Korean Baseball Game -- Thank heavens it worked

I love to plan.  Anyone who has been on vacation with me knows this.  As a school teacher one of my favorite sayings was, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."  Well, we almost "planned to fail" when we decided on a whim to go to a Korean baseball game.

The games are held in the Olympic complex not too far from our house.  We had been there before and there are huge parking lots there -- something quite unusual for Seoul. Since it was a spur of the moment thing, we decided to drive and just park there.  We also decided to buy tickets at the gate.  We have lots of friends who have been before, and there is never any problem buying tickets last minute.

Or so we thought.

We did not take into account that it was the LG Tigers playing the Doosan Bears.  If this doesn't mean anything to you, join the club!  It didn't mean anything to us either until we realized both of these teams are from Seoul.  This game had two home teams.  Not good for parking.  We ended up driving up and down the streets of Seoul looking for parking because the big lots we intended to park in were full.  Joy!

About five minutes into the game, we finally found parking.  We made our way to the ticket booth only to find out it was sold out.  Are you kidding me!?!  What happened to these games never sell out!?!

After all that driving we weren't about to just turn around and go home, so we found some scalpers selling tickets and decided to buy from them.  They were actually about the same price, so we felt like we were getting a pretty good deal.  We took our scalped tickets up to the door only to find the ticket-taker making a big X with his arms.  In Korea, that's the universal sign for "no."  He didn't really speak English.  All he could say was, "Black ticket."  Apparently, the tickets we were sold were not legitimate tickets.  I couldn't believe it!  After all that driving, and now all that money, I definitely wasn't about to go home, so I just smiled at the man pretending I had no idea what he was talking about.  He started to get frustrated, repeating, "Black ticket."  I kept smiling and speaking in English.  After several rounds of this, he threw his hands in the air and just waved us in.  Poor man.  But we were in.  Whew!  We made it.

Unfortunately for us, the fun didn't stop here.  There were no open seats.  We were forced to stand in the back with what felt like thousands of other people who must have bought "black tickets" too.  Our luck changed, though, when it started to rain.  Thanks to the rain, lots of people left and Ali, being her awesome aggressive self, swept in to some open chairs as soon as people stood up and scored us all some great seats for the game.  

What could have been a huge failure turned out to be a very fun evening.

I loved the game!!!  I have to admit, I'm not a huge baseball fan.  My cousin Scott would die if he heard me say this.  I love football and basketball, but baseball, in my opinion, is usually pretty boring.

Not in Korea.  I have never heard such loud and organized cheering in all my life.

And it never stops.

Not when someone is up to bat...Not when someone is trying to catch a fly ball...Not when the announcer is speaking.  It's crazy!  I took a video.

It really doesn't do it justice.  If you ever make it to Korea, go to a baseball game.  It's such a unique experience.  I really can't describe it.

Just take the subway...and buy tickets first.  :)