I like to talk about baseball with my students. My preferences in American baseball are a bit more accessible to them than they might be otherwise, since one of their own superstars pitches for the Phillies. Apparently Maddie ran into a cab driver who wanted to talk to her about the World Series when he found out that she hailed from Colorado, whose team we had knocked out earlier in the playoffs.
"World Series!" I cried in one of my classes, It's a small class, only five students, and one of them is a baseball nut. His name is Kyle. "Phillies and Yankees!"
"No no no," he said. "SK Wyverns and [some other team, I can't remember]."
"America," I said. "American championship game: my Phillies and Yankees."
"Teacher, who champions now?"
"2008 champions, Phillies. 2009? Game right now."
"Ah," he nodded. "Yankees win, teacher Yankees fan?"
"No way!" I made a face. "Teacher hates the Yankees. Teacher Phillies fan...forever." I made a big gesture with my arms.
A look of understanding crossed Kyle's face. "Ahhh. My SK Wyverns fan...forever." He repeated the gesture.
I've come to the conclusion that the SK Wyverns are the Korean equivalent of the Yankees: a giant powerhouse of a team with lots of money to buy lots of talent for lots of championships. I mentioned this to Jong-min and he agreed.
"So what would be the equivalent of the Phillies, then?" I asked while I was out with him and another friend on Thursday. "Not as much money, not many championships, more working-class city, really dedicated and passionate fans."
They both had an answer for me immediately. "Busan Lotte Giants," they laughed. "Definitely the Giants."
So there you go, family: there's your South Korean team to root for.
Also, Wikipedia tells me that the starting times for the games will be at about 8 in the evening. This makes it very inconvenient for me to watch any of the games: either I watch them in the morning by myself in my apartment, or I try to find a sports bar with the games on tape delay at night. Either way, if anyone spoils any part of the game for me, I'll be pissed. I'm swearing off of Facebook and Google for the next few days as a preventive measure.
So Long, Europe
8 years ago
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I got to go to a game between the Doosan Bears and the Hanhwa Eagles. We were rooting for the Eagles, who I take it are the worst team. There was lots of cheering led by a male cheerleader and two very-in-sync female dancers. And of course everybody hits together inflatable sticks and directs them according to the cheers. It was cool, but it made it hard to focus on the game.
ReplyDeleteDid you see the video of Chan Ho Park spraying champagne on the Philly fans after they won the pennant? That was actually a big moment - usually the champagne is doused in the locker room on fellow players, so this was a really cool way to bring us in on it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEn7QxxIpDc
Here's hoping - Phillies in 7! Yay!