Episode 13 Lotte Giants
Copy Intro from previous episodes
Today on the show, we’re going to the mecca of baseball in Korea, Sajik park, home of the woeful Lotte Giants. Though I have to say they’ve been better this season, even 2nd place at a few points, but right now they are in danger of missing the playoffs. If you’re a Lotte fan, then you’re not going to be surprised. But take it this way; You’re a team of Giants…that play like midgets in the postseason (laughter). So let’s take a big step into the team’s history.
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History
The Lotte Giants got started in 1975 and joined the Korea Baseball Association’s industrial baseball League. The team had a slight advantage thanks to Lotte getting players from Japan. You have to remember listeners that Lotte is a large conglomerate and has significant business deals with Japan, and with those ties came signable players from the Chiba team. Some of the first players included Japanese players like Cho Dong Sik and Hoshiyama. They won the championship once in 1978, then joined the KBO in 1982. In the 80s they had one championship series when the league had two halves and Lotte won the second half. Samsung won the first half and apparently there was a push by the government to get them to stop winning so the league would be exciting. There was one game against OB that was so poorly managed fans screamed about rigging and MBC stopped broadcasting the game. Anyway, Lotte went on to play Samsung and won in a thrilling 7 game series in 1984. One wild play happened in the 8th inning of game 7 when Lotte’s Yoo Du-yeol hit a game changing 3 run HR and Samsung’s Ham Hak-soo hit a triple, but got tagged out at home on the sacrifice fly to right fielder Park Young-tae. I tried to look up the play on Youtube but instead I found a peppero ad the team filmed that year and hoo boy it is hilarious. *joke sting* I’ll put the link in the description. After that season, Lotte disappointed its fans for a time, but won the Korean series again in 1992, beating the Binggarae Eagles 4 to 1. In game 2 of that series, the Eagles’ fans got so mad they smashed the team bus after the game. Hey, they are just like Philadelphia Eagles fans! Can’t stay out of trouble! Birds of a feather riot together *joke sting*.
And yep, that’s pretty much the highlights of Lotte Giants history. They lost their next 2 championship appearances and have barely sniffed the playoffs in the past 10 years. In fact the team has gone through periods of losing and rebuilding the internet calls the quote 3 dark ages unquote. Yes, Busan, your team’s losing seasons are the equivalent of the fall of the Western Roman Empire *joke sting*. Well, nobody has said Busan people aren’t emotional. In fact, the Lotte Giants are the only pro team in 100 kilometers that hasn’t gotten to a championship round this millennium! Dark Ages oh my gawd…
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Favorite players
So now let’s talk about a few famous players at Lotte. They’ve retired a few famous ones, despite their records and Dark Ages. First was catcher Han Moon -yeon and pitcher Noh Sang-soo, local pitching legend Joo Hyung-kwang, and most recently golden glover Lee Dae Ho. Lee Dae Ho is a commentator these days and he’s famous for having a box of chicken bones thrown at him by an angry fan in early 2018, which led to his offense rejuvenation that season. After the season, he pledged to buy the angry chicken thrower a new box of chicken in thanks for waking his game up, but naturally the league’s not going to put up with that *joke sting*. Lotte’s retired 16 numbers so far, which is a LOT to be honest. I think it’s sweet in a way that they’re showing respect to so many of their great players. But having great players has not created postseason success. Will that change this season?
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This season
Lotte is in 6th place at the time of this game with 6 games left in the season. They started well, keeping pace with Hanwha and LG at the top of the league. But after the all-star game, they’ve been bad with a 12 game losing streak in August and some of that is due to Gamboa’s elbow giving him problems since July. It’s not the end of the season yet as they are still a few games out from a playoff spot. Their coach Kim Tae Hyeong used to be the coach of the Doosan Bears 10 years ago so he knows how to make a winning team. I must say they’ve gotten a little bit better this season, but they’re usually sniffing the playoffs every season. Like Tom chasing the jerry the mouse around, to be honest. Would a new stadium help them out? It’s time to talk about Sajik park!
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Sajik park in the northern side of central Busan has been around for a long time. It opened in 1985 and hosted its first Giants game in 1986. The stadium once held over 30,000 fans but nowadays is rated at 22 thousand 660. They say the food there has improved, but it has a Papa John’s so has it actually improved *joke sting*. There are only a few sections with bad sight lines and the ticketing site warns you about that before you book the ticket. Something I wish Hanwha would do. Anyway, Sajik park has history, charm, and great views. It feels crowded when the fans are there. It feels alive almost. But time has worn it down a lot and in July this year the team and the city have decided to replace Sajik park with a new stadium and have the team play in the Asiad stadium nearby from 2028. Most Busan residents don’t believe the city will actually replace the stadium, but they seem pretty serious now. So, let’s go while we still have time!
Experience at Sajik
Tonight I went to see Kiwoon vs Lotte. As I walked there from the subway, I didn’t get a sense of grandeur or amazement from the outside. At first I thought I saw the soccer stadium but no it was Sajik! It’s so oval shaped that from the sidewalk across the street I thought it was a multi-purpose stadium. The center section of the stands go up quite a bit, so much so it reminds me of the tongue of a shoe. Naturally in the plaza around the stadium there are little food stalls and trinkets stalls too. I get the sense the owners are a bit more tolerant of side sellers here than in other places. It kinda gives the team a bit of charm and nostalgia for fans who’ve always had the chance to buy food before going inside. Inside the stadium it’s certainly not a place that gives a nostalgic feeling, at least not in the way the owners would like. It reminds me of a smaller Jamsil, and certainly more labyrinth. The food choices have improved since the last time I was there, Papa Johns being the exception *joke sting*. They got a local burger chain in the stadium which was a nice touch. You’d figure you’d see Lotteria everywhere but surprisingly I didn’t. They got app ordering services now so you can go back to your seat and watch some baseball while you wait for your food. And you won’t like to be in their seats for too long because man are they narrow! I’m surprised most of my shoulder didn’t spill over into my neighbor’s chair. Even though I was on the 3rd base side, I got to see most of left field except for a small part of the corner. That is one big advantage Sajik has is good sightlines. Another thing I noticed are not a lot of luxury boxes. I saw a few boxes but those look like press boxes. I saw TV commentators in there, but didn’t see people standing around. So I get the sense Sajik’s a place of the people, where the richest person might have to sit with the pensioner in the upper corners because the good tickets all sold out. They call it the mecca of Korean baseball, and I’m sure it’s earned that title, Sajik itself is fairly outdated. Fans in center field don’t get a good view of the stadium scoreboards and I don’t think there’s one on the other side of the field they can look at. The fans weren’t as dancy as they have been in the past, so expect to have more time in the uncomfortable seats but when the team’s winning that’s not so bad. Unfortunately, they were not winning when I went there. I saw some of the ugliest pitching in a long time from Lotte and they got whooped 15 to 4. Not only that, they won 18 to 3 against NC last night. What happened to that vaunted offense?! Maybe they spent it all on good burgers and milkshakes? *Joke sting*.
I didn’t see any side restaurants with views like NC and Hanwha which is a shame, but perhaps that’s something they choose to fix in the new stadium? Because the team and fans could sure use one. This one’s snakebit. Would I go back to Sajik before it gets torn down? Probably not. It’s not the most comfortable experience, especially for day games because there’s no shade. If you do go for a 2pm game, bring sunscreen.
I wasn’t going to do Worst Persons this week because this is supposed to be a post-game show, but ohmygawd we’ve got screwups galore this week!
The Nap award goes to… Breakdancing Battle of the Year world finals organization for not advertising the event in Hwaseong. I found out by chance in the news section of Naver Sports! Does anyone in the country know about this? https://botykr.com/ABOUT
Radon award goes to the KFA for getting fined 30,000 Swiss francs, which is wild because you don’t see Swiss francs around much these days. It reminds me of those old heist and hostage movies where the criminals want to be paid in Swiss gold or some shit. Anyway, the KFA got this fine because they didn’t get in touch with Gwangju FC about the missed payments to the Albanian training organization. We’ve talked about it before, but the KFA could have solved this problem in a day or two if they’d just pick up a fucking phone and called Gwangju’s office a day after the email! This is what you get for being lazy!
And now the Plutonium award to: KOVO for hosting their season opening volleyball tournament during the FiVB tournament in the Philippines, which led to a complete mess, the tournament getting canceled and then reallowed but without foreign players and teams. And then Hyundai Capital left because they didn’t have enough korean players and 0 liberos. This is such a mess I might dedicate an episode to it next year when more facts get released.
A second Plutonium award to the Korea Skating Union for not maintaining the lifelong ban of the coach, which probably led to him being stabbed by his former student last week at Taerung International Skating Rink in Gongneung-dong according to reports in the Joongang Daily. She stabbed him due to his alleged sexual assault when she was a high schooler though the police have not confirmed that allegation as of press time. The Skating Union, ladies and gentlemen!
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 Fox Lake USA, home of the Beef Jerky experience! Yes they have the kangaroo jerky, the same one I brought to my Bombers baseball games! May your jerky be as tasty, Korean sports fans!
Notes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHqBQIEd6aQ
https://en.namu.wiki/w/%EC%82%AC%EC%A7f%81%20%EC%95%BC%EA%B5%AC%EC%9E%A5/%EC%9E%AC%EA%B1%B4%EC%B6%95
https://www.mk.co.kr/en/society/11358973
https://mykbostats.com/teams/2-Lotte-Giants
Woman arrested for allegedly attacking former speed skating coach over sexual assault case