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Baseball first came to Asia more than 150 years ago. It's been evolving across the continent since then. In fact, it's been a landmark year for baseball in South Korea, as NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from the city of Gwangju.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #1: (Chanting, inaudibleible).
ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: The winningest team in South Korean baseball, the Kia Tigers, won a record 12th championship last week. Korea's pro league, the KBO, drew 10 million spectators this year, a new record in a country of just over 51 million. Women accounted for more than half of all ticket buyers in the first half of the season. Twenty-something women made up one-quarter of the total. Fifty-one-year-old Choi Nan-hee lives in the Kia Tigers' home city of Gwangju. She's at the ballpark to watch a Tigers practice game ahead of the championship series.
CHOI NAN-HEE: (Through interpreter) These days, there are a lot of young women fans and a lot of families coming, so the atmosphere is a bit softer, and people of all ages can enjoy it together.
KUHN: She says she's been coming to Tigers games since the 1980s.
CHOI: (Through interpreter) We did sing back then, too, but there were more older men at the time, drunk older men.
KUHN: Strong social media use by fans and teams and attractive new ballparks have helped draw newcomers while ticket prices have stayed about the same. While they may not be making a fortune from tickets, the teams have the financial backing of top South Korean conglomerates like Samsung, LG and Lotte. Young female fans idolize their favorite ballplayers much like K-pop music stars. They memorize their walk-up songs and dances, and even send favorite players gifts. But Choi Nan-hee's 25-year-old daughter, Cho Yoo-jin, says she focuses more on the players' stats than their looks.
CHO YOO-JIN: (Through interpreter) Some people say young female fans follow the sport just for the players' faces. And it's not getting enough attention that many fans just see players as players and games as games.
KUHN: Tigers outfielder, Socrates Brito, is from the Dominican Republic. He played baseball in the U.S. for a decade before coming here three years ago.
SOCRATES BRITO: They love my daughter here, so a lot of people give some gift, like clothes. That's something you don't see anywhere.
KUHN: Brito says he loves his own walk-up song so much, he can't get it out of his head.
BRITO: My cheer song here is really popular. People love it. You say, like, (singing in non-English language).
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing in non-English language).
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #2: (Chanting in non-English language).
KUHN: Cheerleaders and drummers pump up the crowds. Human waves ripple through the stands. Normally staid office workers jump and shout and chow down on fried chicken, dumplings, spicy rice cakes and beer. The atmosphere at South Korean ballparks won over British artist Andy Brown. He went to his first baseball game in Busan, South Korea, in 2009. Since then, he's been to ballparks in 15 countries, capturing light, sound and movement in flecks and dabs of paint.
ANDY BROWN: I try to get movements, which show the beat of the drums that were right next to me, the jumping up and down of the people behind me, the thunder sticks banging together, the cheers. Everything that I can sense, I try to put that in, in my color, in my #1brush marks.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP #1: (Chanting in non-English language).
KUHN: Brown has committed many diamonds to canvas, and he says he's optimistic that its youthful fan base will carry Korean baseball far into a thriving future.
Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Gwangju, South Korea.
(SOUNDBITE OF A.V. HAMILTON AND HIJNX SONG, "DOWN!") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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