeared to be similar to Star Search. They need to keep looking.

2) Fielded blog responses, added a couple of pics to "Here I Am" post, using my webcam.

3) About noon, tried to walk to my school, but wasn't sure how many blocks to go before turning west, so I ended up wandering the neighborhood for a few hours. I am two blocks away from Korean Air headquarters. The most common stuff in my neighborhood includes car mechanics, pork or seafood restaurants, retail shops of every variety, and huge apartment complexes. Mok-dong is pretty cool.

4) I came home around 16:00 to relax and shower and shave before going to dinner with my boss, Mr. Hwang.

5) Promptly at 18:00, Mr. Hwang appeared at my door. We went to dinner at the "galbi" restaurant in my building (he lives within a five minute walk). The waitstaff set out about ten side dishes--panchan--followed by a heavy metal pot of coals that goes in a hole in the middle of the table. A grill is put on top, and strips of beef put on to cook.

You grab a piece of lettuce or other leafy green, use chopsticks to put two or three grilled beef strips (this is also done with pork) in it, add some of the panchan, wrap it up, and eat it. Not only is it delicious, the chiggae (soup) that comes with it is awesome.

We ate and talked for nearly two hours, sitting on the floor in stocking feet; I feel very positive about it. He will pick me up at 7:30 tomorrow and show me the route to Young-il High School.

6) I went upstairs and changed, then went to one of the three "hofs" downstairs for a draft. In addition to the usual Korean version of beer nuts (see photo below), this one gave me a small plate of sauteed corn and red bell peppers. More deliciousness.

7) I came upstairs, using the stairs, and began this blog post.

Here I Am

Well, my friends, I have arrived in Seoul, seen my school, met my boss, moved into my apartment and bought a bought a six pack of beer--which is chilling in the freezer as I type this. The area I will be living in is called Mok-dong.

First, my school: Young-il High School (website at http://www.youngil.hs.kr/) has about 1400 students in years 10 through 12. It has three buildings and a large sand playground with soccer goals and a basketball court. My classroom is No. 5 on the second floor of the new building. It has two large radiant heaters and a free-standing air cooler. There is a computer running Windows XP pro that is connected to a projector; it also has an audio system with four wall-mounted speakers, an amp and a microphone.

Next, my apartment: compared to what I was expecting, it is spacious. It is about 12' X 24', but it has a LOFT! It has beautiful wood floors, and is clean and white. And the shower stall has a glass door. There is also plenty of hi-speed wireless around, so I'm hooked up right now for free.


You should see my door key--it's a little plastic stem with what looks like a watch battery on the end. You hold it against a little round depression in the lock mechanism, it whirrs and clicks and then unlocks the door--as Arthur C. Clarke said, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

This building is 20-odd stories, but I'm on the third floor. The bottom floor has about 10 restaurants, a Family Mart (convenience store), hair stylist, portrait shop and some other stuff I don't recognize.

Directly across the street is an E-Mart, the Korean version of WalMart. It's a very developed neighborhood with tons of stores. In a few words, I've fallen into the shit here, gang!