The tension of the pitch. The crack of the bat. The roar of the crowd. The smell of chicken, soju and beer. Red-faced ajosshis jumping with glee. Thousands of fans donning orange bags on their heads while singing in unison. This is baseball in Busan.


Sajik Stadium in Busan is home to the Lotte Giants, perhaps the most beloved of all Korean baseball teams, despite having only won the league title twice (’84,’92). Their following is large and devoted, with rabid fans found throughout the country, not just in the rough and tumble port city that the team calls home. Sajik, which holds 30,000 people, regularly sells out – even when the team is on a losing streak – and if you want to breathe in the essence that is Korean baseball, Sajik is the place to be.

Going to a Lotte Giants game is an event. The air crackles with electricity as thousands of black, white, and orange clad fans pour into the venue, armed with boxes of chicken, kimbab rolls, steamed pigs’ feet, sundae (blood sausage), and copious amounts of alcohol. A Korean ball game is an excuse to feast and drink, and most all the fans get down to it like experts. Everywhere around you people are munching and guzzling and chatting, all the while concentrating on the game, which is played at a very high level. Vendors roam the stands selling all varieties of food and drinks at bargain prices, and unlike a corporatized Major League game in North America, you will never be hassled by fascist security guards there to enforce a myriad of “rules.” You’re left alone to enjoy the event collectively. Watching live baseball in Busan gives you an elated sense of freedom, which is sadly absent from the overly-commoditized games back home. It’s what baseball should be. It’s fun.

Lotte currently occupies fourth place in the Korean League. They are often lovable losers, lacking the dominance of a team such as Samsung or SK. But last year the team made history by hiring the Korean league’s first foreign manager, Jerry Royster, an ex-third baseman for the Atlanta Braves. Royster, along with Mexican power-slugger Karim Garcia, managed to take the team all the way to third place, one of the team’s best showings in years. The normally devout fans were even more energized, and each game felt like it was the final in a playoff series. Royster, in an interview, said that the fans in Busan were the “best he’d ever seen” in his thirty-plus years in baseball.

Watching a baseball is often considered a passive activity, but a Lotte game will usually arouse the passions and theatrics of a European football match. All the leading players have their own song or chant, which thousands of fans launch into as they stroll up to bat. When an opposing player tries to steal base, the whole of the stadium points to him and shouts Ma! (short for “hajima”, Korean for “don’t do it”). If a ball is hit into the stands, the lucky fan that catches it is subjected to chants of “Ajura! Ajura!” meaning “give it to a kid,” which he or she invariably does. At the top of the eighth inning, orange trash bags are distributed throughout the stadium, which most all Giants fans inflate and stick on their heads, injecting a bit of silly camaraderie into the whole affair. The most stirring moment of the game usually happens in the eighth or ninth inning, however, when the team needs some extra inspiration. All thirty thousand fans get on their feet and sing “Busan Galmaegi,” a song of longing and desire that really expresses the heart of the people of Busan. I dare anyone to join in and not get goose bumps.

Baseball in Busan is part sport and part carnival, and friends of mine who never were interested in the game – who hail from countries where baseball isn’t even played – can be found at Sajik, sipping on cans of beer, eating fried chicken, and soaking up the atmosphere. Baseball in Korea is not to be missed, and you’ll find it in its purest form in Busan. So come on out to a ballgame at Sajik and see what it’s all about.

Read Chris Tharp’s blog “Homely Planet”

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