A Year In Jeju, Korea, playing baseball and teaching

DRAGONS BASEBALL

A Year In Jeju, Korea
by: Steve Betts

JUNE 4, 2006I was asking Dave to hook me up with a baseball team as I knew he knew a lot of people. I wasn’t expecting much from him because its not easy communicating here in Korea when you don’t know Korean. So finding a baseball player in the city was not going to be easy. I was doing my own thing too and was going to the field to try and meet people but it wasn’t working. I kept bugging Dave and on a Thursday night I got a call asking me to come meet a team.

Since that Thursday night about a month and a half ago, I have been the first foreigner in Jeju history to play baseball. That means I have been the first to do many things. I am first to play on that field, first to get a hit, first to get an out, first to hit a homerun, a triple blah blah blah. I had to mention those last two hits. Actually I have two HR and two triples but whatever…I am liking the idea of all that too as it sure is something I can tell my friends and kids about when I get older.The Jeju Dragons is a team of real nice guys that have been operating for ten years this summer. They are very similar to our rec hockey teams back home as they have leaders and guys that do most of the work and keep the things running. They are relatively the same age (mid 30’s so I fit in) and are typical Koreans. What that means is they work and drink and play hard. I fit right in. The team is a serious club. Uniforms are tailored and you have to have a uniform to play. I am having problems right now as I don’t have cleats but cross trainers and they wont let me play without an argument. The field is astro turf and my shoes are fine for it but it’s the way they do things here and I cant argue with it. There are lot of things I don’t agree with but my job isn’t to argue about tradition its to hit bombs and catch balls. I am doing that so far and loving it.

The leagues they play are tiered. Meaning that the have short seasons and then you are placed in a higher or lower league according to your performance. Its much the same as football in the U.K.. We have played many games so far but not in the league we are currently in. We have played one game in that season and we lost big time. Not sure why but might had something to do with the 5 errors (or 7 in my opinion) we had and the 5 measly hits we had and I had two of those. Well it should be an interesting summer.

There is much to tell about the differences in the game, the team atmosphere and the culture. I have had nothing but a good experiences other than the shoe issue but its early and Koreans are good at changing things in a hurry. I sound negative but its more cautious than anything. Wait till I tell ya about what the ump said to me. Wow...

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