Intro

I’ve been hearing some strange sounds while walking outside. What could they be? *baseball glove sound* Still don’t know what that sound is. *baseball bat drop sound* Is there some construction going on next door? I thought they were done with the old folks home? *baseball hit sound* OHHHH it’s baseball! In early March? I thought all the teams were in Japan or Arizona USA for spring training? What games could be going on now? It’s still cold outside. *papers sound* Ohhh, it’s the world baseball classic! I completely forgot about that! So let’s talk about The WBC and what’s going on with it *swing sound* *booh sound* because apparently there are angry fans. Oh no…

World Baseball Classic

The WBC in a way, is a successor to the amateur world series slash baseball world cup that started in 1938. Since the Baseball World Cup was primarily an amateur only event, MLB and Bud Selic created the WBC in 2005 with the MLB players association and the World Baseball Softball Association which grew out of the IBAF. There’s sooo many acronyms involved in this that I sometimes think I’m writing in an operating room *joke sting*. Anyway the OIympics only occasionally has baseball, so there is a bit of a need for a top tier tournament. The first tournament was in 2006, which Japan won, then in 2009 which was chosen because the 2008 Summer Olympics had baseball. After that, the WBC went with a 

3 year rotation, though it skipped 2012 and was held in 2013 since the Olympics were in 2012, even though they don’t have baseball because the MLB won’t release players. Yes it is confusing but for now, just know it is every 3 years and sometimes 4 years because of COVID. The main thing to know is that the WBC allows MLB players because of an insurance deal with MLB and a famous insurance company covering the salary in case a player gets injured. But because of bloated salaries and cranky unpatriotic team owners *booo sound* the insurance company won’t insure all players and that’s one reason why Mike Trout is not playing. So consider the tournament as the best players MLB can afford to play *joke sting*. 

So far, Japan has won the chip 3 times, the United States once, and so has the Dominican Republic. South Korea has won third place one time. This year, there were 16 teams which advanced from 4 pools with some automatically qualifying because they were in the top 4 of their pool from last WBC. Surprisingly, China didn’t make it. This year there aren’t any new teams but Brazil and Taiwan are in through pool qualifiers. It’s a bit of a confusing system that’s a bit different from the World Cup in that teams are put in pots that are based on host nations and world rankings. So Japan and South Korea are in different pots but play each other. USA and Japan are the big favorites and Korea is (pause) not. Korea’s no slouch since they got the Dodgers’ Kim Hye-Seong and the Giants Lee Jung Ho as well as Kia’s Kim Do Yeong, but their pitching staff has a very aged Ryu Hyeong Jin and a dreadful Denning. Yaaa… this is not going to be a good run. Let’s go over their 4 games and see what happened.

*cheer*

The first game Korea played was against team Czechia. Korea didn’t have much problems against them with Moon Bo Gyeong hitting a grand slam and Shay Whitcomb getting a dinger as well. But Terrin Vavra also got a 3 run shot, which was a sign the pitching for Team Korea wasn’t great. The next game was also a slugfest against Samurai Japan and Korea got cut down 8 to 6. Ohtani, Suzuki, and Yoshida hit homers in the 3rd inning which kinda cemented Japan’s dominance in the game, but Korea almost tied it up in the 8th inning when they had the bases loaded but Kim Hyesong struck out. Because of course the manager wouldn’t put someone in who wasn’t injured. Playing to the statistics, what magic is this? *joke sting* The next game, Korea was hoping for an easier game but instead they got into a back and forth affair against Taipei. Korea took the lead in the 6th inning with a homerun from Kim Do Yeong. But then Stuart Fairchild homered for Taipei and they took the lead in the 7th. A double in the 8th by Kim Do Yeong scored Hyeseong and sent the game to extras because Ju Won Kim flied out with 2 runners on in the 9th. Urrrrgh. Taipei won in the 10th thanks to sacrifice bunts then Kim Ju won got tagged out at home. Desperate and needing luck, team Korea got some help when Japan beat Australia, setting up a strange showdown. There are a lot of strange tiebreakers in the WBC, so for Korea to advance, Korea needed to win by 5 runs but keep Australia from scoring more than 2 in 9 innings otherwise Australia would advance but if Korea scored more than 8 while giving up more than 3, Taiwan would advance. Yes this is screwy but it was based on batting average and ERA and my head hurts *joke sting*. Anyway, Korea got on the scoreboard early with a long ball from Moon in the second, then a double from Lee Jung Hoo in the 3rd, then Hyun Min Ahn scored on a single from Moon in the 5th to get Korea up the needed 5 runs. But Australia got 2 runs in later in the, putting Korea in a bad spot. Fortunately Hae Min scored in the 9th thanks to a sacrifice fly from Ahn. But things got super sweaty in the 9th when Chris Burke walked then Wingrove hit a liner to right that Lee dove and barely caught! If he missed that, Burke could have scored and ended everything for team Korea. 

The mere fact they got out of pool play at all is not the greatest of signs but they were against Japan and Australia so I can’t say I’m too surprised. Their pitching is not the greatest and that’s gonna hurt them against teams with more MLBers used to 150kph pitches and faster. Well at least they don’t have to worry about Arondis Chapman. Here’s hoping they get past DR on Saturday. 

Details about the KBO teams rosters so far

And now onto the rest of the KBO, which is going through spring training and the preseason just started yesterday. There was a lot of roster turnover from Kia, with Han Seung-taek moving to KT, Choi Hyeong-woo moving to Samsung and Park Chan-ho moving to Doosan, but they kept Naile and Oller and even got Yang Hyeong Jong to come back for one more contract. Kim Do-Yeong is back from injury and may take on shortstop duties but we’ll see what happens as there’s competition for the position right now. Kia said they wouldn’t be spending too much on the team from now on but this doesn’t feel like a rebuild. However, since this isn’t a rebuild, if the team has another bad finish, look to Coach Lee Bum Ho to get itchy feet and think about quitting. 

The Eagles didn’t have much important turnover, though I have a few questions as to why they let pitchers Jang Siwan go to the Twins, Kim Beom-soo to the Tigers, and a few of their young players straight up retired or moved to Ulsan. But they kept outfielder Son Ah-seop and signed catcher Kang Baek-ho from KT but it cost them reliever Han Seung-hyuk who went to KT in compensation. They brought in an entire new slate of foreign players like outfielder Jonathan Peraza and pitchers Wilkel Hernández from Venezuela and Owen White from the USA. Hmm, that’s gonna be an interesting locker room. (pause for 2 seconds) You know why. But anyway, it doesn’t seem like they’re going to tank this year but I don’t believe they’ll have the same success as last year.

Speaking of KT, with the signing Seung-hyuk and Seung taek, they now have 3 han seungs which means they have the han seung trio. I’m betting some journalists are going to mix them up during interviews and get scolded *joke sting*. They brought in two American pitchers and an outfielder. One of the pitchers played for the Dodgers last year and the other pitcher played with my cousin on the Brewers! And the Whiz signed pitcher Kouki Sugimoto for their Asian Quota. Sugimoto played for…the Tokushima Indigo Socks! Wow what a team name! *joke sting* ain’t nobody can make fun of the Whiz or the Landers now! (pause for two seconds) My cousin didn’t play for the Rocket City Trash Pandas! He was on the Bay Bears. That’s different from…kinda blue socks *jokes sting*.

The Twins were last season’s champions, so let’s see how well the team stayed together. Hmm, Ahn Ik-Hoon retired and became a coach, Choi Seungmin got cut, but they kept Dean, Chirinos, and Tolherst. And they were able to bring in Australian pitcher Lachlan Wells in the Asian quota because Australia is in Asia for some reason. (pause for 2 seconds) I don’t make the rules here! The league literally said, ehhh close enough! In the coaching staff, Lee Donghyeon left the SPOTV broadcast booth and became a pitching coach, and the Landers Suzuki Fumihiro took over the battery coaching. So there wasn’t much change and I’m giving LG the best chance of repeating. 

Who to Root For?: How to Pick a Baseball Team to Suit Your Needs and/or Personality

And now comes a fun segment; how to pick your favorite team based on my judgement of their overall personality and fan bases! 

Let’s start with the SSG Landers. They are a successor team to the Jeonju raiders so they still have a fan base in Jeonbuk, but they are said to be the least followed team out of all the KBO. They are also in a bit of flux because they are moving from Munhak to Cheongna in two years, which might cost them Bucheon support. So if you’re a relaxed fan and enjoy baseball for the sake of baseball, then pick the Landers. Also according to Namu Wiki, they have a lot of comedian fans so be prepared for a laugh or two. 

On the opposite side we have the Kia Tigers. Tigers fans are a lot like Golden State Warriors fans, in that they think the team can win it all every year, even when they logically shouldn’t. They are passionate and serious about the team, but their fans in the stands are a bit chill with the dancing. There’s a lot of history in the team, and invariably a lot of rivalries with Daegu Samsung Lions and Busan Lotte Giants, which has been discussed in some movies. Also the historical Jeolla and Gyeongsang rivalry that dates back to the 3 kingdoms era and the military dictatorship days. Another thing to keep in mind is that it’s the most popular team in the league and you can find Kia fans cheering with you at any road game. And that fan might be from Jeolla-do because many left the region for jobs. The fans are also not that good at catching foul balls, something that I’ll discuss in the Kia episode because whoo boy I have some stories. And according to the statistics, they have the most women fans; so if you’re single…well, I’m not saying you should go out and buy a Tigers hat. Kia also has the most male fans at like 40%. But hey you’re a female listener, you can’t go wrong buying a Tigers hat too. However they have the reputation for the worst fan service, so don’t expect the team to make it easy to connect with the players. Famous fans include Olympic gold medalists, Baby Vox, Ugly Duck yes these are KPOP singers, a Congolese born actor called Jonathan, and practically every celebrity from Honam. 

Another serious team but with more personality and less bragging is the Lotte Giants. Lotte is also getting a new stadium, but still within Sajik so there isn't a loss of fans situation like SSG is facing. They are the fans most famous for putting blown-up plastic bags on their heads. They’re also famous for dancing the most in the stands to the point where it feels more like an aerobics class. Don’t dress warmly. Even international papers muse about how passionate and cheerful the fans are. I’m not sure how the Asiad stadium will change the dynamics of cheering this season, so we’ll see how much of the personality changes carry  over. The fans are very passionate, to the point where a psychologist coined their disappointment Lotte Giants-induced depression because of how bad the team has been. On the positive side, when the team performs well, the local GDP improves significantly. So if you like baseball, especially bad baseball, and dancing and cheering, you should be a Giants fan. Famous fans include webtoon writers, members of the assembly, League of Legends gamers, and a bunch of Youtubers when they’re not knife-fighting each other outside courthouses. Oh and a Nepalese actor Shakya who was on TV in Korea a few years ago. 

If you’re into dancing but also griefing and rage-bait, then you’ll fit in as a Samsung Lions fan! They’re a very loyal fanbase, even sticking with the team through thick and thin. Some of that thin involved Kia beating them in the Korean Series and some of that also involved gambling scandals. The fanbase used to be divided between pre 2016 fans and today’s fans who want to have fun at the game and this was due to the move to La Park in 2016 when they added more family friendly seating and outdoor grass. The older fans didn’t have fan service and can’t sing the player songs well, which kinda reflects the factory worker mindset in some ways. They want the team to win and that’s the service, whereas these new fans are pampered and always want autographs. HUMM HUMM *joke sting*. Like Gwangju, their fan base is the bulk of Gyeongbuk and the city, and pretty much all over Korea, except Jeolla. They also count the women’s curling team members like Kim Kyung-ae, Twitch streamers, a singer called Onion, and a politician from Suncheon Jeonnam for some reason. Oh also if you like beefing with other fans, this is your team because they have a lot of rivalry slash resentments.

If you’re looking for a far less aggrieved fan base and a more family oriented one, might I suggest the NC Dinos? They have the goofiest mascots and you know how kids love Dinos. They also made news for hoisting the super sword from Lineage 3 up in the air when the Dinos won the series during Covid. The Dinos have a rivalry with the Giants but the fans do not share the same anger the team owners do. If anything, the fans are angry with the management over issues with the stadium and threats to move to Ulsan and Seongnam. The company’s hq is in Seongnam so they have a lot of fans there too. If you’re into cheering for occasionally successful underdogs and unorthodox coaches, the Dinos should be your team! Famous fans include many celebrities from Changwon and the surrounding area, a pet Youtuber called Leo the dog butler who takes care of cats *joke sting* skeleton athletes, golf players, rock musicians, international reddit, boys in Switzerland, and a Triple-A baseball team in Durham North Carolina. They really know how to bring in the fans.

If you’re into a relaxed baseball situation without historical rivalry undertones but still want a mature experience, I suggest the Hanwha Eagles. They don’t have super intense rivalries so it’s easy to root for them without your car getting keyed *joke sting*. Younger fans have been flocking to the team so the overall vibe of the fanbase skews younger and people are more positive about the team now that they have a new stadium and overperformed last season, getting to the Korean series. But it’s not all sunshine and roses. There’s beef between the old man fans and the beijing fans, look y’all I don’t understand Namu Wiki sometimes, their translations are really odd for some reason. But the new fans are very different from the old fans and might drop the team in case they revert to their losing ways. They are also the team that embraced multimedia marketing by having a season-long doc on Watcha and a singing contest on Dingo. If you’re Buddhist, like good baseball, from the Chungcheong area, or like tech, this could be your team. Famous fans include Koo Jae Cheol, a bunch of comedians, a Black & White Chef Winner, sports announcers like Kim Min Soo, a famous prosecutor, famous cheerleaders, a superfan English Teacher called Luke Hoagland, and Cart Rider gamers. 

If you want to root for a team without a lot of fan history, then you can’t go wrong with the KT Wiz. Because Suwon is close to the Pyeongtaek area and its many US military bases, foreign military members often appear at the stadium. And they drink a lot of beer *joke sting*. They are also gaining fans from around the region as more subway lines get built and it gets easier to get around Suwon. The stadium also tends to get filled with away fans at times because of the lack of a strong fan base and many out-of-towners in the city. Current famous fans include the president, a North Korean defector, the governor, Ailee, a national merit award doctor, and some famous golfers and table tennis players.

As far as the other teams, if you like fan service, pick the Bears. If you like winning, pick the Twins. If you’re into underdogs, moneyball, and don’t like being outside, pick the Heroes. If you live in southern Seoul, pick the Bears. Northern Seoul, pick the Twins. Western Seoul, pick the Heroes.

What stadiums will I visit this year? Landers, Twins/Bears, Tigers, Whales.

Speaking of teams to root for, I’m planning on 4 stadium visits this season. Jamsil especially. Why Jamsil? This week, Seoul city hall announced that a reconstruction deal for the entire Jamsil complex has been approved. This will be the last season of baseball at Jamsil, with the teams moving to the Olympic stadium next door for the next 4 to 5 seasons. Therefore if you have any chance to go to a Jamsil game and you haven’t been there before, now’s the time. I went 2 years ago for the Yon-Ko games and it is not my fondest stadium, so I’m not excited for a return trip. I’m also covering the SSG Landers and Munhwa stadium, another one I’m not so fond of but I’m sure they’ve made adjustments since I went there in 2019. I’ve been to Tigers stadium many times so I might do a special episode more focused on Kia Tigers history than just about Champions Field. And finally, you knew it was coming! I’ll be paying a visit to the Ulsan Whales stadium to talk about the team and the idea of Ulsan hosting a major league team at some point. The Whales are a new city-sponsored Future’s league team, and that has inspired some other places to consider creating a Future’s league team. I’ve been to a game in Iksan, so I know what to expect from the Future’s League.

Worst Persons

And you know what to expect from the music! The Worst Persons in the Korean Sports World! We got some doozies this week!

First up is the Nap award which goes to…North Chungcheong Provincial Government! Wow a whole province is getting on the naughty list! A first for the podcast! As reported in the Chosun Ilbo and Osen online, former Hanwha manager Yu Seung-an quote emphasized the necessity of expanding baseball infrastructure in North Chungcheong during a meeting with Governor Kim Young-hwan of North Chungcheong Province on the 4th unquote. He specifically said quote "If a dome stadium is constructed in North Chungcheong, the region has sufficient potential to grow into a central hub for baseball infrastructure in the central region.” unquote. Other attendees at the meeting seconded the idea of a dome in the province. I’d like to point out two things. 1- don’t you guys have something more important to do? You know, the whole 2027 Universiade you’re co-hosting with Daejeon! Making sure that goes according to plan should be a top priority! Don’t put the… well I wanna say cart before the horse, but this is more like a C versus A scenario. Maybe the better catch phrase should be “finish your vegetables and then eat your dessert”? I don’t know, I’m just saying it makes more sense to finish one big project before starting another. And then there’s the 2- the money. I don’t know much about the province’s financial situation, but it’s not known to be the richest if you know what I mean. Can they afford to build a 20 thousand seat dome and get enough fans to watch a Future’s league team? And where would you put it? Yeah the KTX goes to Danyang and Chungju, but those are some out of the way places for the rest of the province. It takes 2 hours just to go from Osong station to Danyang. OK so here’s the thing; North Chungcheong looks like a boomerang with most of the people living in the southwest side by Daejeon and Sejong city. So you’re gonna want to build a baseball complex where there’s people. But that doesn’t really help people in Danyang at the other end of the province. So why not put it in the middle? Because the middle is the mountains! *joke sting* you might as well put it in the himalayas! This smells like a vote grab because the elections are this year. The legislature must have seen Field of Dreams and got hooked on If you built it they will come. NOT IF THEY CAN’T GET THERE! *joke sting*

For the Radon award, Kim Hye-Seong of the Dodgers is the winner this week for striking out with the bases loaded against Japan in the WBC pool play last Saturday. And no I’m not just picking on him because he’s a Dodger, but he’s not the best at slugging. He didn’t play on Monday against Australia due to an injured hand so it’s possible he could be hurting and missed the pitch due to it. But if he had made some kinda contact, Korea could have beaten Japan. When Korea needed him, he was there in the top of the 4th but not in the 8th. Dodgers…. I swear…

And now onto the Plutonium award, and it’s a shocker. Coach Kim Jong-min of Gimcheon Hi-Pass women’s volleyball team was summarily indicted last week for throwing a remote control at an assistant coach and pushed the coach around at the team’s dormitory and in the head coach’s office according to reports in the Joongang Daily. Coach Kim said last year when allegations broke was quote “It is true that I had an argument with the coach, but I did not choke them or grab them by the collar. Rather, the coach acted insubordinately” unquote. Oh my gawd what’s with coaches and getting into legal trouble?! I swear I’m gonna throw my phone through the monitor if I have to do YET ANOTHER segment on misbehaving coaches! Today’s worst person in the Korean sports world!

GOTW

Finally some good news! I’m going to start with more footie news because it’s the first thing on my mind this morning! The South Korean women’s team is playing against Uzbekistan in the quarterfinals of the AFC at 6pm Korea time in Sydney Australia. Uzbekistan’s playing with house money and that underdog spirit because this is their first time in the quarterfinals. Korea’s got a lot upcoming with possible matches against powerhouse North Korea, Japan and China. They can’t afford to treat this game as a guaranteed win. 

Also tomorrow morning is Korea vs Dominican Republic in world Baseball classic action in Miami at 7:30AM Korea time. Korea is a bit of an underdog but they’ve gone farther than they have recently and want to keep the good vibes going! Also, they barely got out of the pool so they’ll need to prove to the homeland they can compete as a team at this level. Set your alarm this saturday just this once! I’m telling you it’s worth it. If you’re more into preseason baseball, we’ve got Kia hosting SSG and KT this weekend at 1PM. But if you’re in the Icheon area, that’s Icheon not Incheon, you can watch Doosan host Kiwoon and Samsung. Not sure why they ain’t playing in Jamsil but hey I just work here *joke sting*.

In K-League action it’s still too early for real important matches but I’d like to highlight the new teams. Yongin is hosting Gimpo at 430pm on Saturday and Gimhae is hosting Suwon FC at 2PM. And finally Bucheon is hosting Ulsan on Sunday at 2pm. I bring up that game as this is their first home game as a K1 team. 

Before I forget, the paralympics are going on in Milan and Korea has a Wheelchair Curling team. So far Korea has 4 medals including 1 gold in Women's Individual Sitting biathlon for KIM Yunji, as well as 2 silvers for sitting cross country skiing and 1 bronze for men’s snowboard cross. I’m telling y’all, Korea’s a snowboarding powerhouse now! Forget about speed skating!

Ending

Thank you for tuning in today. We hope you learned something about Korean Sports because if you didn’t, you set the sleep timer too soon *joke sting*. Pass this pod on to anyone interested in Korean sports and especially rookies because trust me they need every ounce of help we can pour on them. If you don’t believe me, spend 5 minutes on Living in Korea subreddit *Joke sting*. If you wish to read along or contact the show, visit our website at hwatingsportspodcast dot com or our Facebook page 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. You can reach him on Instagram @daf_daffy247. Cover art thanks to our cycling expert James! A shoutout to our listeners in Naruto, Tokushima. They are famous for whirlpools, a world war 1 internment camp for Germans, and the Tokushima Indigo Socks baseball team. (Pause for 2 seconds) No, they don’t have a ninja theme park. That’s up the road on Awaji island (pause for 3 seconds). Yes I know the name’s the same but they don’t have ninja cartoons on their tourism site! They don’t claim the ninja cartoons! That’s like towns in New Jersey setting up theme parks for dumpster trucks and big belly italian mafiosas. Now I gotta get a slice of cheese pizza! Until next time, Ninja listeners hahaha. 

(AI voice) Guests of the Hwa-ting sports podcast get Foot Fillers inserted at Heel Deal Clinic in Un-chong lake park Pahju, the frontier of Korea! Experience the frontiers of sketchy medical practices first foot at Heel Deal, where they will puff your feet up! (speed this part up) Not recommended for nursing or pregnant women. Not responsible if your feet explode if you step on a lego.

Notes

Ju Won tagged out at home- MLB

Nap: North Chungcheong Proposes Baseball Second-Team, Dome Stadium

Radon: Kim Hye-Seong for striking out with the bases loaded against Japan in the 8th inning on saturday. 

Plutonium: Coach of Gimcheon's women's volleyball team indicted on charges of assaulting his assistant coach