Samsung Lions

Korea has it's own professional baseball league and it is called the KBL (Korean Baseball League).

Daegu's team is the Samsung Lions. Every team goes by their corporate sponsor and not their city. This makes it hard for the casual fan to know what city the opponent is playing out of.

I went to opening day for the Samsung lions and there is quite a difference between not only the opening day atmosphere in Detroit and here, but also the game itself.

First, there is no hype around opening day. In fact, we bought our tickets when we arrived at the stadium. Further, the ticket was to get into the stadium, the seats were not assigned and you could sit where ever you wanted.

The game itself was decent. The Lions played against Kia Tigers. One of the Tigers star players is Choi Hee Seop...better known as Hee Seop Choi. He played briefly in the MLB for the Chicago Cubs and LA Dodgers.

The Lions pulled out a victory, and everyone was relieved it came in the 9 innings as briefly it looked like it would be a tie and the rain had started coming in the later innings. You could bring anything you wanted into the stadium, this included beer. But, you didn't need to worry about bringing beer in as their were 7/11 vendors selling a can of beer for the same price as at a 7/11.

During about the 5th inning they had what I assume to be the 7th inning stretch. It was different then what I am used to here. There was no take me out to the ball game sung. Music was played and players from both teams got on the field and...literally stretched. It was quite the site to see as generally the 7th inning stretch I am used to is for the fans and not the players.

I took some pictures around the stadium and of the players stretching in the middle of the game. They are posted on facebook and can be accessed by non facebook users with that link I posted earlier.