Drunk Lotte fans, possibly consuming copious amounts of alcohol to numb themselves from the team’s 12-3 drubbing at the hands of Samsung, created numerous disturbances during last night’s game. Several fans were injured in fights during the same forcing police to create a ”human fence” during the game to keep unruly fans seperate. Police were also called when about 100 fans shut down an eight-lane road outside Sajik stadium following the game.
The above photo is of a man who jumped on top of the Lotte’s cheering stand in the 9th inning of last night’s game. As you can see below the jump he was arrested.
Korea Beat has news today that the Ministry of Health and Welfare is planning to enact revisions to the health law on the ninth to ban the sale of alcoholic beverages in public spaces, including baseball stadiums.
Drunk and wild fans, fights and even riots used to be a hallmarks of Korean baseball games, but things have calmed down considerably over the last decade. Still, occasionally things get a little out of hand — especially in Busan and Daegu, where fans are still allowed to bring their own alcohol.
In truth, B.Y.O.B. (and food) is one of my favorite things about going to games in Busan. It’d be a shame if the government put an end to it. Although the article doesn’t specify if the ban would only apply to alcohol sold at games, or if the new law would be a total ban on all alcohol at games.
The Giants indeed lost the game 12-3. You can read full coverage on í™”ì´íŒ…!: True Stories of Korean Baseball. Tonight’s game will pit Lotte’s Son Min-han (12-4, 2.97 ERA) against former Blue Jay prospect John Ennis, who was 1-3 with a 3.03 ERA for Samsung.
3 responses so far ↓
1 baekgom84 // Oct 9, 2008 at 11:24 pm
I’ve never had problems bringing alcohol into games at Munhak either. There are signs around that say it is illegal to bring in your own soju, but that definitely doesn’t stop anyone, and nobody seems to care. This law seems far too extreme for a country which has such wonderfully relaxed laws on alcohol consumption (and dare I saw that Koreans are, for the most part, pretty responsible drinkers.)
2 Shinsano // Oct 9, 2008 at 11:46 pm
I saw those signs at Munhak recently and assumed people didn’t bring booze in.
Agreed on the two points on the end though, as odd as it seems to call Koreans responsible drinkers.
3 myworldofbaseball » Blog Archive » Samsung Lions Take Two from the Lotte Giants // Oct 10, 2008 at 11:09 am
[...] The Samsung Lions sprayed a post season record 19 hits to take the opener in the KBO playoffs 12-3 for the right to advance to the second round. It was a raucous sellout crowd of 30,000 at the game. Since the KBO allows you to bring your own alchol their were a few disturbances at the game. East/West provides a good summary of the events and provides pictures of the wrestling matches between the police and the fans that occurred while the ball game was in progress. See article here http://eastwindupchronicle.com/violence-and-drunks-mar-korean-playoff-tilt/. [...]
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