Struggling Korean Baseball Team Replaces Fans with Cheering Robots

안녕하세요! 

That is pronounced

Anneyeounghaseyo

and it means 'Hello' in Korean. Hey, I am tickled pink that you were able to drop out of cyberspace for a while and have a mug of coffee with me. Have a virtual treat, too. Of course that lead in is a segue to today's topic...

A struggling South Korean Major League baseball team has come up with a novel idea to boost players’ morale. They’re replacing human fans with robots called ‘Fanbots’, all in a bid to improve the atmosphere at their matches.

The promo video for ‘Fanbot – the world’s first cheering robot’ rides high on the emotions involved while watching a match. “Fans of Hanwha Eagles always come to the stadium to cheer for the team,” the video states. “But those who cannot come to the stadium watch the game on the web or on their phones and cheer through commenting online. What if there was a robot cheering for those fans?”

It’s not easy being a fan of the Hanwha Eagles – most fans are subject to ridicule because of the team’s poor performance. The Hanwha Eagles have suffered over 400 losses in the past five years. Fans of the team are regarded with sympathy – they’ve even been dubbed ‘Buddhist Saints’ and ‘Hanwha Chickens’ by fans of other teams. The humiliation has been so great that many fans don’t feel like attending games anymore. Others simply do not have the time.

Okay...so, like, do the robots have to pay to attend? If not, who pays, eh? I mean the whole idea of putting on the games is fan support. Maybe the team owners would be better advised to get some new players on the field rather than spending their 'won' on robots. What do you think?

After last night's whipping by the Seattle Mariners, maybe the Blue Jays could use some robots. Why not just have robot teams? They could easily be trained to smack the ball out of the park, couldn't they? No more huge salaries, negotiations, strikes, steroid checks, et al.

See ya, eh!

Bob