By Jim Allen,
The Los Angeles Dodgers got the win they came for Wednesday against the San Diego Padres in Major League Baseball's first game in South Korea, and then some.
The Dodgers' 5-2 come-from-behind win was played to the accompaniment of South Korean-style cheering, with rival cheer squads dancing and chanting down the foul lines to rally supporters as each team batted.
Skipper Dave Roberts, who was born in Okinawa to a Japanese mother, said it was a blessing to be managing the historic opener in South Korea and heaped praise on the atmosphere at Seoul's Gocheok Sky Dome.
"It's great. I think that the first baseman, the third baseman, they're not used to all that noise on every pitch, but it's fantastic," Roberts said. "The energy and the enthusiasm from the Korean fans is great. It's certainly different from the States."
"We brought our ball club's songs and our kind of in-house music, and the Padres brought theirs, so it was a nice combined effort from the Korean fans and our home cooking."
Asked about what it meant to be managing in Asia, Roberts said he had been trying to keep those emotions in check.
"I've sort of just tried to be present here in Seoul, but we flew over Okinawa, Japan, where I was born and where my mother was born," he said.
"There's a large Japanese contingent here, which has been fun for me. I pinch myself a lot thinking I'm in this chair right now, and very grateful to be here."
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