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| ▲ Photos by Douglas MacDonald |
I was 11 years-old when I first fell in love with the game of baseball. My mom had driven over to my grandparent’s house for lunch on a sunny Sunday afternoon. As was often the case, lunch quickly evolved into chatting in the living room about things that adults like to talk about. Bored, I went outside to look for something to do.
I found an old shed in the backyard. Looking inside, I found the usual clutter of old rags, tools, paint cans, boxes and lots and lots of dust. But, in the back corner, a crate filled with old newspapers caught my eye.
Sitting on a box, warm sunlight hitting my back from the small window above, I began to look through those papers one by one. I soon found the sports pages and was fascinated by the old baseball stories and the box scores that accompanied them.
The hours I spent in the shed that day led to a love affair with baseball that has stretched over a couple of decades – from games played and friends made as a youth to coaching the game as an adult and all the memories of great major league games and players I watched in between.
Unfortunately, the pro game has changed a lot over the years and since moving to Jeju I’ve found myself following the game less and less. So, when the opportunity to watch an exhibition game between the KIA Tigers and Nexen Heroes at Ora stadium in Jeju City arose, I jumped at the chance to rekindle my romance with the sport.
It was the first professional baseball game played here since 2008, and as I entered the stadium and made my way to the seats on the third base line, it was clear that the game has been missed. Nearly 7,000 fans filled the stadium anxiously anticipating the start of the game.
The weather was perfect, the best of the year, and while the crowd was a little quiet at first, once the first pitch was delivered and the game began, the stadium quickly came alive with the familiar sounds of baseball I remember so well. Thunderous cheers after every hit and strikeout, food sellers hawking their wares, and calls from young fans pleading for autographs from their heroes on the field.
As the game wore on I began to look at the crowd around me. Two boys dressed in baseball uniforms sat a few meters away, staring intently as the action unfolded before them. I could see that “look” in their eyes. This was a special moment for them. Something they would never forget.
Nexen won the game 4-3. But the final score was inconsequential. More important was the new generation of fans drawn to the game of baseball on that sunny afternoon just like that 11 year old boy in the shed so many years ago.
Douglas MacDonald is a Canadian-born English teacher and freelance photographer. He has spent 10 years documenting life and landscapes in Jeju and is a regular contributor to The Jeju Weekly. He won a “Fine Arts" prize in the 2010 Jeju UN World Heritage International photo contest. You can see more of his work at flickr.com/photos/dmacs_photos.
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