Samsung Fighting!

My former Korean professional baseball squad based in Daegu, the Samsung Lions, is off to a really great start this year.  They weren't expected to do much any time soon.  Just my luck that they'd turn the corner once I left that country.

That is all.

Since Nobody Asked I Went Ahead And Ranked All 10 Korean Baseball Organization Uniforms

Korean Baseball Team Uniforms Ranked:

1) Kia Tigers (Gwangju)
2) Kiwoom Heores (Seoul)
3) Lotte Giants (Busan)
4) Samsung Lions (Daegu)
5) Doosan Bears (Seoul)
6) LG Twins (Seoul)
7) SK Wyverns (Incheon)
8) Hanhwa Eagles (Daejeon)
9) NC Dinos (Changwon)
10) KT Wiz (Suwon)

— Your Little Ray of Sunshine James (@wetcasements) May 7, 2020

A Little Bright Spot

Obviously, I wish the circumstances were different.  But I can never shut up about the glories of Korean baseball and now apparently ESPN has cut a deal to bring Korean ballgames to the US.

As of today, the Korean games are being played without an audience which, admittedly, kind of defeats the purpose.  Then again, with Korean public schools opening up again next week it might not be long before limited numbers of fans are allowed to attend games.

May the cheerleaders, outrageous bat flipping, and beer drinking contests get here sooner rather than later!

No Joy In (Rainy) Daegu

I made it to my final Samsung Lions ball game of the season last Friday night.  With a rain delay adding insult to injury, we lost 3-0 to the SK Wyverns from Incheon.  SK are actually the best team in the league right now, so they'll be moving on to a traditional four team semi-final / final playoff series.

As you can see from my not-so-great picture, it was pretty damn empty.  The ultras behind the Samsung dugout were there though, and they were singing and dancing through.

See you next spring, Lions.

Update:  The KBO actually does a five-team format, with four and five doing a one game wildcard.  Overthinking it, if you ask me.

"the cadence of games"

Emma Baccellieri on the unexpected joys of late season "meaningless baseball":

"The Tigers won, 5-2. It mattered as much as a game between baseball’s two worst teams can matter in September—which is to say, not at all, in any technical sense, unless you’re particularly concerned about the potential draft order for next year. But this technical sense is the objective, macro, big-picture sense. This technical sense may be why professional baseball exists as an enormously profitable business, but it is not why baseball exists. And, of course, there is no one clear answer to that second question—but whatever there is, it’s probably closer to the texture of a game between two terrible teams on September 16 than it is to anything else.

When I miss baseball in the winter, I do not miss the postseason. I do not miss the highlights, I do not miss the debates over who will deserve the Cy Young, I do not miss anything that seems as if it is meant to be remembered. I miss the cadence of games. I miss MLB’s copyright disclaimer on broadcasts. I miss background noise. I miss the Orioles versus the Tigers on September 16."

The Orioles have been terrible for about two decades now, but I still follow them somewhat closely.  If it was possible to listen to them on a Korean radio, as dreadful as they are, I would.

So when I moved to Daegu ten years ago (!) I was excited to have a local team, the Samsung Lions, who were actually quite good.   (They won four consecutive championships between 2011 and 2014).

Of course, they've fallen into mediocrity right on cue.  (Currently in eighth place out of ten squads.)

Still, I love that expression "cadence of games."  Walking home at night through the streets and alleys of Daegu, the fried chicken joints will be playing the Samsung game if it's on.  I check the scores in the morning.  I go to about three or four games a season, but it's those late season "meaningless" ones that somehow charm me much more than they should.  Honestly, I think it has a lot to do with weather -- fall has always been my favorite season, and there is something about days growing shorter rather than longer that makes me want to check out at least one more home game before the season ends.

This Is Some Bullshit, South Korea

Koreans are, for lack a a better word, great big fucking babies when it comes to a little rain.  So I took the one hour subway ride out of town to the ball park yesterday, got to the stadium for the five p.m. start, and while it was overcast it was not raining.

Too bad White Devil, game cancelled because rain is not water from clouds, but actually toxic radioactive dragon piss.

What bullshit.

Anyhow, I went back into town and drowned my sorrows with fried chicken and beer and this really excellent Kim Stanley Robinson novel.

Sports fandom, much like life, is highly overrated.

The Best Time of Year

I made it to my first Samsung ballgame of the new season last Saturday.  Alas, we lost to the dastardly kt Whiz of Suwon on a grand slam.  Still, the weather was perfect and this is one of the best things about Daegu in spring and summer.

I'm more of a beer-drinking contest guy myself, but Kiss Time is also fun.

Samsung Fighting!

One more college class to go, then I'm off for my first Samsung ballgame of the new season.

I meant to go last week but came down with a little cold, and the weather was on the cool side.

It's still a bit chilly for April in Daegu, but I can no longer wait.

The team is still "rebuilding" though, so any thought of making the post-season would just be silly.

Bringing along Playing at the World, making slow but steady progress.  Sucker is huge with teeny-tiny print.  Fun nerd history fact: Gary Gygax was shit-canned from an insurance job and decided to "semi-professionally" try and publish some of his war gaming material including Chainmail, which included the first fantasy rules that would later molt into Dungeons and Dragons.

Nice Day At The Ballpark

I made it to my first Samsung Lions game of the season yesterday.  The weather was great, the fried chicken gizzards were on fleek, and Samsung lost 5-4 to the kt Wiz, a new team in the Korean Baseball League.

For the uninitiated, Samsung actually won four consecutive titles between 2011 and 2014, but it's been downhill ever since.

Still, with the weather being perfect, it was a Friday evening well spent.

Just How Old and Lame and Boring Is James?

I got offered free tickets to tonight’s Samsung Lions game and I turned them down.

Even for a night game, the thought of sitting outside for three hours in Daegu’s heat and humidity without air-conditioning literally frightens me.

All the cold beer in the world can’t fix it, and I don't take the power of cold beer lightly.

Boo.

Pride Goeth Before The Yadda Yadda

The Orioles are 13-5.

And I haven't been to my first Samsung Lions game of the year yet here in lurvely Daegu, but there are some national holidays next week so I might be able to rectify that situation.

Here I should  say something about how a great-hitting squad with a shaky starting line-up won't make it very deep into late summer  in one of the better divisions but no, no I shall not.

The Bats Shall Be Flipped

Deadspin has put together a nice little guide to the glory that is the Korean Baseball Organization (Korean MLB).  Here's the skinny on Daegu's local team, the Samsung Lions:

"One of the league’s official franchises, the Samsung Lions, are based in the city of Daegu in Gyeongsang Province, in the country’s southeast, where it is hotter and more humid than other regions, earning the nickname “Daefrica” (Daegu + Africa). They primarily play at Daegu Samsung Lions Park, which opened in 2016 and can hold about 29,000. Once in awhile, they play at Pohang Baseball Stadium (capacity: 12,000), located an hour away from Daegu."

Sadly, the franchise has definitely fallen on hard times.  After winning four consecutive championships (2011-2014) and moving into a new stadium, they've kind of fallen apart as of late.

Read the whole article though for some interesting background on the nine other teams that currently constitute the KBO.