[Current & Culture] The Best Cheering Song That Brings Tears to Your Eyes

The World Baseball Classic (WBC), a festival for baseball fans worldwide, is in full swing. Our national team, which was eliminated in the first round, has returned home early. Since countless articles have criticized our team's unfortunate downfall, I will not mention it further here. Instead, I highly recommend checking out the story of the Czech national team, composed of players and coaches with other primary professions who came together and delivered passionate, memorable games. Although they were also eliminated in the first round alongside us, they achieved results comparable to the champions and moved baseball fans deeply. I will also skip praising the superstar Shohei Ohtani’s overwhelming skill and character, as it might cause some envy. In this article, I would like to talk about the diverse cheering cultures from around the world.

First, North America. Spectators in the United States and Canada do not engage in coordinated group cheers. They typically wear their favorite players’ uniforms and wave scarves matching the team colors or prepare various props. However, a very special scene occurred last season. Edwin D?az, the closer for the New York Mets, plays a song called “Narco” as his entrance music when he takes the mound. Since the song was created by DJ Timmy Trumpet, a former trumpet player, the trumpet performance is impressive, and fans often prepare toy trumpets to mimic playing along. But on September 1 last year, Timmy Trumpet actually appeared at the stadium! He played the trumpet live as D?az approached the mound, electrifying the crowd and turning the stadium into a concert hall in an instant. The result? D?az shut down three powerful hitters and secured the win. Even those uninterested in baseball can feel the thrill from the video. Incidentally, this song is also the cheering anthem for Kia Tigers’ foreign player Socrates.

In Japanese baseball stadiums, uniforms and various props are also common. However, group cheering is restricted except for officially registered cheering squads. Why such strict rules? In the past, the atmosphere at games became too heated, leading to riots, and this policy also aims to completely block possible Yakuza involvement. Nevertheless, the passion of the fans, who are more sincere about baseball than in any other country, is enough to heat up the stadium atmosphere. It is also notable that wind instruments are used especially often during cheers, and all the staff selling beer at the stadium are women. They are called “beer girls” rather than “beer boys,” and since multiple beer companies compete, beer girls wearing different uniforms representing each brand roam the stadium.

I have never been to a Taiwanese baseball stadium, but from broadcasts, it seems very similar to Korea. The cheering captain and cheerleaders lead the crowd in singing lively cheering songs. As a rock music fan, this style of cheering suits me perfectly. Korea adds “chimaek” (fried chicken and beer) to that, so even if the baseball skills are unknown, Korea’s cheering is the best in the world! Among the hundreds of KBO cheering songs, the best is Doosan Bears’ “For Victory.” It is an arrangement of the melodic metal group Rhapsody’s masterpiece “Emerald Sword” with added lyrics. The video of this song echoing through the stadium always makes my heart swell, especially the footage of the moment Doosan clinched the championship in Game 5 of the 2015 Korean Series. Watching fans and cheering squads break down in tears moved even me, a non-Doosan fan, to tears. Someday, I look forward to the moment when I can shed tears of joy witnessing Team Korea’s victory at an international tournament.

Lee Jae-ik, Novelist