Greetings!
I consider myself a dedicated fan of Toronto sports teams, namely the Blue Jays, the Maple Leafs and the Raptors (Listing them in alphabetical order because I will never be able to decide which team I like the best. I love these teams for different reasons. Would you ever love one child more than the other(s)? I didn't think so).
I watch as many games of these three teams as I can. I devour articles on them. I listen to podcasts on these teams. I read books on Toronto teams and athletes who play or have played for them. The list goes on and on.
But alas, I can't attend their games. That's because I live in Seoul, Korea (That's, of course, South Korea, if anyone is wondering).
I am sure there are fans of other North American sports teams like myself in Korea, the hopeless souls who spend way too much time following teams on the other side of the world.
My wife (yes, for all my hopeless sports fanhood, I did have enough life to go out and meet someone and get married.) has never been a sports fan and I doubt she ever will be one. She absolutely doesn't understand why I like these Toronto teams so much. She often tells me, "What's the point of rooting for them? They don't even know you exist!"
Well, I guess not. And hopefully this blog will help me get recognized by those teams and convince them to send some freebies across the Pacific in appreciation. Or not.
Anyway, welcome to my blog! You may be wondering, "Geez, who even blogs these days? Do people read these things?" I am zigging when everyone else is zagging to the tune of YouTube videos and Instagram stories.
But ultimately, I set this up to be my outlet, and I find writing therapeutic. And believe me, you don't want to see my mug on YouTube or Instagram.
This blog will be a place where I can vent about on which line William Nylander should play (next to Nazem Kadri for now, IMHO, but more on that in a separate post), just go off on the sheer awesomeness of one Pascal Siakam, or contemplate Tulo's future in Toronto.
The blog will also be about my personal experience of being a fan of teams that are so far away. On a typical game day around this time of the year, I pretend to work in the morning but really just watch the Leafs or the Raptors, or sometimes both. Then I do some real work for a few hours. On my way home, I listen to podcasts on Toronto sports. In the evening, I do my father/husband things, spending time with my two kids and doing my share of chores, etc. Once the kids go to bed, I curl up with my tablet and catch up on some post-game articles. I also watch highlights or on-demand games if I missed a game or if I want to relive particularly gratifying victories.
I didn't become a Toronto sports fan just randomly. I lived there from 1995 to 2002 — three years of high school and four more at university. I'd been a sports fan for as long as I could remember growing up in Korea. My two favorite sports in Korea were baseball and basketball. I became an NBA fan at around 10 or 11, after discovering Lakers vs. Celtics and the NBA Playoffs PC game. And I developed some interest in Major League Baseball just before I left for T.O.
Hockey, I knew nothing about because no one watched it or even played it in Korea. And once I moved to Toronto, I naturally became a fan of the local baseball and basketball teams, and really fell in love with hockey and the Leafs.
Those were some lean years for the Jays. I arrived about three years too late! (Watch the above clip from 9:40 mark) The Leafs were up and down during my stay, though the boys did reach the conference finals in my last playoffs there in 2002. I was in Toronto for the inaugural Raptors season and even went to a couple of games at the good ol' Skydome during Season 1 — Damon Stoudemire, anyone?? — and enjoyed the Vinsanity era as well.
Once I returned to Korea in 2002, it became rather difficult to keep track with Toronto sports. You could only grab so much from the Internet back then, and there was no way to watch live games. This was, I believe, before leagues' official websites began selling packages for live streaming and on-demand watching.
Technology allows me to watch live games over here now. But the time difference will always be a major challenge. With the daylight saving time not in effect now, Seoul is 14 hours ahead of Toronto. For most of the year, Korea is 13 hours ahead.
This means most of the games take place during the morning hours here. The Leafs' Hockey Night in Canada game against the Bruins, for instance, is 9 a.m. Sunday here. When the Raptors host the Bucks Sunday evening at Scotiabank Arena, it'll be 8 a.m. Monday where I live.
There's one other, rather significant obstacle when it comes to keeping up with my Toronto teams. It's called work.
I am a sports writer by trade, covering Korean baseball, soccer, etc, etc, for a new agency. Yes, I went from a fan who had to pay to get into games to a scribe who now gets paid to watch sports.
But as much as I love my job, I sometimes get annoyed when work gets in the way of my sports viewing in the morning hours. Regular season games, I don't mind missing one here and there, and I can always find time later to rewatch them if I wanted to.
Playoffs are different. With the Leafs and the Raptors doing so well so far this season, it'd be a major shock if they didn't reach their respective playoffs, and they could even go fairly deep. And I will certainly not want to miss those moments when they happen. I actually don't mind rewatching games even when I know the results, but it's a different story during playoffs. I mean, it's not the same as watching this guy over and over again, well after seeing the same play live.
With my fingers crossed for a quiet April-May-June stretch workwise, I am taking my third crack at this blogging thing. In 2006, I started a sports-related blog on this very site and gave it the brilliant title "The Sportswriter." I wrote mostly about North American sports but I abandoned it in mid-2007. I didn't even know that blog still existed until last week. After deciding to start this blog, I deleted the earlier one and gave myself a clean slate.
I ran a Korean-language blog on my company's website for about a year, starting in 2014 or 2015. That one lasted about a year, and unlike my old Google blog, I wasn't able to save/archive the posts before the company shut down the blog operations early last year.
So nearly two years after my employer decided no one read blogs now, I've launched one myself. To use a cliche, I hope the third time will be the charm for me.
I watch as many games of these three teams as I can. I devour articles on them. I listen to podcasts on these teams. I read books on Toronto teams and athletes who play or have played for them. The list goes on and on.
But alas, I can't attend their games. That's because I live in Seoul, Korea (That's, of course, South Korea, if anyone is wondering).
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| As logos go, this one's pretty neat, eh? |
I am sure there are fans of other North American sports teams like myself in Korea, the hopeless souls who spend way too much time following teams on the other side of the world.
My wife (yes, for all my hopeless sports fanhood, I did have enough life to go out and meet someone and get married.) has never been a sports fan and I doubt she ever will be one. She absolutely doesn't understand why I like these Toronto teams so much. She often tells me, "What's the point of rooting for them? They don't even know you exist!"
Well, I guess not. And hopefully this blog will help me get recognized by those teams and convince them to send some freebies across the Pacific in appreciation. Or not.
Anyway, welcome to my blog! You may be wondering, "Geez, who even blogs these days? Do people read these things?" I am zigging when everyone else is zagging to the tune of YouTube videos and Instagram stories.
But ultimately, I set this up to be my outlet, and I find writing therapeutic. And believe me, you don't want to see my mug on YouTube or Instagram.
This blog will be a place where I can vent about on which line William Nylander should play (next to Nazem Kadri for now, IMHO, but more on that in a separate post), just go off on the sheer awesomeness of one Pascal Siakam, or contemplate Tulo's future in Toronto.
The blog will also be about my personal experience of being a fan of teams that are so far away. On a typical game day around this time of the year, I pretend to work in the morning but really just watch the Leafs or the Raptors, or sometimes both. Then I do some real work for a few hours. On my way home, I listen to podcasts on Toronto sports. In the evening, I do my father/husband things, spending time with my two kids and doing my share of chores, etc. Once the kids go to bed, I curl up with my tablet and catch up on some post-game articles. I also watch highlights or on-demand games if I missed a game or if I want to relive particularly gratifying victories.
 |
| For old times' sake... |
Hockey, I knew nothing about because no one watched it or even played it in Korea. And once I moved to Toronto, I naturally became a fan of the local baseball and basketball teams, and really fell in love with hockey and the Leafs.
Those were some lean years for the Jays. I arrived about three years too late! (Watch the above clip from 9:40 mark) The Leafs were up and down during my stay, though the boys did reach the conference finals in my last playoffs there in 2002. I was in Toronto for the inaugural Raptors season and even went to a couple of games at the good ol' Skydome during Season 1 — Damon Stoudemire, anyone?? — and enjoyed the Vinsanity era as well.
Once I returned to Korea in 2002, it became rather difficult to keep track with Toronto sports. You could only grab so much from the Internet back then, and there was no way to watch live games. This was, I believe, before leagues' official websites began selling packages for live streaming and on-demand watching.
Technology allows me to watch live games over here now. But the time difference will always be a major challenge. With the daylight saving time not in effect now, Seoul is 14 hours ahead of Toronto. For most of the year, Korea is 13 hours ahead.
This means most of the games take place during the morning hours here. The Leafs' Hockey Night in Canada game against the Bruins, for instance, is 9 a.m. Sunday here. When the Raptors host the Bucks Sunday evening at Scotiabank Arena, it'll be 8 a.m. Monday where I live.
There's one other, rather significant obstacle when it comes to keeping up with my Toronto teams. It's called work.
 |
| Just keep those logos comin' |
I am a sports writer by trade, covering Korean baseball, soccer, etc, etc, for a new agency. Yes, I went from a fan who had to pay to get into games to a scribe who now gets paid to watch sports.
But as much as I love my job, I sometimes get annoyed when work gets in the way of my sports viewing in the morning hours. Regular season games, I don't mind missing one here and there, and I can always find time later to rewatch them if I wanted to.
Playoffs are different. With the Leafs and the Raptors doing so well so far this season, it'd be a major shock if they didn't reach their respective playoffs, and they could even go fairly deep. And I will certainly not want to miss those moments when they happen. I actually don't mind rewatching games even when I know the results, but it's a different story during playoffs. I mean, it's not the same as watching this guy over and over again, well after seeing the same play live.
With my fingers crossed for a quiet April-May-June stretch workwise, I am taking my third crack at this blogging thing. In 2006, I started a sports-related blog on this very site and gave it the brilliant title "The Sportswriter." I wrote mostly about North American sports but I abandoned it in mid-2007. I didn't even know that blog still existed until last week. After deciding to start this blog, I deleted the earlier one and gave myself a clean slate.
I ran a Korean-language blog on my company's website for about a year, starting in 2014 or 2015. That one lasted about a year, and unlike my old Google blog, I wasn't able to save/archive the posts before the company shut down the blog operations early last year.
So nearly two years after my employer decided no one read blogs now, I've launched one myself. To use a cliche, I hope the third time will be the charm for me.
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