Well if I could change my name right now I'd change it to I. R. Pissed! I'm not a happy camper. I'm fit to be tied. I'm beside myself. Don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry. You choose the cliche about anger, and throw it right in here! I need to go back in time a little to explain what brought this on.
You see, I used to have a TV in my room with SOME of the cable channels that are available to the average Korean for free. I could watch Kia Tiger games if they were on E! or MBCESPN. I couldn't watch them if they were on a couple of the other sports channels here like KBS Sports or whatever. But I lived with it. At least I got to watch SOME of the Kia Tiger road games. The rest I just watched real time updates or highlights on naver.com.
Well then last week my TV decided to blow up. Second time in two years for me. That's like getting hit by lightning twice. I wish my luck was like that for sports teams, women, jobs, lottery tickets, but no I get the astronomical luck in the category of exploding TV's. Sigh.
So tonight I decided to look around for a bar that has a TV and beer on tap. I would ask them nicely to change the channel to the Tigers game and drink a few beers. Like I would anyway while watching at home. I ventured outside with my umbrella to a very nearby bar that had like 5 tables and a tiny TV. Only two people were there; the owner and a friend of hers. I asked if they could hook me up and she appologized for the size and volume of the TV. I knew I was in the right place.
The game was already at 1-0. Kia was ahead of the Heroes. The Heroes are a team without a sponsor this season. They play their home games in Seoul. In the Mok Dong area. I think the name of the stadium is Mok Dong Stadium too. Last year they were the Woori Heroes but this year they are just waiting for some big company to buy them. I wish I had the dough. I saw first inning of the game on naver live updates on my computer at home. Choi Hee Seop walked and Mr. Clutch Kim Sang Hyun wasn't gonna miss an opportunity like that. He hit a double. Teams around the league haven't realized yet that Choi Hee Seop isn't the burly, porky, Rubenesque player he was last year. They HAVE realized that he's beaten everybody in the league to 14 home runs. So they pitch around him. Another thing they haven't realized yet is that this is a big mistake. The day the other teams started pitching around Choi was the day Kim Sang Hyun started moving into first place in RBI's. Not just because Kim can and DOES get the hits with runners in scoring position, but when that runner is Choi, he can leg out an extra base and score! So Kim added to his total in the second inning. With two out I might add. He's MONEY! He hit a double and Choi chugged all the way around to score.
Then in the 3rd inning EVERYBODY got into the act. I had an inkling this sort of thing might happen with the emotional end to the last game. That's the way long winning streaks start. It seemed like NObody wanted to be the last out. Lee Hyun Gon walked, then with one out Kim Jong Gook got a double scoring Lee Hyun Gon. Lee Jong Beom got out but Kim moved to 3rd. Choi Hee Seop walked for the second time. You know what that means. Up comes Kim Sang Hyun with two outs and a man on AGAIN! He hits a double for two MORE RBI's. So now it's 4-0. Hong Sae Weon gets up and hits a homerun before the TV channel can make it back from commercial. It's now 6-0! Na Ji Weon hits a single and steals a base but Cha Il Mok gets out. WHAT AN INNING!
THAT took a long time. For that reason and because the skies are getting darker and the rain is getting bigger, you want to hurry this game along. We're only in the bottom of the 3rd and it's not official till the 5th is done. For these reasons you'd think the pitcher, Aquilino Lopez, would throw strikes. And he DID. But the other team must have been expecting that. 4 homeruns and a walk later it's 6-5. I'm NOT kidding!!!
But these are the kind of games I love! When the weather is good. THAT took a long time too! We're just finishing the 3rd inning and other games around the league, (who are all experiencing rain also. Korea's not that big.), are settling into their 5th innings. Kim Weon Seop and Lee Hyun Gon both manage to get on and in. Lee Jong Beom batted in the last RBI to make it 8-5. I was LOVING this. Then they stopped it on account of rain.
A thousand things are going thru my mind now. They all came back to one simple question: Why the hell do they stop baseball because of rain? I mean say what you will about soccer players being divers and sissies but at least they play in the rain. Football players, rugby players, they LOVE the rain. Even golfers! YES golfers are tougher than ball players I guess. They only stop if there's lightning. The only sport that stops, (and I believe rightly so), is tennis. Have you tried playing in the rain? The ball doesn't bounce it skids. Tennis is a good sport to stop playing when it rains. But NOT baseball. Need I remind anyone that the ball gets wet, the bats get moist, the dirt gets mucky and the grass gets soggy? SO? Don't both teams have to deal with the same dirt, balls, bats and grass? I think they do.
So there I was at a bar for the first time drinking two extra beers HOPING the game would start again. And finally the umpires ordered the ground crew to take the plastic off the infield. So I ordered ANOTHER beer, happy the game was going to continue and hopeful it would make it to the 6th inning and become official. But before the ground crew could get the tarps off the field the umpires looked at the skies and decided to cancel the game! FAAAARRRGGG!!!!
So I finished my last beer, collected my umbrella and left. I got outside the bar and opened my umbrella but, wouldn't you know it, there wasn't a drop of rain falling. I walked all the way home without once opening my umbrella. And all three of the other games were completed. EVEN LG vs Doosan. I mention this because the LG Twins and the Doosan Bears are the other two teams based in Seoul. Both play their home games in Chamshil Stadium right across town from Mok Dong stadium!
So WHAT THE HELL happened here? Am I to believe there was a big cloud over Mok Dong that somehow missed the rest of Korea? And brought one of the most exciting games of the year to a grinding halt? DAMMIT!!!!
Oh well, on the optimistic side, do you know what this means? Make-up games!!! I just hope the double-header is in Gwangju!
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