The game started with a lot of good pitching. Okata of the Whales took the mound and flummoxed the first two batters. But he drew a walk and then struck out the next hitter. The Whales didn’t fare well against the Tigers’ Nam Jin Woo, not even getting a base runner in 3 innings. Okata dinged a guy and got a walk in the second but the shortstop made a great play in the inning to stop the runner getting to third. Today’s game was bit sparcely attended for such great weather. The fans around me had umbrellas since there was so little shade in the stands. That’s one big drawback to the minor league stadiums in that they’re great for cloudy days and night games, not so much for sunny days. I was also impressed by the Whales cheerleadings. I didn’t think the city would splurge on a cheerleading squad. I thought this part of the country was more stuffy conservative, but I guess I was wrong. Also they have kiss cam so if you’re sitting w/ a lady or a kid, you might be on kiss cam, complete with Whitney Houston ballads. Don’t bring your sidepiece, especially if you’re a CEO.
The first hit of the day was a blast to the left field wall by point 196 hitter Lee Yeong Je resulting in a double in the 5th. But Kia was not able to capitalize as the leadoff hitter pupped out. Kia struck first in the top of the 6th after a walk led to a botched double play then a wild pitch sent the runner to second and then a base hit by Han Seong Yeon led to an error in center field and the runner scoring from second. I think if Kim had fielded that ball correctly, Kia wouldn’t have scored. A second error by the shortstop Min Seok led to Han scoring from third. But Okata stopped the bleeding thanks to the 3rd basemen being able to field a ball properly.
Okata was replaced in the top of the 7th with #15 Seo Yeong Jun, who made short work of the bottom of the order, thanks to a diving play by the shortshop and a popout that I was sure was coming to me. Guess I drank too much beer. Anyway, Na Jin Woo had a no-hitter going into the 7th when on two outs, DH Kim got a double down the left field line and that got the 1 thousand four hundred fans going and that ended his day, being replaced by Kim Gi Hu. A good decision, he was starting to lose it in the inning. But Ulsan couldn’t take advantage with a popout to end the inning.
I went on a little stadium tour in the 8th and found they have a lactation room! Hey that's the way to bring out the family! Unfortunately that's the only way to get milk since the GS was closed. But I was able to catch an amazing 8 to 4 to 3 double play after the Whales gave up 4 runs in the 8th. All the offense happens when I'm not at my seat! I gets no respect I swear! Anyway the outside grass looks nice to sit in and I saw families with coolers which I thought were banned but they have other plans here! The only food I saw were a few good food trucks and a chicken delivery guy by the main gate.
Talk about the team
The Ulsan Whales got started in 2025 because Ulsan is the only city-state without a pro baseball team. Lotte Giants played at Munsu park a couple of times a year beforehand, but this made Ulsan citizens a little bit jealous. Also, Lotte has been awful so they kinda wanted a better closer team to root for. Last year there was a lot of chatter about the Dinos possibly moving there but Lotte put their foot down and the Dinos didn’t want to ruin their relationship with the province. So Ulsan city hall said Hell with it! We’ll make our own team, and so they talked with the KBO and bingo bango! October 21st, city hall announced to the world that they would start their own Future’s League team, the first city-managed baseball team. This is more common in footie and handball, but not something you see in baseball for some reason. If you’re American, picture Green Bay getting mad at MLB that they can’t get a big league team so they start their own Triple A team. Over the off-season, Ulsan city hall put in the work over the winter, setting a budget of 6 billion won, interviewing and eventually hiring Kim Dong-jin the former Giants assistant as their first GM, and Jang Won-jin as the head coach.
Since the team doesn’t have a parent team partner, they have an odd recruiting policy. First, the city hall politicians have no say in recruiting so as to avoid scrutiny and political horse-trading. I mean, you don’t want the mayor telling players We’re not gonna sign you if you don’t vote for me. And you KNOW someone who pull that shit *joke sting*. Another thing that came up before the tryouts was that they were capped at 4 foreign players. It makes sense since the other minor teams barely have 1 or even 2. I don’t even think the indie leagues have more than 1 foreigner per team. Also the KBO leadership has made it clear that Ulsan won’t be joining the big league. However, if NC folds or if Jeju or Cheongju gets a team, the league might get worried and change their minds. So anyway, 230 players from former pro players to your high school baseball teammate tried out for the team. I bet even airbud applied *joke sting*. After tryouts on January 14th and 15th, in which pitcher Kim Do-gyu was kicked off the team for drinking too much, hey wait a minute I’ve seen this movie! Is he going to coach the deaf team now as penance to let the world know he loves baseball again? *joke sting*. Anyway, they completed their roster and the team was born on February 2nd. February second… hey that’s groundhog day! It was sunny! That means the team saw its shadow! Does that mean they’re going to be good this year?
So far as of this writing, Ulsan is 14 and 8, giving them second place in the Southern division of the Future’s league. If they win it all, I’m calling it the blessing of the groundhog’s shadow. Ulsan will have a winning record if the groundhog sees its shadow on February second. (pause for 2 seconds) They are not found in Korea??? Damn, thought I was onto something, like the curse of the KFC statue! *joke sting* But one reason why they started so well is because they have a top 10 batter in 예진원, a clutch hitter in 김동엽, and two top 5 pitchers from Japan in Okata and Naga. Also like Sangmu, they don’t have to worry about call-ups from the parent team. I feel like this team’s positioned to do well in the league for the next few years, depending on Ulsan’s largesse and whether the management team continues. Also this week, one of the top stories in Korea was Ji Man Choi joining the team. Choi played for Tampa Bay in the 2020 World Series. Recently he returned to Korea but cannot play in the KBO for two years due to regulations there, specifically because he bypassed the KBO draft system. He started military service but had to drop out due to knee issues. He is going through knee rehab and plans to start playing for the team in July.
Website, where to watch, etc…
You can watch Whales games on KBS N SPORTS which is KN dash T on the Korea baseball website; WHICH IS A TOTALLY HELPFUL ACRONYM KBO WEBSITE WRITERS! Oh wait, NOT!!! *joke sting*. It took me 5 minutes to figure this out. See this why Korea needs my podcast. You wouldn’t know what to do without me. Anyway, if you have TVIng they also carry the games, and if you can’t watch them live, you can see their highlights on Youtube.
Their website is a little strange in that the menu headers are in English but choices are in Korean. It’s…something, I think. It’s got the usual team stuff, like the history, player bios, schedule, you can download the logos, the stadium map and directions, stuff like that. It said to take bus number 426, 2100, and 2300 to get there but I came from Busan so I took bus 1154 from Nopodong. The stadium is in the Munsu sports park so there’s a lot to do. They got squash, in-line skating, a healing picnic zone across the street, the soccer stadium, tennis courts, and a swimming pool. Unfortunately, the sports park is in between two train stations and there isn’t an easy path between the two. It’s an hour bus ride with transfers from Ulsan station or an 18 thousand won taxi ride. Whoof. It’s not much better from Taehwagang station either, with a 50 minute bus ride and transfers, or a 13 thousand won taxi ride. And it’s about the same from the bus terminal too. This is one of the disadvantages of the sports complex model, I believe. They build them far from the center of town but in doing so, they make it hard for out-of-towners to get to the stadium.
In the fan event for May, they are looking for people to throw from the mound. You have to send in a warm and witty story about family. If you win, you get a hat, a uniform, and a free ticket. I suppose I could tell the story of the time the cat swatted my sister’s hot dog out of her hand and my dog chokie caught it.
Talk about possible domes in Osong and Busan
Because of the public support for the Whales, North Chungcheong Province is now considering a new dome stadium of 50,000 seats in the Osong area as well as creating a team since the leadership realized that it can’t rely solely on events to fund it. If you’re not in Korea, it’s local election season so there are a lot of wild promises flying around. This year’s wild promise is domed stadiums. In Busan, the replacement plans for Sajik are not finalized and while the main plan is to rebuild it in Sajik sports complex, Busan mayoral hopefuls Reps. Chun Jae-soo and Joo Jin-woo have both pledged to build a new dome in North Port, with Joo saying he was inspired by Oracle Park in San Fran, according to reports in the Korea Herald. While I like the idea, I think it’s bad for the city because one, North Port’s on the coast so it’s vulnerable to typhoons and storm surge. Look what happened to Tampa Bay’s dome a few years ago. Busan residents; do you want to rebuild a stadium roof every 5 years? And two, these expectations do not always seem realistic. Can the city really guarantee year round usage, especially with competition from Cheongsa in Incheon and Gocheok in Seoul? Also apparently it’s South Chungcheong’s and Jeonbuk’s turn to get into what I call dome madness. According to reports in News Cheongju, lawmakers want to replace Cheongju stadium with a better stadium or a dome to attract a team or at least offer more games for the Eagles since they can’t really play anymore there due to field issues. They want to leverage President Lee’s pledge to rebuild the Cheongju sports complex into a dome which is…like, we goin’ faaarrr beyond an inch into a mile! This is I’m gonna build you an elevator, no I want you to build me an Orion rocket to the moon territory *joke sting*. I ain’t got dome money! Do I look like I’m sitting on a platinum mine?! *joke sting* That’s basically the message from South Chungcheong province representative 조철기 when he requested an audit from the national board of audits while questioning the legality of the Provincial Government’s act of compiling and approving a budget for a feasibility study while bypassing the legally mandated procedure of reflecting the project in the medium-term local financial plan. You can read more about it in the article in the description. But here’s hoping politicians don’t start going to jail because they illegally funded new white elephant projects.
My last point about the feasibility of dome stadiums relates to the recent popularity and success of Goyang’s stadium hosting many concerts lately. Even though Goyang doesn’t have a dome, its setup is actually helpful because performers can have hovering drones, balloons and fireworks. While it is true that its proximity to Seoul and Incheon help, as well as the lack of 30k plus seats in other stadiums, it is also important to note that they take care of the stadium and don’t need to host FIFA games which put World Cup stadium off the list. Can these new dome stadiums promise the same thing?
Plug for SIM Company
Friend of the channel Mr. Ro has started up a travel eSim marketplace! Looking at my analytics, I can tell many of you are from places other than South Korea. Except North Korea, I haven’t gotten any play from there yet *joke sting*. If you need to find an eSim provider for a trip to another country, check out www dot yonosim dot com and use my promo code hwating26 that’s h-w-a-t-i-n-g and the number 26. You get a 10% discount if you use my code. My link’s in the description and on the website.
Ending
(copy from previous episode)
A shoutout to our listeners in Vulcan and Mosquito Creek, Alberta! I guess I have some listeners who tune in while hiking! Don’t get lost! Them Canada mojis like to bite elbows *Joke sting*. We will return on the 8th and I’ll be covering the Kia Tigers with a special co-host! Live long and prosper, Korean Sports fans!
(AI voice) Guests of the Hwa-ting sports podcast get sports shoes from Shims Sports! They sell the best bootleg Ronaldos on the peninsula! Need some Nike Attacks that only look a little beat up? They got the hook up in cheeky Cheonan! (Speed up this part) Bootlegging allegations only rumored in court! All shoes tested for authenticity!
Notes
Former major leaguer Choi Ji-man to join Ulsan Whales in Futures League
티켓링크 - ticketing for Ulsan Whales
[National Inside┃Chungbuk–Regional Issue] Dome Stadium and Even a Pro Bas
eball Team?… Chungbuk Shifts Gears on Sports Infrastructure
[브레이크뉴스] 조철기 충남도의원, ‘천안·아산 돔구장’ 감사원 감사 청구…