In 2006, professional baseball started a new world wide tournament called World Baseball Classic. Team Japan beat out everyone to win the Championship.
In 2008 Team Korea won the Gold Medal in the Summer Games.
The Asian baseball world is proving it is among the best.
Two years ago I would have caredless, but now that I have a Korean son, having visited Seoul, and doing all I can to make sure the Korean culture is a part of our family life, I spent hours over the last 3 weeks watching Team Korea as they weaved their way into the World Baseball Classic Final against Japan Monday night at Dodger Stadium in LA.
They lost 5-3, in a 10 inning battle that proved to be one of the most exciting baseball games I have ever watched. For 4 hours nearly 40,000 Korean fans stood, chanted, whistled, clapped, cheered and loved on their boys from Seoul.
Though all of the players in this tournament are paid professionals in their home country, none make the 100s of millions most of the Team USA players do. I was cheering for Team USA too, but it was special to see “the love for the game” and “the love for my country” be the motivating factor in the eyes of both of these asian teams.
Koreans are a special, special people. There is much we could learn from them, even the way the play one of the games most of us love.
