‘Get ready to scream’: how to be a baseball fan in South Korea

In the United States, many Major League Baseball games feature long periods of calm, punctuated by cheers when there is action on the field or when the stadium organ plays a catchy tune.

But in South Korea, a baseball game is a sustained sensory overload. Each player has a fight song, and cheering squads – including drummers and dancers standing on platforms near the dugouts facing the spectators – keep the chants going on almost constantly. Imagine being in a ballpark where every player, even a newcomer, gets the star treatment.

“You have to get ready to scream,” said Kim Seongjun, 26, a fan who attended an exhibition game in Seoul this weekend. “It’s fun to stand up and cheer.”

Also the food is on another level. Think of the ballpark as a giant buffet of Korean street food.

This is all in store for the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres when they open the MLB season in Seoul this week. Here’s a guide for visiting fans.

When you enter a South Korean baseball field, you are encouraged to stand up and participate in cheering routines almost constantly, from the first pitch to the last. Fans typically watch their respective team cheer and repeat the chants, songs and dances performed by the cheerleaders, drummers and their leader, the ‘cheer master’.

The Korea Baseball Organization professionalized cheering teams in the early 2000s, partly to attract new fans. That has helped make ballparks inviting spaces in a country where many people work long hours and face enormous societal pressures.

“Our huge cheer culture is one of the reasons why baseball is such a popular sport here,” said Jung Jihoon, 22, who led the drum section at the Padres’ exhibition game on Sunday as they defeated South Korea’s national team 1- 0 defeated.

“It’s fun to lose yourself in the atmosphere,” Jung said, sitting with his drumsticks and bass drum in front of the door where the Padres’ cheerleaders were dancing.

To fully immerse yourself, follow the cheermaster’s directions. Cheermasters write fight songs and chants, among other things, and shout them during games, even when their teams are losing badly.

When the Kiwoom Heroes played the Dodgers on Sunday, Kim Jung-suk, 39, the South Korean club’s cheermaster, shouted, “Home run ball!” Home run ball!” Fans echoed that as they rhythmically smashed empty plastic bottles and toy baseball bats together.

Whenever a batter hit the ball, the crack of his bat turned the chant into a roar.

“In terms of the game, anyone could be interested in the Dodgers,” Kim said of the game, which featured the American team defeated his team 14-3. “But in terms of cheering, the Kiwoom Heroes are not left behind.”

Learn the fighting songs

Custom fight songs are played when a player enters the board. They usually contain the player’s name and a short melody.

Local fans can sing them by heart.

Kim Soowon, 38, who attended the Heroes game with her husband and children, said the team’s songs were so easy to learn that even her two-year-old twins knew them.

“Here, baseball games are a great place for office workers to come and scream after work,” she said.

For this week’s games, cheermasters spent weeks creating each MLB player’s fight song, adapted from commonly recognized melodies used by South Korean teams.

Fight songs are sung when a player steps up to the plate. Then, while taking on the opposing pitcher, the cheermaster leads chants calling for hits — or, if the team is down, a home run to turn the game around.

“Ohtani infield! Ohtani infield!” fans sang in Korean as beloved Dodger Shohei Ohtani batted during Sunday’s exhibition game. He struck out twice.

Every song has a dance. Don’t worry if you don’t know the moves. Each team has a group of cheerleaders who demonstrate them.

“I love the energy we send and receive as the fans follow our movements,” said Kim Hana, 25, a Heroes cheerleader. “We help you learn all the dances.”

The cheering, dancing and autograph signings have attracted young fans to baseball who might otherwise find the sport boring. “In the age of YouTube and TikTok, it’s hard to sit through a three-hour game,” said Barney Yoo, director of international operations at KBO.

The rituals also strengthen the bond between the teams and their devoted audiences, Bae Soohyun, 39, a cheerleader for South Korea’s national team, said Sunday.

“It’s a baseball experience that only South Korea can offer,” she said.

Eat something new

Baseball here can be a complete dining experience with Korean staples such as fried spicy rice cakes, stewed pork feet and ‘chimaek’, Korean slang for the combination of fried chicken and beer. Many fans carry multi-course meals to their seats, and some stadiums have barbecue areas for those who want to grill out.

Each South Korean ballpark also serves its own special dishes. Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul is known for its spicy noodles in kimchi broth. In Suwon, south of the capital, fans rave about the dumplings and fried whole chicken.

And at Gocheok Sky Dome, where the MLB season openers are played, hundreds of people line up for crispy fried shrimp covered in a mayonnaise-based sauce. If you’re not afraid of spice, consider the “mala” sauce version for a tingly touch.

Stay until the end

There was some concern among officials scheduling this week’s games that all the singing might bother non-Korean players. But the weekend’s practice matches were more subdued than a usual Korean match. That may be because fans weren’t fervently looking for a particular outcome.

After the Dodgers played Sunday, the team’s manager, Dave Roberts, told reporters that his players had not found the cheering distracting. On the contrary.

“The environment and atmosphere were great,” he said.

One aspect of Korean fan culture will be comforting to the losers in the MLB games. While American fans may dejectedly leave early if their team seems too far behind to win, fans here typically stay until the final out.