Fans Gear Up for Game Against Japan

Korean baseball fans couldn’t be any more excited, now that Korea will face archrival Japan one more time in the World Baseball Classic semifinals.

Some fans want to take their excitement to the streets.

On the website of Blue Ogre (club.paran.com/bluebogy), a Korean national team fan club, members called for a pep rally in Gwanghwamun Square on March 19.

In response to this, and other grassroots calls for fan rallies, Jamsil Baseball Stadium, Incheon Munhak Stadium, and Daegu Stadium announced plans to broadcast the game live on their jumbo video screens free to the public. Baseball teams LG and Doosan, who own Jamsil ballpark, volunteered to open their 30,000 seat stadium and feature their cheerleaders for the game.

The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) has announced this news on their website, and Blue Ogre plans to distribute 500 t-shirts at the stadiums.

Pro soccer clubs have also jumped on the baseball bandwagon. Ulsan and Pohang will also broadcast the WBC semifinals on their large screen video displays before the start of their K-League football match at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow.

Companies that own jumbo video display screens in the vicinity of Gwanghwamun Square are considering broadcasting the semifinal game as well. A poster calling herself “paranmanjang” wrote on the Blue Ogre bulletin board: “Let’s go to Gwanghwamun. Let’s show the power of the blue wave and shout ‘Dae-han-min-guk.’”

Sung-Kyu Kim kimsk@donga.com