Baseball cheering culture in South Korea
[1] The Korean cheering culture generally shares similar characteristics: collective, enthusiastic and empathetic.
Baseball cheering is popular because of easy-to-learn fight songs, break-time events and a variety of foods.
There are cell phone mobile applications that allow baseball fans to listen to the fight songs of clubs and players in advance.
[4] In the early days of Korea's professional baseball league, which was started in 1982, the most commonly used cheering tools were Korean traditional musical instruments, such as Buk, Jing, and Kkwaenggwari.
But nowadays, a typical example of a cheering tool is cylindrical, inflatable balloon sticks, now commonly known in the English-speaking world as thundersticks.
[5][3] Each club has its own color for the balloon sticks: SSG Landers is red, Samsung Lions is blue, Doosan Bears is white, Kia Tigers is yellow, LG Twins is red, Kiwoom Heroes is pink and Hanwha Eagles is orange.
[7] Another interesting characteristic of Korean baseball cheering is fans wearing team uniform shirts with players' names.
In Seoul Jamsil Stadium, Jokbal (pig's trotters), in Gwangju Kia Champions Field, Garak Guksu (boiled thin noodles in dried anchovy broth),[14] in Hanwha Life Insurance Eagles Park, Jinmi Tongdak and in Suwon KT Wiz Park, chicken.
"T Green Zone" is located on the grassy hillside which is available to set up a tent or lay a mat.
It is Korea's first stadium to provide fans a way to cook meat while watching baseball.
"Skybox Zone" is located indoors, so watching baseball game isn't restricted by bad weather.
There, people can enjoy the baseball game and camping at the same time, so it is recommended to family fans.
It can be interesting to watch the game at ground eye level, but as many foul balls fly toward the seats, children are not allowed to enter as it could be somewhat dangerous.
Fans of the Lotte Giants use newspapers and orange plastic bags as cheering tools.
People wear plastic bags on their heads, some knotted to look like Mickey Mouse ears.
The plastic bags were initially intended to handle garbage, but the supporters started to use them as a cheering tool.
For this reason, Doosan Bears is the only team in the league to have separate parts for the male and female in cheering songs.
The official Kia Tigers team color is red but they use yellow balloon sticks for cheering.
[29] Thames, who had been a member of Korea's Changwon NC Dinos (2014–2016), returned to U.S. Major League Baseball with the Milwaukee Brewers in 2017.
His teammates, who did not know about the idea of personal fight songs, showed interest and hummed its melody.
[33] Traditionally, the fight songs of each club were created without thought to the original copyright holder.
Moral rights in South Korea are related to the issue of the creator's psychological profit.
[34] Korea's baseball cheering culture is largely considered to be positive, but some issues have arisen over the course of its development.
This culture also has the purpose of presenting a child with a good memory of watching a baseball game.
[37] As Korea's ballparks are located near very populated regions, it seems to be necessary to resolve the conflict between local residents and the baseball field.
