[Current & Culture] The Feeling of Going to the Baseball Stadium

I often go to baseball stadiums. On days when there is a home game I can attend, my heart flutters with excitement. I take the subway, then the bus, get off in front of the stadium, change into the uniform of the team I support, and enter through the first base gate. Not only me, but many others walk in wearing uniforms with the names and numbers of their beloved players, each carrying their own excitement. Looking at my check-in history, it seems I visited the stadium most often when my body and mind were at their weakest. It wasn’t simply because I wanted to watch baseball. Watching on TV at home offers commentary, replays, and more information about the players. Above all, it doesn’t cost an admission fee. But every time I visit the stadium, I feel I receive a great deal of comfort, and that makes me happy.

There are few sports where you can fully cheer for every player like in baseball. From the first batter to the ninth, each comes to the plate two or three times, and every time, we in the stands all stand up, ready to cheer for that player. The cheerleaders on the platform play entrance songs and cheers for him, and everyone follows the motions and shouts the slogans. While he is at bat, his name is called dozens of times, and when he reaches base, his cheer song plays once again. There is no other place besides a baseball stadium where you can passionately call out someone’s name like this and send your support.

For me, the baseball stadium is a space to cheer for others. It might be a place to feel the fact that we can fervently support someone and receive that support in return. What the player does before his name is called at the plate is just playing catch, but when his name is called, the ball he hits to the outfield becomes a flower that comes to me. People are beings who can bloom by being cheered on and cheering for others. Even though the best batting average is only about .300, and the chance of winning is just about 50%, just being at the scene of that cheering uplifts me.

Recently, my child who watched the game against the Kia Tigers came home still chanting, “Tigers, Socrates, Socrates,” repeating the cheer for the foreign batter. It’s not just because the cheer song is well made, but Socrates is currently one of the best hitters in the league. A new foreign batter named Alford has also joined the team I support. When I visited the stadium recently, the team’s cheerleader captain excitedly showed us a newly created cheer song. He also apologized and informed us that one player’s cheer motion was too difficult and had been changed. We seriously followed along with that as well. A baseball stadium where such feelings can be read is simply impossible not to love.

I want to live as someone who can cheer for others even outside the baseball stadium. And I want to live well as someone who is cheered on.

Kim Minseop, Social and Cultural Critic

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.