Dino-Mite: All about the NC Dinos
Today on the show, we’re going to the Cretaceous period to look at the NC Dinos. Unlike some tik-tok numbnuts out there, we at the hwa-ting sports podcast are certain of the existence of dinosaurs, because most of the KBO’s managers are them *joke sting*. So join us on a journey through the ages to…2011? Wow that was a LOONNNG time ago *joke sting*. It’ll be…wait for it… Dino-MITE!
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History & formation
Let’s talk about the formation of the Dinos. Namu Wiki says it was made on a whim, but the truth is a little more, shall we say, controversial. Things were a bit tough in the league in 2008 when the Seoul Heroes operated without a main sponsor and the league wanted more stable teams. NCSOFT CEO Kim Taek-jin met Heo Heo-yeon in april 2010 after a baseball lecture and decided to make a team. I… wouldn’t say it’s entirely a whim. But it’s more like two passionate guys having a beer together and an idea forms, they write it down on a napkin and boom! Off to the races they go! Changwon city was chosen because the league felt the Seoul metro area had more than enough teams and they insisted on the next team being outside. Jeonju was dropped because their stadium had been a mess since the Raiders left. Changwon won the rights because they were a new city and the mayor felt the team would bring the new city together. The Busan Lotte Giants minor league played there so they already had a decent stadium. The name Dinos won the team’s naming contest over the Agus Monkfish because dinosaur footprints are found all over the Gyeongnam coast and well, dinosaurs are cooler than monkfish. Suck it, Masan fans *disappointed fans sound*.
Anyway, Changwon played in the minors for 2 seasons starting in 2011 while their 1st stadium got renovated in the Masan area and fights over the new stadium happened. More on that later. On April 2nd 2013, the NC Dinos played their first major league game at Masan Stadium against their new rivals the Lotte Giants, who opposed their formation because of course they would. NC lost their first game 4 to nil and in fact wouldn’t win a game until April 11 against LG.
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First game you went to in Masan
A friend of mine bought me tickets to a game on May 17 2013. I remember it well because we sat next to the Groupon tables. Do any of you remember Groupon? I haven’t seen them in decades! Let me check my browser…hmm… yeah they’re only really active in the States and UK. Not in Korea anymore, which makes sense. Anyway, Samsung beat NC 2 to 1 in a pitching duel with Lee Jae Hak going the distance for NC’s first time. My friend’s son caught a foul ball off someone’s hand. Sorry buddy, should’ve brought a glove! *joke sting* One thing I remember about the seats was how small they were. They were pretty tight in those days and I was not as round either, let me tell you. Anyway, I liked the stadium- it wasn’t too loud and the visuals were pretty good.
So this is a good transition to the big problem- the stadium fight. Hoo boy, you’re gonna want a drink and a snack. And if you’re a Changwon resident, a shot or two of sojuice *joke sting*. As I mentioned before, Changwon merged with Masan and Jinhae before the Dinos started up. But this merger wasn’t a smooth process and one of the ideas floated around was for Masan to get the Provincial office and Jinhae to get the new stadium on the grounds of the Navy family housing. But that was always a dumb idea because at the time, there were only 2 tunnels connecting Jinhae and the countryside road where the cherry blossom festivals happen. And those tunnels frequently jam in traffic. The Dinos weren’t thrilled about the construction costs in Jinhae and threatened to relocate and city hall almost called their bluff. So when city hall rejected the Jinhae idea, Jinhae congressmen threw a fit, started hunger strikes and threatened to secede from the union and impeach the mayor. Those congressmen ran into a big problem in that the local polls showed the citizens didn’t want a baseball stadium there. Eventually they were ignored and the city settled on building on the same complex as the current Masan stadium. Changwon NC Park opened to the public on March 18 2019 and the stadium controversy was settled *coughing sound*
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First Championship
Anyway, let’s get back to baseball. The Dinos brought in some good foreign players and made it to the playoffs in 2014 and the Korea series in 2016. They were pretty competitive throughout the teens, and that transitioned into their first Korean series win in 2020. When they won, the MVP Yang Eui-Ji raised the Lineage game +9 Execution Sword replica. Yeah that was a thing that went viral around the world. If you live under a rock, kinda like me *joke sting* you might not know that NCSoft is a gaming company, hence why they brought in the sword. Nowadays, they’ve struggled and only made the playoffs in 2023 losing to KT. This season has also been bad under new manager Lee Ho-Jun also called Mr. Porn by his players because he told them to watch batting videos on Youtube instead of porn. He’s out of line, but he’s not wrong.
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Recent stadium troubles and threats to move
Speaking of out-of-line behavior, we’ve got more stadium controversy to talk about! On March 29th, a chunk of aluminium window siding attached to the stadium fell off and hit a snack bar while customers were in line, killing two fans. This led to a suspension of games at NC Park and them playing road games, eventually leading to home games in Ulsan. As mentioned before on the show, NCSoft and Changwon City are in a high-stakes power game with other cities waiting for their chance to claim the team. Will Changwon cave to NC’s demands? Will NC move the team to Seongnam where its HQ is? But for now, they’ve got a bigger problem; on August 7th Masan Baseball center offices were raided by Gyeongnam police and a cell-phone was seized in relation to destruction of evidence. Direct blame has been passed around between NC and Changwon city over management of the stadium and the placement of the aluminium siding parts next to the windows. We’ll probably get an update in September. In the meantime, I went to the stadium on August 22nd to watch the Giants vs Dinos match and to see more of the stadium myself.
My experience at Changwon stadium 8-22. I made a little list of important things.
Seems like there was more energy on the Giants side than the Dinos side. The crowd roared when Yuu Gang Nam hit the homerun. They even cheered the running catch to end the inning.
I got the countertop seats which were composed of a tall wobbly chair with no feet support on the 4th floor. I couldn’t see my number so I had to yank people’s stuff out of the way to see the seat numbers. At this price I feel like I should’ve gotten a more comfortable seat. Turns out my seat was broken so when the person next to me left, I switched the seats. I doubt the staff will notice.
The team has a water festival going on where they spray the fans when the Dinos get a hit. I think they went with a water theme because of the heat because they’re constantly splashing the cheerleaders and the fans.
There were some great plays including from center fielder han seong bin of the Giants! Ran into the wall and everything! The pitcher Shin completely misjudged a popup and caught the ball while falling down. Unfortunately the Lotte pitcher didn’t have the same luck in the 4th inning.
The field looks pretty beat up! They’ve been playing a lot of makeup games in August due to the rainy season and stadium investigation. They’ve got a bunch of home games next week too and I’m starting to wonder if the field can handle it.
What’s this?! A bunt that worked! Park Min Woo bunted down the third base line and actually made it on base. Sometimes it works, folks! Especially when the defense wasn’t playing shallow. But it worked because Ju won and Jeong Won scored on a botched popup by Davidson behind the mound then Kun Woo hit a single to center scoring Min Woo. Lotta W names on this team this year.
I’ve never watched a game from inside a Starbucks before. But apparently, you can go to the Starbucks game without a ticket- though I’m not quite sure how it works but the guard stamped my hand because I technically wasn’t in the stadium anymore. There were quite a few fans behind me working on their laptops or talking to friends. And there's terrace seating where fans can go if they have some sort of terrace pass. I didn’t quite understand the instructions so I took a picture of it and put it on my blog so you can figure it out when you have time and interest. Speaking of which, if NC moves, does Starbucks go with it or will they wait here for a mythical 11th team to fill the stadium? The view from inside is kinda bad so if they do move, I hope they angle the floor or something.
Davidson hit an RBI double to left in the 7th and that was the Dinos 17 thousandth hit! So it was good to see a landmark moment in team history, which for a team as young as this isn’t that surprising. They’ve got a long way to go before they catch the Yankees…I don’t know, 100 thousand hits? (Whisper: it’s 172 thousand)
Oh lord they put in Choi Won Jun during a rally. This is not going to end well. His theme song sounds like he’s still on the Tigers for some reason. Update: it didn’t. He ended the rally with a dribbler to the catcher.
I think the first base fans have the better seat and the left outfield seats have the worst view because the screens face the first base and the left outfield fans have to turn their head a lot to see the big center field screen.
Kim Yeong Kyu got hit by a combacker in the 8th and gritted out the Lotte rally, ending the inning with a clutch strikeout. The ball got him pretty good and it messed up his timing, resulting in a missed pitch clock ball on the last hitter. And that made the Lotte fans leave in droves.
I didn’t see the chop steak truck from my last visit before COVID but I was surprised to see a meat booth by the foul pole. So they got an upgrade! It’s one of my favorite stadium foods in Korea so I’m proud of them! Assuming it’s them of course.
Overall thoughts about the game; Lotte had chances to keep the lead but blew them with bad fielding. NC had a chance to end the game in the 9th but bad pitching by the closer Ryu almost cost them the lead. I think the coach put too much trust in him because the bullpen was quiet all inning but he got the key strikeout with the bases loaded to a 0 point one six seven hitter. Good teams know how to wrap games up and keep leads and these teams are far from good enough this season. Lotte though was disappointing because they played a lot better before the all-star break and now they’ve regressed to ass but somehow they’re still in the playoff hunt. The jumping fans made my seat shake at the end of the game which was cool but a bit shocking given the stadium’s history. 8 out of 10 stars, would go to another game.
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Favorite players
They haven’t retired any numbers yet so we’re going to talk about 4 players I know that Dinos fans really like. First up is Eric Thames. I talked a little about him earlier this year because he joined the Milwaukee Brewers. While he was with the Dinos he became the first player to hit for the cycle twice in one season and he had a 40 home run and 40 steal season. He was beloved in the city, even after his drunk driving incident which led to a short suspension. Very important tip; the blood alcohol limit is point oh three whereas in the USA it’s point oh eight. Honestly I forgot that my first year in Korea as well. Recently he came back to Changwon, threw out the first pitch on Saturday, then redid the beard pulling joke with Kim Tae Geun. So I’d put him as player #2 on the likely list for retired numbers.
Next up is pitcher Eric Hacker. He played 5 seasons with NC and won over 50 games and had a three point five ERA with them. He is also well known for a bench clearing brawl he was partially responsible for on May 27, 2015. In the 7th inning Oh Jae-won requested time while in the middle of a pitch and got it but Hacker wound up throwing the ball over the catcher’s head. So when Oh Jae-won ground out to first, Hacker yelled at him quote “Get in the box” unquote, Oh Jae-won overreacted and the benches cleared. But some Doosan player, possibly Min Byung-hun threw a ball at Hacker and almost hit him in the arm. Min Byung-hun was suspended for 3 games and another Doosan player was fined 1 million won for fighting. Who says baseball is boring?! They should have watched Dinos games 10 years ago *joke sting*!
Next up is Jonghyun Won, their famous closer. During the championship season he recorded 30 saves and closed game 6. His career had a rough start after being released from LG in 2010 when he developed Steve Bliss syndrome and needed Tommy John’s surgery to fix his elbow. He joined NC in their recruitment period before 2013 and went to the bullpen, helping them in the playoffs. He took time off in 2015 to fight stage 2 colon cancer. This absolute beast of a player beat elbow problems and cancer! Usually a player has to deal with 1 big problem, not two. I think he would also warrant a retired number at Dinos stadium.
And finally we have Lee Jae-Hak. Jae-hak has been with the team since it first began. He holds the record for most wins with the team at 70. He’s still pitching but this year has been tough for him. What’s his nickname, you ask? Strawberry. Yup, this was such a big thing the coffee shop in the stadium started selling a strawberry latte in his honor. But his time in NC hasn’t always been good. He was investigated in the 2016 match-fixing case but was acquitted by the police in 2017. Part of the reason why was the interpretation there was evidence of his involvement but turns out he wasn’t involved. The Dinos wound up paying 50 million won in fines related to the case and a few other players involved, so don’t think the Dinos got off scot free. At any rate, he remains a team legend and when he retires, he will get a number on the wall. Even if it’s for most losses *joke sting*.
Worst person in the sports world
You know what time it is- worst persons in the sports world! Some of my listeners think this is my favorite segment for some reason. They think I like being angry. Maybe they think one of these days I’m gonna HULK SMASH the computer desk. This week I came damn close with so many double awards!
The Nap award goes to: 박정우 for getting picked off second base to end the game! Check youtube for the replay of what happened on August 21st. After the game, he got into a Instagram beef with an angry fan and threatened to beat him up if the fan went to Gwangju according to text messages released by the fan. According to Sports Chosun, Park has met the fan to apologize for leaking his phone number and the threats, and he’s been sent to the minors for quote “reflection” unquote. So I’m giving a second Nap award to the fan for trash talking on Park’s page as well. And a Radon award to the fan that threatened to poison Reyes’ dogs. Some of y’all are getting out of pocket.
The Radon award goes to: Konkuk University football team for unsportsmanlike play! On the 18th in Hapcheon at the college soccer tournament for freshmen and sophomores, Konkuk university beat the brakes off Daegu Science University 29 to nil. In a post-game interview the Konkuk coach mentioned that he knew the Daegu team had just started and had trouble recruiting players and were fielding a lot of regular students. This means non-scholarship students in regular talk. With this knowledge he said it would be problematic for the team if they didn’t give their all. OK, coach, I get it, but you could have taken the foot off the gas after the 15th goal. Now it just looks like you’re piling on them. Doesn’t seem very sportsmanlike to me after the 20th goal. Would I have felt the same way if Konkuk university was my team? No *record scratch* No I’m not being hypocritical! It’s only sportsmanship when it's not my team doing the squishing *joke sting*. Hat tip to Redditor OttoSilver for posting the article.
A third Radon award goes to #29 of the Seoul Citizen League. During a football match, #29 was caught on camera elbowing an opposing player on the back of the head and high-fiving his teammate afterwards. The article mentioned other incidents in the grassroots of sports here like a figure skating coach threatening to cut off a skater’s tongue with scissors and other wild bullshit. I see a potential follow up episode for season 4; leave a comment on the page if you would like an episode on ratchet ass coaches.
And now we come to the Plutonium award, and wow we could not find a better recipient. The city of Paju is today’s winner for their haphazard push to promote their current football team to K2. The city hall meeting on the 20th about the promotion descended into political debate and backbiting which solved none of the problems related to funding. Speaking of funding, after the team passed the first round of approvals for entry to K2, the team has planned a giveaway of 1 million Paju pay coupons at the next game. This comes off a bit as bribing the fans to attend rather than celebrating the team’s success. The city council wanted to have a vote on promotion but due to legal loopholes the team’s funding doesn’t require council approval. So let’s come to the point; can Paju sustain a pro team? The K-League wants to believe it can but the city seems divided and this is not the time for division. Otherwise you wind up like Gangwon FC and that’s not a good place to be, especially with the need to get as many people on board. They would have been the worst person but I’ve found a rare double platinum winner! Let’s give a plutonium award to…iTop21 Sports Youtube channel! For whatever reason, iTop21 was set to cover the Gyeongju vs Mungyeong Sangmu Women’s K-League game on August 25th, but they didn’t. Myself and a hundred other watchers tuned in and all we got were highlights from previous Sangmu games and a frozen picture of a different soccer field. People from all over the world were typing in the chat box, wondering what the hell was happening. I gave up and tuned in to a different soccer game. The next day, I went back to the feed and saw they had started covering the game just before halftime! Just before halftime!!! I don’t know what went wrong at iTop21 but whatever happened must’ve been something so completely bizarre like the camera crew getting Isekaied for an hour. And this is why iTOP21 Sports and Paju city are today's WORST PERSON…IN THE SPORTS WORLD! Yes, even you, Paju kebab guy!
Game of the WEEK!
Since we’re talking about NC we might as well talk about their series with SSG. Both teams are close in the standings and this could be NC’s chance to get into playoff contention. We’re approaching the makeup schedule now so opportunities are shrinking. In football this weekend we’ve got Gangwon FC vs Pohang at Chuncheon on Sunday. This is one of the few remaining home games for Chuncheon so if you live around there, now’s your chance. Otherwise you’ve got a two hour bus ride to get pro footie in Gangneung until Chuncheon forms their own team. Hell I say go just to see what the ultra fans do during the game. I see another good game in K3 with Yangpyeong vs Busan Transportation Corp on Saturday. If Yangpyeong wins, they get a few points closer to the playoffs and they’re going to need those easier points while they can get ‘em. They finish the season against the top team Gimhae and 5th place Daejeon. In women’s K-league we’ve got Seoul v Gyeongju on Monday Sept 1. There’s a lot of competition for 1st place and the race is heating up! Hwacheon doesn’t have it locked down just yet. Next weekend we’ve got the Gwangju Archery Championships! These will go on from Sept 5th to 12th, so if you like archery, keep an eye out for it on your TV. But if you live in the Gwangju area, you might want to swing by the International Archery Center in the south side of town. And finally in baseball, think about going to Incheon on the 7th for Lotte vs SSG. That game could be good but I don’t know who the pitchers will be this far out.
Ending
Thank you for tuning in today. We hope you learned something about Korean sports, like I certainly did. Pass this pod on to anyone interested in Korean sports and especially rookies because our show has hints and tips to make their lives easier. Those hapless souls…(2 second pause). If you wish to read along or contact the show, visit our website at hwatingsportspodcast dot com and everything you need is right there. Give our podcast 5 stars if you have time. Music notes like the opening song thanks to DumiAFava. Cover art thanks to our cycling expert James! A shoutout to our listeners in Bahía Blanca Argentina, the hometown of Manu Ginobili and Pepe Sanchez! It’s a basketball mecca that won a Guinness World Record for longest basketball game at 46 hours and the longest referee time! Don’t ask me how they avoided nightmares from the constant dribbling *joke sting* Next episode will be next week and we’re talking about shooting ranges, so get your powder dry! *cowboy gun sounds* Until next time, Korean sports fans!
(AI voice) Guests of the Hwai-ting sports podcast drink at Mad McCloud’s pseudo-Irish pub in Chongjuu! Be amazed by their Irish speaking bartender who lapses back to Florida English when you make him mad. Laugh as they waste beer on botched Guinness pours from the tap! Enjoy their Beef and Guinness Stew which is just a hunk of bulgogi with old Guinness poured on top! That’s Mad McCloud’s, where you can’t leave before you get hung-over!
Notes
Upload pictures to website
Controversy over site selection for NC Dinos home stadium - NamuWiki
https://www.sbnation.com/2020/11/24/21612616/korean-world-series-sword-trophy
Changwon NC Park Structure Faller Accident/Process - NamuWiki
Eric Thames celebrates NC Dinos with first pitch and fan support in Changwon - CHOSUNBIZ
https://blog.naver.com/sjhw118/223979996096
대학축구 경기서 나온 ’29 대 0′… 만화 같은 스코어, 이유 있었다
Gwangju 2025 World Archery (Para) Championships