The World Series

I bet that everyone can remember exactly where they were in 1993 when Joe Carter hit that ball out of the park and won the Blue Jays their second World Series Championship.  Well, I am always going to remember the day that I spent in Seoul watching game 7 of the World Series between The Kia Tigers and the SK (Incheon) Wiverns.  (And in case you are wondering what a Wivern is - it's a dragon.)  You may also be wondering what the correlation here is (because there are plenty of days in your life that you will never forget - but don't worry, there is more than just baseball to tie these 2 days together ...however you are just going to have to wait for right now.)

First I want to set the stage.  Let me start by explaining that baseball in Canada/United States (while the game is the same) is extremely different.  I will remind you of an earlier blog where I explained how much I wish a world would exist where people were constantly breaking out into song and dance ...well, I found this world this weekend.  Inside the World Cup Stadium in Seoul, South Korea.  It was completely coloured in yellow and red and the sound was reverberating off the walls - and didn't end for 5 whole hours.  I didn't know people had this type of energy, much less the love they felt for these 2teams.    

                                         

The people in red (our team) were supporting the SK Wiverns and the people in the yellow the Kia Tigers. Even though our team was the Wiverns (because we live in Incheon, and I honestly believe because their logo is a W for Wayne) we were sitting on the yellow side because we went to the game with a Korean friend who had been given the seats for free ...and well, when you are given that type of opportunity - you don't worry what side of the park you are sitting on. But I will be honest - the momentum of the yellow side almost made me switch teams, but since I had already purchased the hat - I was a steadfast fan.

I need to break to tell you that the couple in front of us, were maybe the cutest couple that I had ever seen.  Every single time that anything good happened for the Tigers, Wayne & I were sure that he was going to drop to his knee to ask her to marry him.  They didn't stop bouncing or singing or waving those yellow balloons for the entire 6 hours.  Loved them!

The entire game was close, but we were up for the majority of the game.  Tension was high, but there was not a moment of silence.  Both teams even had DJ's that lead the entire crowd in song and cheer leaders to keep the excitment in the crowds up.  The Tigers - even had a little (and by little I mean, ridiculously large) tiger of their own! The Tiger that you see below, along with the podiums and the smoke on either side of him, went up periodically throughout the game and made the crowd go nuts!

The Tigers tied the game up in the 7th or the 8th (after 5 hours of baseball, it all starts to become a blurr, thank goodness it was good ball and there was entertainment all around me) and you could feel the tension on both sides of the park.  But in the bottom of the 9th (with the Tigers being the home team) with 2 outs (I can't really remember how many outs, but this will add to the momentum of my story) - Korea's very own Joe Carter steps to the plate and hits a home run to end the series and to become the World Champions for 2009.

To say the crowd went wild would be an understatement - they were ecstatic, never happier and absolutely never louder!  The team ran onto the field, people dropped to their knees in tears, yellow balloons were tossed into the field and fireworks exploded over the jumbo-tron.  The Tigers had won the World Series ...and the only white people present, sitting in the wrong section, cheering for the wrong team ...though, thrilled with the excitment of their day, quietly left the ball park and stashed the losing teams hats inside their bags.

And thus ends a day that I will never forget.

ps. I was really the only one that stashed the hat (and that was more because it was ruining my hair) - Wayne wore his (and his jersey) proudly for the rest of the night!