The official title for Jeju’s amateur baseball league is the Jeju Baseball Classic, and it goes from March to November. During this nine-month journey, baseball lovers on the island gather and play games on the weekend, with a maximum of three games on Saturday and five or six games on Sunday.
There are about 1,000 players in 39 teams on Jeju. Spectators are usually members of other teams, family and friends of the players. However, despite the small size of the crowd compared to professional teams, players and spectators alike clearly enjoy participating in each game.
Baseball is one of the most popular sports in Korea, with the number of spectators for the Korean professional league exceeding 6 million a year — the highest of all sports in the nation. Since the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when the Korean national baseball team won the gold medal, the sport’s popularity has soared. Some say — half in jest and half in earnest — that they play the game because the baseball uniform looks so good.
There is an intriguing question as to why a larger number of Jeju islanders follow amateur baseball than mainlanders. The manager for the Oreum league team Templar, one of Jeju’s leading amateur baseball teams, says the answer is very simple: it’s the stadium.
Jeju has an official baseball stadium on a par with those used by the pros on the mainland but does not have a professional team to use it. Consequently, the place is used by amateur players, while most amateur teams in other regions of Korea are only able to use schoolyard diamonds.
There are around 5,000 teams in about 150 amateur baseball leagues nationwide. Jeju has three leagues: Olle, Oreum and Baram, with the number of teams in each being 16, 16, and seven respectively. The leagues are divided based on players’ skill and level of experience. Teams in the Olle league may have a maximum of two members who have played competitively (like varsity in university), while in the Oreum league there are no players with competitive baseball experience. Newly formed teams first join the Baram league for three years. Three new teams were added to the league this year.
The gallant Templar team was beaten by Hong Ro 14 to 6 when our Weekly correspondent watched the game at the Ora Baseball Stadium on a recent rainy Sunday morning. However, in the true tradition of sport, this did not seem to bother them. There were not many spectators besides the other players due to to the persistent rain. However, many family members and friends made the most of every cheering opportunity, confirming Kim’s point about each game resembling a social get-together.
The Jeju amateur league started with eight teams in 1999 and has gradually increased to its current 39 teams. Some foreign English teachers have joined the league, with most of them leaving when their work contract was completed. Currently, there is just one foreigner participating in the Jeju amateur league. However, the door is open to all foreign residents, and anyone is welcome to watch the games at the Ora Baseball Stadium. Games start around 4 p.m. and end at 11 p.m. on Saturdays and go from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Sundays, with the exact times depending on the daily schedule.
Ora Baseball Stadium
1163-4 Ora 1-dong, Jeju City, a five-minute walk from Jeju City Bus Terminal <Jeju Weekly>
<Kim Soo Yang viancca@jejuweekly.com ⓒ Jeju Weekly All rights reserved>
