take me out to the ball game!!!

I just want to say that I hope I can adequatly describe my first experience at a baseball game in Taiwan. I think it was my favorite thing here so far:) The Taiwanese love their baseball...

So a few of us from work went to a baseball game here in Hsinchu--the baseball stadium is about a 5 minute scooter ride from our apartment!! Tickets for the outfield cost about $3, but its actually really close because the stadium isn't that big. You can bring your own beer/peanuts/snickers bar to the stadium--so cool!! Well we walked in, and were looking for a spot to sit and we saw that one of the players in the outfield had the name "Gonzalez" on his back--the only one we could read because all the rest were in Chinese. Apparantly he's pretty big time over here. So we picked his team to win! It was the Bears vs. the Elephants. Since Gonzalez played for the Bears, that was our team.

The stadium was just pulsating with chants, one of which was to the tune of "Do You Know the Muffin Man?" which I really got a kick out of. All the people in the stands had these noise maker things that you clap together, and lots of people had whistles and horns. There are horn routines that they know... one guy does a set of hoots, then everyone else copies him. The announcer is really into it too and gets really excited. Of course it's all in Chinese so it sounds really funny to me. It's great!

I have never been more into a game before in my life. We cheered for Gonzalez until we were hoarse. They have a chant for every player at bat and his was "GONZO! GONZO! GO! GO! GO!" which is really fun to yell over and over again. Every time he was in the outfield we would yell for him. He was only about 30 feet away because the stadium is so small. Then Emily and I had the bright idea that he might know Spanish, so we started yelling "Vamonos Gozales!!!!!" and that really got his attention. So much so that he walked over to us DURING THE GAME and we had a chat!!!!!!!!!! He asked us where we are from, what we are doing, what city we are in (he's a busy guy and can't keep track). Gonzo is a very nice man originally from Puerto Rico who now lives in San Diego. He is here for another 2 days. Loves playing for Tawian, the pay is good. It was brilliant!! All these kids swarmed over to where we were sitting to tell him that they love him, but he didn't seem too interested in talking to them. So for the rest of the game he kept turning around to chat with us. I WAS SO EXCITED. We taught all those kids a chant too and they were absolutely beside themselves when Gonzo turned around and tipped his hat at us!!!

I loved it, I can't wait to go again. I have never cheered so much or jumped up and down so much in my life at any other game. It was so much fun. Two of our co-workers had never been to a baseball game before so it was a great first experience for them.

I will post the photos I took of the game soon so you can check out the photographic evidence. I was really excited while writing this so sorry about the gramatical errors!!