North Carolina roots for S. Korean pro baseball team NC Dinos in Korean Series
- 3 years ago
KBO 한국시리즈 우승 노리는 NC 다이노스! 미국 노스캐롤라이나주를 사로잡다
With the 2020 Korean Series underway, baseball fans across South Korea are glued to their seats.
They're not the only ones tuning in for the big game though.
Thousands of miles across the Pacific, Americans are watching as well... and many, especially in North Carolina, are rooting for one team in particular.
Our Han Seong-woo has more.
Major League Baseball was put on hold for several months back in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
So to quench Americans' thirst for their national pastime, ESPN started live broadcasts of games from the Korea Baseball Organization.
And the one team getting the most attention in the U.S. is the NC Dinos.
They could be crowned champions of Korean professional baseball at the Gocheok Skydome behind me later this week… for the first time in their history.
A Triple A minor league team based in North Carolina, the Durham Bulls, even reached out to the Dinos on social media to forge a promotional partnership.
"Everyone was kind of looking for their KBO team to root for since it was going to be on national television here. And that was really the only baseball to watch...."
The Doosan Bears are the better-known team, so why are the NC Dinos gaining fans in the U.S.?
Well, as regular season champions with a star-studded squad, they're good at what they do...
And they have in their name the initials of North Carolina, which lacks a major league baseball team of its own.
"It is nice, I think, to all North Carolinians being able to go towards one team as opposed to having eight or nine minor league franchises all spread out. So you have one team you can root for and it's an NC team..."
The site of some significant fossil discoveries, North Carolina also has a link to dinosaurs.
But Andrew Green, a Dinos fan working for the Durham Bulls' front office, says Americans are most likely interested in the unique baseball culture found only in Korea.
"Definitely… the bat flips have definitely been a big thing I know. Here in the U.S., it seems like every time that happens, it's on social media."
This has helped the KBO gain a foothold in the U.S. and it could become the country's latest cultural export.
Han Seong-woo, Arirang News.
With the 2020 Korean Series underway, baseball fans across South Korea are glued to their seats.
They're not the only ones tuning in for the big game though.
Thousands of miles across the Pacific, Americans are watching as well... and many, especially in North Carolina, are rooting for one team in particular.
Our Han Seong-woo has more.
Major League Baseball was put on hold for several months back in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
So to quench Americans' thirst for their national pastime, ESPN started live broadcasts of games from the Korea Baseball Organization.
And the one team getting the most attention in the U.S. is the NC Dinos.
They could be crowned champions of Korean professional baseball at the Gocheok Skydome behind me later this week… for the first time in their history.
A Triple A minor league team based in North Carolina, the Durham Bulls, even reached out to the Dinos on social media to forge a promotional partnership.
"Everyone was kind of looking for their KBO team to root for since it was going to be on national television here. And that was really the only baseball to watch...."
The Doosan Bears are the better-known team, so why are the NC Dinos gaining fans in the U.S.?
Well, as regular season champions with a star-studded squad, they're good at what they do...
And they have in their name the initials of North Carolina, which lacks a major league baseball team of its own.
"It is nice, I think, to all North Carolinians being able to go towards one team as opposed to having eight or nine minor league franchises all spread out. So you have one team you can root for and it's an NC team..."
The site of some significant fossil discoveries, North Carolina also has a link to dinosaurs.
But Andrew Green, a Dinos fan working for the Durham Bulls' front office, says Americans are most likely interested in the unique baseball culture found only in Korea.
"Definitely… the bat flips have definitely been a big thing I know. Here in the U.S., it seems like every time that happens, it's on social media."
This has helped the KBO gain a foothold in the U.S. and it could become the country's latest cultural export.
Han Seong-woo, Arirang News.