KOREAN SEASON BEGINS IN FRONT OF RECORD CROWDS

Baseball is on a roll in Korea. After winning the Gold Medal in last summer’s Olympic Games and reaching the title game of this spring’s World Baseball Classic, domestic interest in the game is at an all-time high in South Korea, demonstrated by sellout crowds at all four games April 4 for the 2009 Korea Baseball Organization season opener.


In all, 96,800 fans attended KBO Opening Day games, smashing the former record by over 13,000 turnstile clicks. The largest crowd of 30,500 in Seoul watched the Doosan Bears beat the Kia Tigers, 7-5. In Busan, 28,500 fans turned out to see the Lotte Giants slip past the Seoul Heroes, 3-2; the Hanwha Eagles walloped the hometown SK Wyverns, 8-2, in front of 27,800 spectators in Incheon (the first home opener sellout in Wyverns history); and another 10,000 observers watched the Samsung Lions take a 6-2 opening win over the LG Twins in Daegu, a game that was called a sellout although Daegu Stadium’s capacity is listed as 13,941.