By Baek Byung-yeul
It has been a tradition for the LG Twins and Doosan Bears baseball teams to play each other on Children’s Day, every May 5 since 1996.
Without exception, the two Seoul-based Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) teams, which share a home park at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in southeastern Seoul, will have their Children’s Day series this year. Except in 1997 and 2002, they have faced each other 18 times and the Bears have been in dominant form with 12 wins.
For this year's Children’s Day game, the fourth-place Twins are likely to start their imported pitcher Scoot Copeland while the defending champion Bears may let Michael Bowden take the mound.
For Twins manager Yang Sang-moon and Bears manager Kim Tae-hyung, the burden of expectation weighs heavily.
“Winning on Children’s Day will also be counted as just one win like other winning games. But when thinking of young fans visiting the baseball park, I would like to present them a win,” Yang told reporters, Tuesday.
“There’s something different about the Children’s Day game,” added Kim, who spent his baseball career playing for the Bears for 12 seasons from 1990 to 2001. “As a manager, I would like to win against every team other than the Twins. I don’t care about the rivalry that much, but it still bothers me.”
Other than the Bears-Twins game, the SK Wyverns will host the Hanwha Eagles at Incheon Munhak Baseball Stadium; the Kia Tigers will host the Lotte Giants at Gwangju Kia Champions Field; the Samsung Heroes will play against the Nexen Heroes at Daegu Samsung Lions Park; and KT Wiz will host the NC Dinos at Suwon KT Wiz Park.
Three K-League Classic football matches will be held on Children’s Day as well.
In Ulsan, South Gyeongsang Province, sixth-place Ulsan Hyundai FC will host third-placed Seongnam FC at Ulsan Munsu Football Stadium.
The match, which will be free for children, is expected to draw attention for featuring two Korean national football team strikers -- Hwang Ui-jo from Seongnam and Lee Jeong-hyeop from Ulsan. Hwang has scored three goals in eight games while Lee, who has shown better performance than Hwang in national team matches, has scored only one goal in seven games.
In Gwangju, 10th-ranked Gwangju FC aims to win a home match against fourth-placed Sangju Sangmu FC at Gwangju World Cup Stadium.
After winning their first home match against Jeju United FC 1-0 on March 19, they haven’t added a win in the past three home matches. It remains to be seen whether the Gwangju players can effectively defend against Sangju’s strong attacking squad who have scored the second-most goals in the league with 14.
The cellar-dweller No. 12 Incheon United FC aims to climb the standings at a Children’s Day match against No. 11 Jeonnam Dragons at Incheon Football Stadium.
At LetsRun Park Seoul in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, children can enjoy horse-riding.
On the occasion of Children’s Day, the racetrack will provide fruitful events for visitors ranging from horse rides to a trivia contest related to horses.
Also, about 60 elementary and middle school students will compete at a horse-riding event entitled “Whinny Day.” As part of the government plan to boost horse riding, the Korea Racing Authority (KRA) inaugurated the equestrian event last year.