Baseball, KBO Style

The Kiwoom Heroes are the newest of the three baseball teams in Seoul. The team began in 2008 as the Woori Heroes. They would be named the Seoul Heroes in 2008 and 2009. Then they were the Nexen Heroes from 2010 to 2018. The latest iteration is the Kiwoom Heroes. What is a Kiwoom? It appears to be a consumer investment company of some sort. I suppose the team will remain the Kiwoom Heroes as long as the economy is sound. Judging by the looks of the global economy, I expect a name change around 2024 or 25. However, those are just my thoughts, not investment advice.

I hadn’t watched a baseball game in Seoul since I lived there back in 2002 or so. So when I decided to make a quick trip to the city, catching a ballgame was high on the list of things to do. All I remembered from those hazy days back in the early 2000s was paying around 3000 to 5000 Won for an outfield ticket and buying boxes of soju from an ancient ajuma stationed at the top of the stairs of the subway exit. Soju mixed with Gatorade achieved two things. It made the soju tolerable and the baseball a lot more fun. It’s not that the product on the field was terrible, but it was quite a bit lower than MLB quality. If Japanese baseball is considered to be AAAA level, the KBO then was around AA+ to AAA.

However, for this game, the level didn’t matter at all. The game was just a pretense to drink beer and catch up with my buddy James who I hadn’t seen since the unspecified virus of unknown origin locked us up in our respective countries. Ironically, the last time we hung out was at a ballgame in Hiroshima, which only occurred after a day of drinking and planning in a bar in Budapest. All of this preamble serves as a bit of a disclaimer as we were so busy drinking and bullshitting that I swear I probably only watched about 10 to 15 pitches of the game. While I am not sure if the level of the play has increased, all I know is that I had a good time at the ballpark, and really, that is all that really matters. Anyway, here is my review of the game and experience.

Oh, one last thing before the review. Even though I didn’t pay much attention to the game, I did hear a surprising name when one of the players came up to bat. Addison Russel. I remember him with the Cubs when they broke their World Series drought. Even though I looked at the lineup, I didn’t notice the foreign players. Unlike in Japan, where foreign players have their names spelled out in katakana and the Japanese players are written in Kanji, Korean and foreign players’ names are spelled using Hangeul. Since it is a phonetic language, the same characters are used for Korean and foreign players. OK, enough of the language lesson. On to the review.

Location

The stadium is located in Gocheok-don, in the southwestern part of Seoul.

Access

The most convenient way to get to the stadium is the subway. The subway in Seoul is world-class. It is efficient, cheap, easy to navigate, and safe. Just beware of the occasional ajuma and her razor-sharp elbows. You will get a shot to the ribs if you don’t move fast enough. Guil station (구일역) is located on the 1 line (dark blue). It is very easy to get to the station, just be aware that if you have to transfer at Sindorim Station to access the blue line, Sindorim can be an extremely busy station and you will be in for a bit of a wait for your train. To give you an example of how inexpensive the Seoul metro is, if you catch a train at Seoul Station and go to Guil, it will take you just over 20 minutes and cost you 1,350 Won, around $1.02. Crazy, right? If you want to plan a trip on the subway in Seoul, here is a link to the official Seoul Metro site.

Atmosphere and gameday experience

As I previously mentioned. I spent most of the game talking with James and drinking beer. The crowd was pretty small. Maybe around 4000 fans, but they did their best to liven up the game with their cheering. To be fair, it was an early season game on a Thursday. As with other Asian baseball leagues, the fans of the KBO have chants for the players and special cheers when a run is scored or a home run is hit. There is a cheer team that entertains and pumps up the crowd.

I can not comment on the quality of the food at the stadium, but James warned me to eat beforehand as the stadium food was nothing special. I read the same thing in a Google Maps review, so my advice would be not to arrive at the ballpark hungry. There are plenty of restaurants in Seoul, so finding food is never a problem.

I, however, CAN comment on the beer situation. Unlike in Japan, there are no beer vendors roaming the aisles to pour you a beer so you will have to go to the concession stands. As the crowd was sparse, there was no waiting. Do not lose your ticket, as you will have to show it to an usher every time you go to the concession stands. No matter how many times they see you, you will still have to produce a ticket to get back to your seat. While it would be nice to have beer delivered, the price will ease the pain of having to get up and get your own. 4500 Won per beer is a fantastic bargain. That’s $3.39! When was the last time you paid less than $5 for a beer at a ballpark?

Stadium quality

The Gocheok Sky Dome is the home of the Kiwoom Heroes. The stadium opened in 2015 and has a capacity of 16,744 for baseball. The stadium is also used for concerts. The dome itself is nothing special to look at. The outside looks like an egg wrapped in corrugated tin sheets. Most of the seats have decent sight lines for watching baseball. But according to James, the upper-level outfield seats do have some blind spots. Apparently, part of the outfield is cut off when you are in the nosebleed seats.

Tickets can be purchased online or at the stadium. The signage is a bit confusing as we stood in the wrong line to buy tickets. Once we got up to the front, we were told to go to a different line. Since it was a small crowd, it wasn’t an issue. But if you were waiting in line for 15 minutes and were told to go to another line to wait for 15 minutes, that could be a problem.

The staff were all helpful and friendly. They pointed us in the right direction while we were looking for our seats. And a special shout out to the woman running the concession stand. She did her best to keep our beer cups full. When James and I are at a game, that is indeed a feat.

The KBO provides an entertaining product at an excellent price. If you like baseball, you owe it to yourself to attend a game or two. I would like to see an outdoor game at Jamsil Stadium. Well, Seoul is just a couple hours away from Tokyo. Let me check the schedule.