Dancing With The Dinos

Our time is Korea is coming to an end quickly, so I'm checking things off. Going to a baseball game: ✅

I heard that the crowd really gets into the game. So we got tickets for the nearest KBO (Korean Baseball Organization) team, the NC Changwon Dinos.

We went with a big group of friends. As we were wandering the stadium before the game we made Daisy and Natalya take a pic with this dinosaur. We think it was just a fan, but we took a picture anyway.

Kate, Laura, Natalya, Daisy, Trish, Lulu, and rando Dino players

The team was lined up  in front of the dugout for the national anthem.

The Dinos are a relatively new team, playing their first official KBO game in 2012.

The crowd is really invested in the game. They stand every time a home team player is at bat. They chant their name to a special tune. They also had these paper fan things that made a lot of noise. And they dance quite a bit.

The team has 2 mascots. 쎄리 Sseri is a green brontosaurus that wears a necklace and has been nicknamed 'Swole Daddy.' The other mascot, which is the one that hung out in our section, is a blue tyrannosaurus named 단디 Dandi.

Each KBO team can have a total of three foreign players, 2 of which can be pitchers. Guess where this guy is from.

Let me zoom in for ya:

That's right--a fellow Wildcat! Our seats were right beside the dugout. I yelled at him at the end of the game and flashed my 'WC' hand sign at him, but he didn't see nor hear. That was fun, finding a little piece of home all the way over here. This is him on the outside of the practice stadium.

At one point I thought, "I smell ramen." Then I saw the girl in front of me with her stadium snack--ramen. That's something you don't see at an MLB game!

The Dinos hung in the low-scoring game until the pitcher, who happened to be American, sat out in the 8th inning. A batter got a triple off the first pitch the next guy threw, and they promptly removed him after that one pitch! A second pitcher only got to throw a couple balls that were hits, and they took him out, too. Talk about pressure on those pitchers! 

The home team lost. After the game they went out and bowed for the crowd.

[May 1]