Best Game EVER!

I'm sure it won't come as news to many a reader of this blog that my favourite baseball team is no longer the Toronto Blue Jays. I still like them but I like the Kia Tigers of the Korean Baseball Organization, (KBO), much better. Even though they both SUCK!!!

I guess maybe that's why I like them. When your team sucks, it makes a win so much more valuable and you feel like you're almost privileged to have witnessed it. Case in point, last game I watched at the home of the Kia Tigers, Moodeung Stadium. Most of the time I can't make it to Kia games because they play in Gwangju, an hour and 20 minutes from Mokpo where I live. Plus I usually teach when they're playing or can't catch a bus home after the games. But this week was exam week and since I had given all my exams by Tuesday afternoon, I thought I'd make the trip. I brought some of the exams along to mark but that just didn't happen...

Kia finished dead last in the 8-team KBO last year. They have a stranglehold on dead last early on in the season this year too so far. As I write this they are 7 and 17. Pretty pathetic. But they have what I think will be a really great group of players. Just watch. Later in the season I'll be writing about how good they are instead of how crappy they are. At least that SHOULD be the case. I think they are one good slugger/average hitter away from contention in the league this year. And HEY, THAT'S ME!!!! They should take a chance on me, but I doubt they will. So in the mean time I have talked to the Gwangju News about writing a column about the Kia Tigers and they have agreed. So I am now a legitimate member of the press here in Korea. Cool eh? I think I'll go out and buy myself one of those David Letterman mikes and an old 1950's "Press" hat.

I've already written a sort of program in English for all the people who have no idea who they are watching. And that includes most foreigners who go to the games. It's just a run-down of the principals. I don't include all the players but there are some that could go from unknowns to household names this year. My best example of a guy who I think is a shoe-in for THIS category is #3 Kim Sun Bin. He's the shortest guy in the league from what I understand. About 5'6 I guess. And because height is as prized here as size in the NHL, sometimes perfectly good, short players are bound to be overlooked unless they are something special. I think, from early indications, this guy IS something special. In the brief time I've watched him he's made some scintillating plays at second and hit a few times under pressure. I'll keep you up to date on what happens to him.

As for the rest of the club, they are running into a huge pile of bad luck so far. That's not the only cause of losses but in a good number of cases it IS. I think Carma will turn around sooner or later and they'll start winning some games they don't deserve to win. They've lost a few that they should have won so far but none the other way around. And you have to understand that this is the KBO, not the major leagues. Things happen that would never happen in the majors. Like the other day I saw a home run hit by the opposition that was OBVIOUSLY a foul ball. The guy who hit it just stood a little ways from home plate and was more surprised than anyone when the ump told him to round the bases. Then there are some close plays at the bases that Kia seems to be getting shafted on so far. But things will change. I'm confident.

So anyway this game started at 6:30 like most other midweek games. Here's a pic of the crew warming up shortly before what turned out to be the best game of the season so far.

Notice the big scoreboard clock that reads just before 6:30. And also notice how light it is outside. And how sober the fans appear. LOL. Things were about to change.

There is a curious rule in the Korean Baseball Organization. Well, more than just one but I bring this one up cuz it comes to bear on the situation I'm describing. You see, unlike major league games, if KBO games are tied after 12 innings are completed they are just considered to be ties. (Interestingly in the playoffs the same thing goes for 15 inning ties. They just REPLAY THEM!)

I think you can guess where things are going from here. Sure enough things were tied 6-6 in the 12th inning. But being the home team Kia held off the "Woori Heroes" in the top of the 12th to ensure that they would not LOSE the game. And in their half of the 12th they managed to load the bases with only one out. The following video is one of the biggest disappointments so far in my film/pic taking days with this camera.

I think this vid will give you all a pretty good indication of what happens at a game here in Korea. It's non-stop chanting and cheering for the home club. I like it. So do a lot of people I've brought out to their first ball games here. It's just a really great way to spend some free time. At any rate, this vid was so big a dissappointment because the very next pitch turned out to be the game winning RBI single by Lee Hyeon Gon. He is not the best hitter on Kia but he did somehow manage to win the batting title last year. So he was the perfect guy to come up with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 12th. And he was hitless for his last two games too if I'm not mistaken. But he delivered. Just after I stopped filming. OF COURSE!!! The very next pitch was the game winning hit. Dammit.

Note the slurrrrr in my voice. Another thing that is maybe a bit foreign is the fact that there are ladies coming around quite often to serve the patrons alcoholic beverages at the stadium. I usually take full advantage of this. And, as you may be able to tell, this night was no exception.

Here is a pic of the final scoreboard just moments after the bench clearing mob that buried Lee Hyun Gon after his game-winning hit. Look at the time! It was almost a 5 hour game! But nobody in the stands was complaining. Including me. Bang for the buck, baby!

But if I were to have chosen the MVP of this game it would have been Lee Taek Geun from the other team. He had 6 hits! AND A WALK! What a night for him! But in a LOSING cause. I wonder how many times a guy has had 6 hits in a losing cause. Crazy! But it was an awesome game! Especially since, (as you may be able to tell), Kia was down 4-0 at one point.

Anyway, I just hope they do well this year and make it into the playoffs. 4 of 8 teams make it. So they have to work at it but it shouldn't be something they feel isn't deserved. Not in my opinion anyway.

Okay I better end this here. Catch a game any time you can.

Where do the cherries go?

As mentioned in the last post, (yesterday), the cherry blossoms are absolutely gorgeous at Mokpo National University. I figured the best time to get some pics of them would be in the early morning when I get there. (About 7:45). And today was a misty morning, just perfect for some added character to the pics. David Morris and I missed the 700 bus so we walked down Bipa Ro toward the main road where we could catch a 200 or 600 to work. This is what it looked like this morning. Nice! But not quite fully blooming yet. In a couple days this street will probly look as nice as the Uni. The name of this street remains a mystery to me as most streets do in Korea.

But it's the one where E-mart is. That's the closest grocery shopping to me. Well the closest major store for getting groceries. Anyway, I think we caught a 200 this morning and got to work at a little before 8 AM. The first thing I saw was the long driveway to the university with trees blooming their arses off on both sides. Fog in the background. So I took this pic:

Is that nice or what??? Almost made me forget I had to spend the whole day working there. By lunchtime it was actually warm. The warmest day of the year so far for sure. People were all over the place at the school. I don't think they were all students either. Plenty of people taking pics of the blossoms. Pictures like these...

See those blue and red lanterns? They look really great lit up at night after all but the overworked and underpaid have gone home from MNU.

And these...

The girl on the left is one of my students. Her name is Sun Ae. She was nice enough to pose for this pic under the blossoms. The book she's holding is our text. We had just finished class. Synergy 4. It's an advanced class. She's pretty good at English. Today I had another girl from Sun Ae's class ask me one of the enfuriatingly complex questions you always get from advanced classes. You know, things that nobody needs to know. She showed me two sentences: "All children under 10 fly free." and "Passengers may move about the cabin freely." Then she asked if free and freely were both used as adverbs. I said they were. Then she said, "Well then why don't we say, 'All children under 10 fly freely."? What do you say? Of course it messes up the meaning. Children flying freely brings to mind scenes of kids flapping their arms and flying anywhere they desire. And we don't use "freely" to express a price, or lack thereof. So I started to verbally hypothesize that maybe "free" is an adjective describing the flight, which is a noun. But that just ain't the case. So after arguing with myself for a while I ended up saying that there isn't any answer I could give her that would improve her English in the least. Why do Koreans use Chinese numbers to count books but Korean numbers to count papers? They just DO. That's the only reason I could give her. And it's probably the right one. But she was very dissatisfied. Advanced classes! I love them but they all seem to have these stumpers to pull out just to test the teacher. Anyway, see what I mean about the Korean peace pose? Sun Ae is doing it just like Alex was in my last entry. I have taught a lot of "show us your pictures" classes in this country and I'd say 90% of the pictures included SOMEBODY flashing the peace sign. The pic on the right is the magnolia tree in the foreground trying not to be outbloomed.

Okay, it's just after 6 PM here. I've already heard 3 election trucks go by announcing the candidacy of so and so. One was number 4, (They are all given numbers and colours. Four is orange, one is green and so on. If you think about this it will tell you quite a bit about both the candidates and the electorate), one was 1 and the other was a truck for candidate number 2 with a female voice on a very loud PA on the roof of the truck begging for votes in a voice that sounded like she was on the verge of, or IN tears. #2 must not be doing well in the polls. Everywhere you look you see banners for the various candidates. Canvassers have told me several times to vote for number 6 or yellow or whatever. ME! I can't vote!

The other day I saw a big orange number 4 double sized cube van looking vehicle pull up to the E-Mart intersection. The WHOLE side of the truck opened up and a troop of middle aged ladies decked out in orange uniforms including sporty orange baseball caps resting atop their permed hair piled out like stormtroopers and began canvassing, (not to say accosting), passers-by for votes.

At the bus depot yesterday I had to elbow my way through green uniform wearing ajjumas, (married ladies), who were doing choreography to a chipmunk version of a familiar Korean national hymn and forcibly stopping people like they were Sunday grocery shoppers at Home Plus or something. There are parallels here. I mean who are they trying to appeal to with the hard sell and all these hokey tactics? Every one of them makes ME want to vote for someone else. But maybe the candidates know their electorate better than I. I'm not gonna do a negative post. I've had a good day and there is one, (and only one), good thing to come out of all this political silliness: I don't work tomorrow. Yeehaw!

I DO hope the trucks aren't out in force early tomorrow morning drumming up the last percentages of support while I'm sleeping IN on a Wednesday. Note to self: drink lots tonight so this won't be a problem.

There is ONE last thing I'd like to add before I stop posting about the cherry blossoms and springtime in Korea. Soon to be followed by complaining about the wet, muggy, hot summer in Korea. It's a question that has puzzled me for many years. I've shown you literally thousands of cherry blossoms here. There are cherry blossom trees everywhere in Korea. In fact I've been told by several students that the cherry blossom trees were an example, (one of many they tell me), of things the Japanese "borrowed" from the Koreans during colonization. But in all my time in Korea, (and in Japan for that matter), I have yet to see a CHERRY on any of these trees. Once in a long while I see a package of 30 or 40 battered, well travelled cherries on sale at E-Mart for 15 bucks or so, but I've never seen a fruit bearing tree here. Koreans don't even LIKE cherries! A flower on a cherry tree turns into a cherry, right? I know it does cuz I used to live on a property that had cherry trees. Where do the cherries go? Like ducks in Central Park. Where do they go? It's a mystery. A riddle wrapped in a conundrum smothered in enigma. I am making it my mission to find out.

Bloomin' beautiful

By my count I've been in Mokpo for six weeks. That's a month and a half in new parent lingo. I think I'm starting to get used to it. Kinda. I still have the new town thrill of finding little shops and locations that might become regular visiting sites in the future. Like a couple weeks ago when I hiked up the hill beside the temple in town. That was nice. The cherry blossoms on the trees were just coming out there. That was the first I saw of any in town. A few days later I saw a tree at work bursting into flower. Now the whole place is alive with the smell and sight of what they call in Korea "putt gote" but don't quote me on that. Especially not the spelling.

Nice eh? These pics are from the tree at school. There are probably a hundred of these trees on the campus of Mokpo U. but this one right in front of our building got the jump on the others by a full week. I wonder why. The magnolia buds are blowing up too. And the yellow flowers they call in Korean "kaenari" that I don't actually know the English word for, they're coming into bloom all over the place too. It's a great time of the year for hiking. Which is why it's a terrible time of the year for hiking. Sigh. Because just like the time of year when the leaves on the maple trees turn red, EVERYBODY in Korea becomes a hiker and the trails are like subway tunnels at rush hour. Not my kind of hiking. I prefer hiking in winter when it's cold, I don't sweat my bollocks off, everything's dead and the trails are empty. THAT'S NATURE!

But I don't really feel like I live in Mokpo yet. There are a lot of things I have yet to do here. I haven't gone out drinking yet. I went out with some teachers for dinner a time or two and I had a party at my place but I haven't yet bought a beer in a Mokpo bar.

I haven't ordered a pizza either. I've been taking advantage of my oven. I just recently made my second lasagna and boy was it tasty! I used ricotta, mozarella and feta cheeses. Plus I put zucchini and Italian sausage sauce in it. Still got half of it left too. I will probably bake my own pizza before ordering one. I have a kilo of pepperoni in the freezer.

I think I know the reason. I've been visiting other places on the weekends. Last weekend I stayed home but didn't really go out because I was playing all the new computer and X-Box games I got from the visit to the Jackson family residence the weekend before. Things are a bit hectic there in Osan but the hagwon looks nice and the boys are dealing with the new life pretty well. The Jackson 4 were just moving into their new apartment when I visited. I even helped a little bit.

Kids can be so angelic at times can't they? Particularly nap time. Look how cute they are. Alex already has the peace and the pose perfected. A must for a Korean. Or a Korean/Canadian. And Justin is already taking up the piano. Tickling the ivory and belting out a song. So cute. BUT...

boys will be boys. The peace sign can turn into a raspberry and the belting out of a song can deteriorate into screaming as fast as you can say, "Calgon take me away!" Here I am talking like a parent. I'm not the one living with these dudes and trying to start a business at the same time! Thank God. heh heh heh. But Scott and Min Ju are doing a good job. I DID notice that they both drank a little more beer than usual when we went out Friday night. I think they might have even kept up with ME! Ahhh they've earned it.

So yeah, I got about 100 new games for my X-box and access to about 1000 on bigfishgames.com from the Jacksons for Christmas. That's all I've been doing in my free time, (what little I now have), since last weekend. I particularly like this game called Peggle on the computer and this one called NHL 2K6 on the X-Box. I made my own hockey team called the Tuktoyaktuk Seal-Clubbers and made players for my team. Scott is my high scoring right winger and Mike is my center. I have Wallace and Gil on defence and Tim and Corey between the pipes. We're undefeated. Two months into the season. Thank you very much.

So I reckon this week should be the week I go out for a beverage in town. I could even go tomorrow if I wanted! Tomorrow is Tuesday. The Tuesday before election day. Or phonetically in Korea, "erection" day. We don't have to work. Woohoo! Then the next two weeks will be exams. Next week speaking tests and the week after written tests. Then we're already half way through the session. WOW! A lot can happen in six weeks!