Korean Baseball Boom in America

Have you heard about the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO)? The KBO league consists of 10 teams: NC DINOS, DOOSAN BEARS, KT WIZ, LG TWINS, KIWOOM HEROES, KIA TIGERS, LOTTE GIANTS, SAMSUNG LIONS, SSG LANDERS, and the HANWHA EAGLES.  As of 2020, the KBO league has been gaining popularity in America due to ESPN home broadcasts.

ESPN (America’s Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) has interviewed players such as Eric Thames (former NC), Merrill Kelly (former SK), and Josh Lindblom (former Doosan). One of the reasons why the KBO league is gaining popularity is because of something that can’t be found in the American Major League Baseball(MLB) scene. That thing is ‘Bbadeon(빠던)’. Bbadeon is a Korean word made from the combination of the Korean words ‘Bbadda'(빠따, a slang word for baseball bat) and ‘deonjigi'(던지기, fliping). Thus, Bbadeon means baseball bat flipping.

In MLB, if a batter throws a bat or shows off too much after hitting a home run, bench clearing could be imminent.  (Bench clearing is when both teams leave their respective benches and enter the playing field to brawl). A batter’s success is a pitcher’s failure, so its common courtesy in the MLB not to bat flip.

However, American baseball fans seem to love bat flips. ESPN broadcasters get a good laugh from it and young baseball fans in the U.S. share the clips on social media. Other American networks like Yahoo Sports and NBC Sports also mentioned that there should be a culture that young fans can enjoy in MLB just like bat flipping.

So which KBO team is the most popular in America? The NC Dinos!  The NC Dinos games were heavily broadcasted.  NC Dino’s player, Mo Chang-min’s bat flip was the first news reported on ESPN’s sports magazine program ‘Sports Center’ and it was continuously replayed. Not only that, America is also familiar with team names being derived from cities instead of companies like Samsung or LG. Therefore, it was quite easy for fans to equate the name NC to North Carolina. Since June 2020, ESPN has been broadcasting the KBO league. Due to Korea’s exceptional response to COVID 19, Korean baseball has broken through the home of baseball, America.

 

Written by: Caleb Rigsby
Honolulu, Hawaii. Sophomore, Korean for Professionals Major at University of Hawaii at Manoa. Intern at VANK(Voluntary Agency Network of Korea)