“Play ball!”
The opening game of the 2023 KBO League, which took place amidst bad news such as WBC (World Baseball Classic) disgrace, sex crimes and demands for back money, created a record of selling out all stadiums in 11 years.
The ‘2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League’, which opened in five stadiums nationwide on the 1st, was filled with 100,000 spectators, the second largest ever. A total of 105,450 people visited the stadium, including Jamsil Baseball Stadium (23,750), Suwon (18,700), Literature (23,000), Gocheok Dome (16,000), and Daegu (24,000). It is the first time in the five-field system that all stadiums are sold out based on the opening game.
Even the day before the opening day, the KBO Baseball Hall was seized and searched by the prosecution, but the opening match was still hot. 토토사이트
A male fan in his 30s who visited the opening game said, “I have been waiting for the opening game since winter. There are many things I hate, but I can’t skip the opening game,” said a female fan in her 20s, “The wait has been long. I was disappointed, but I decided to come and cheer more because I thought, ‘We have to protect our baseball’.”
Ignorance on the international stage, oblivion asking for money from players, sexual crimes that are difficult to say, etc. made baseball fans angry beyond disappointment, but their original love for baseball and their will to ‘cannot let it collapse like this’ intertwined. It is interpreted as the first record of a sold-out before the opening of all stadiums.
An official from a club in the KBO League said, “I was embarrassed to say to the fans, ‘Please come to the stadium’ while watching the recent series of events. However, fans knew that there were more people who prepared for the new season by silently sweating. So it seems that a lot of people came before the opening,” he said.
Fans have never forgotten the disappointment and anger they felt at Korean baseball in the excitement of the opening ceremony. Looking at the players’ new resolutions, I visited the stadium with the words ‘even if I hate it, do it again’ in my heart. If you don’t play baseball that can give you a painful self-reflection about the past, high-level performance, and emotion, even the long-established misfortune can cool down.
Korean baseball has gone through a terrible dark period. I know very well how painful it was then. When the fans fill the stadium and send cheers, you must respond with a great game, thinking of the pain at that time. Korean baseball has not yet been forgiven.