Tuesday, May 20, 2008

When Was the Last Time You Have Seen This

If you live in Boston, Chicago, or New York, people on their feat, chanting and cheering at a baseball game is nothing new to you. If you are like me and live in other cities across the Nation, this is a totally new concept.
Rarely do baseball fans here in America spend extended amounts of time on their feet during a baseball game. Sure, when something happens like a homerun, a 3-2 count, or the 2 strikes on the last batter in the game, everyone is standing, but people rarely stand for long periods of time. Even during the introduction of the players, most people are sitting down.
The video below takes place during a WBC game. If you notice everyone is standing and cheering. What else do you see?

I hope you noticed the spirit people had for their country, the national pride. I am assuming that the vast majority of the people at the game did not fly over from Korea or Japan (their opponent in the game) but already were living in the United States and came out to San Diego to see their team play. There are also a ton of flags present at this game. The stadium is also pretty full, it looks like they didn't sell upper deck seats, but the entire lower bowl and middle bowl are filled with fans.
For those who don't know the basic history of this game, this was the Semi-Finals for the WBC, and the first series that both of these teams played in America. I was up the first time Korea played in the tournament, which took place in Japan (I believe they played Chinese Taipei), it was about 2 in the morning (I was actually finishing an art project that involved baseball). The fans were really into that game even though the bowl wasn't full. ( It was full when Japan played, but that makes sense logistically). Fans in the United States did their part to win the USA team took the field.
In other words, from watching videos online of fans in the stands during the WBC games, I think the tournament was a real success. After the 2009 games, the IBAF should show videos of fans in the stands to the IOC because these videos show that people like the international competition of baseball and that it should continue as an Olympic sport.

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