Korean Professional Baseball Is Back

Professional baseball fans are coming back. After exceeding five million spectators for the first and last time in 1995, the number of spectators in professional baseball dropped sharply to as low as 2.3 million in 2004, but it looks like ‘spring’ has returned.

Currently on May 21, with 141 out of 504 matches (28%) having been played, 1.37 million baseball fans have visited the ballpark, which is a 23% increase from last year. On May 20, 88,624 fans filled up four baseball stadiums, which was a record for the second highest number of spectators in one day. At this rate, reaching ‘4 million spectators for the first time in 11 years’ is not a dream.

Intense Battle for Rank…Lotte Plays Its Part-

These days, it is a day in and day out war in professional baseball. Apart from the leaders, SK, the ranks are toppled after a night’s rest. As of May 21, the difference between second place Hanwha and eighth place Hyundai is only four matches. In particular, the good play that ‘the barometer for mobilizing spectators,’ Lotte, showed early on has been a primer for attracting an audience.

In 1991, for the first time in history, Lotte had more than one million spectators in the season. At the time, their regular season standing was fourth place. In 1995, when they came in second in the regular season, 1.18 million people showed up at the baseball stadium. Afterwards, Lotte’s results were not so good. During the period between 1997 and 2006, they were at the bottom of the list six times. Last year, when they finished in seventh, the total number of spectators that came to their games was 441,133 (average: 7,002). But at the moment, Lotte is tied in fourth place, and the number of spectators has surpassed 300,000, with an average of 16,147 people coming to watch its games. When comparing the same number of games to last year, this is a 37% increase. It is still early on in the season, but it is 2.3 times more than the average number of spectators last year. The leaders SK (average: 9,108) have also seen a 25% increase when comparing the number of games to last year, while third place LG (average: 15,865) has seen attendance jump by 40%, and Doosan (average 14,519), tied at fourth place, has seen a 21% increase in attendance. Jamsil, Sajik and Munhak Stadium can hold more than 30,000 fans. The teams that own big stadiums are on a roll, so the number of spectators is also increasing.

Heated Rival Competition…‘U-Turn Effect’ Also Helpful-

Korean baseball, which had lacked a star after Lee Seung-yeop (Yomiuri) left for his debut in Japan, has much to show its audience now with the talent of home bred stars reaching its height after much work and training. Among the hitters, Kim Tae-kyun (Hanwha) struck 11 homeruns, bringing on ‘a challenge of the big cannons’ with last year’s homerun king Lee Dae-ho (Lotte, 9 homeruns). Veteran Yang Jun-hyuk (Samsung) is in the lead with 12 homeruns, taking on the challenge to become the ‘oldest homerun king.’ In pitching, ‘monster’ Ryu Hyun-jin (Hanwha) who is in his second season is hanging back, while newcomers such as Kim Gwang-hyun (SK) and Lim Tae-hoon (Doosan) have begun to show their skills, which makes the game all the more interesting.

The ‘U-Turn Effect’ is also playing its part. The day of ‘Big Choi,’ Choi Hee-seop’s (Kia) debut match on May 19, Jamsil Stadium was sold out for the first time this season. There are also many fans who visit the stadium in order to watch players who played in the U.S. professional baseball league, such as Bong Jung-keun (LG) and Choi Hyang-nam (Lotte). According to baseball experts, the fact that major leaguers such as Park Chan-ho and Kim Byung-hyun are not doing as well as they used to has also relatively helped Korean baseball to recover.

why@donga.com