Bill the Wall! (in Suwon)

There is no mistaking Suwon Baseball Stadium

Because like everything else in Suwon, it pays homage to the great and mighty "wall."

That wall is the Hwaseong Fortress, constructed just before 1800, now a UNESCO World Heritage site, the tourist magnet which puts this city on the map.  Suwon is just 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of Seoul, and is easily reachable by the Seoul subway (and/or any number of trains), and thus I consider an extension of that supersized city, very much like Incheon.  Apparently, Suwon is the only remaining completely walled city in Korea.

And it is quite a sight.  I've spent a few times walking the length of it (3.5 miles/5.74 kilometers), up Padalsan Hill, over gates and traffic, and even all the way out to the wall's archery complex (which was unfortunately, closed on that day).

Suwon Baseball Stadium, which opened originally in 1989, and which was the home stadium for the now defunct Hyundai Unicorns until 2007, is currently the home of the KT Wiz, the league's latest expansion team.  The KT Wiz, formed in 2013, played their first season in 2015, and like most expansion teams throughout history, they have struggled, have yet to make the playoffs, and are routinely punching bags for the rest of the league, although they did rank as high as 6th last year.  Currently, in 2020, they are tied for 8th place in the standings (out of 10 teams).

You can't help but feel for any expansion team, especially for one as new as the Wiz, and you wonder when they will start to put things together and really start to compete with the big boys (i.e. any of the Seoul-based teams, like the Doosan Bears or Nexen Heroes, which are natural local competitors).

When I visited the Suwon Baseball Stadium for the first time on October 12, 2018, the KT Wiz were just finishing up a ninth place finish to the season, and were hosting the playoff-bound Nexen Heroes on a cold evening before what would be eventually 10,268 fans (the stadium holds almost 21,000).

I was on my way to Seoul to attend the annual international KoTESOL (Korea Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) conference (yeah, I know, that's a mouthful), and thought it made perfect sense to detour on the way up to the bright lights of the big city.

I ended up staying through eight innings before the cold got to me (it fell from 59℉ at 6 p.m. to 49℉ by 9 p.m. ... a five degree downward shift for Celsius fans) and I was also obsessed about getting the last train back to Seoul.  I made the train in plenty of time, and in checking the KBO app, found that I hadn't missed much.  The hometown Wiz were losing 8-5 when I left, and eventually let two more runs cross the plate to lose 10-5, before all was said and done.

To be honest, there were as many Nexen fans as Wiz fans at the stadium that evening, and they were loud and proud.  Park Byung Ho (formerly of Minnesota) hit his 42nd home run of the season during the third inning, which broke the 2-2 tie and put Nexen on top for the remainder of the game.  The KT Wiz mainly relied on their outfield for any offensive production, including leadoff hitter and left fielder Kang Baek Ho, who won Rookie of the Year with 29 homers that season, and the speedy center fielder Mel Rojas, Jr., who is still with the team as of this season.  Rojas, who has yet to play in MLB, is the son of Mel Rojas, who you may or may not remember playing for the Montreal Expos in the early 90's as the setup man for closer John Wetteland.

But mainly I was enjoying the overall atmosphere of the stadium, the fans desperately trying to keep themselves warm in the October cold, with their dances and cheers, and their frequent runs to buy beer, the two freakish wizard-monster mascots named "Vic" and "Ddory" (combine those and what does it spell?), and most especially the little touches of wall at the top of the stadium and scoreboard.  These little Hwaseong Fortress wall touches, more than anything, make Suwon Baseball Stadium stand out from its brethren, and really plays a constant unifying theme for this city.

Suwon lives, breathes, and plays in the shadow of that wall.

I like historical walls, and the lessons they teach about time and permanence.  Hwaseong Fortress is, as I've mentioned before, is one substantial stretch of concrete and stone through town, but there are all sorts of bits and pieces to discover, including an elaborate array of observation towers, guard chambers, crossbow platforms, beacon towers, and flood gates which cross over Suwoncheon Stream.  It's very photogenic, and you can step on and off at any point to wander to restaurants or park areas.  Not surprisingly, it took some damage during the Korean War, but was restored and mended.

A strong second draw to the city is the uniquely scatalogically-oriented "Mr. Toilet House," which explores the life and times of "Mr. Toilet," Sim Jae-duck, who built a toilet-shaped house (eventually made into a museum) to celebrate the philosophy of good toilet hygiene.  If you have the opportunity, it's best just to go and see for yourself.  The alarming statuary of various figures engaged in "number two" are in and of themselves worth the trip.

I've also enjoyed one of my favorite lunches at the Din Tai Fung Dim Sum restaurant (which has branches all over the world, and which is within walking distance from the Suwon train station) and ventured out on another cold November day to the Suwon World Cup Stadium to catch the finals of the Korean FA Cup (the Suwon Samsung Bluewings are actually one of the more successful soccer franchises in the country).  The restaurant had no wall decor that I can remember.  The soccer stadium definitely did.  That wall reigns supreme.

There's a lot to explore, actually, in Suwon.  Just not, as of yet, a winning baseball team.

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We are late into the game, and bound for the 8th inning.  Next stop is to the southwest of the country to Gwangju-Kia Champions Field, home of the most successful team in the KBO, the KIA Tigers.