Even after the game ended, people could not leave the ballpark. Fans who joined the lap around the field after the final game kept filming every corner of the stadium, turning over 44 years in their minds.

Opened in 1982, Jamsil Baseball Stadium has stood alongside the entire history of Korean professional baseball. KBS 2TV’s “Documentary 3 Days,” episode 741, aired on the night of November 2 under the title “Every Moment We Loved — The Last 72 Hours of Jamsil Baseball Stadium,” following people preparing to say goodbye. Singer Yoo Yeol narrated.

From a Father’s Hand to a Child’s Hand

Jamsil was more than one person’s memory. It carried family time across generations.

The parents of 10-month-old twins, who said they had been coming to the ballpark since the babies were in the womb — “we even did prenatal care at the ballpark” — laughed as they added, “the ballpark I used to visit with my father, now I visit with my child.” It was the documentary’s quietest scene: a ballpark once visited holding a father’s hand, now visited holding a child’s.

A couple about to marry next year took their wedding photos at the ballpark. “We dated at the ballpark so often that we thought taking them here would be just right.” A place that was a date spot for some and a page of youth for others became the backdrop for another chapter of life.

Why the Crowd Arrives Two Hours Early

Fans wanting to hold the final image in their eyes arrived long before first pitch. Two hours before the game, the stadium was already crowded. One fan said, “I always come two hours early. There’s a lot to do. A lot to look at, a lot to buy.” He admitted honestly, “watching baseball only adds to my stress,” then laughed, “but I love baseball so much.”

One fan came up from Yeongju in North Gyeongsang Province on a dawn bus to wait for a ticket. Another came alone because he could only get one ticket, leaving behind the wife he usually attends with. A fan whose only hobbies are watching baseball and reading books read a book in the stands, saying he was “doing both at once.” A fan dancing to the cheer songs said, “what needs doing must be done,” staying true to the cheering until the last moment.

A fan who had been there since the 1982 opening said, “it’s the last one, so it feels new and strange.” Another smiled bitterly: “it feels hollow, like everything in my memory is disappearing.”

The People Who Made the Ballpark Their Workplace

The 44 years meant something special to the people who worked every corner of the stadium, too.

Groundskeeper Kim Jong-moon, 64, has maintained Jamsil for 26 years, re-sodding the grass, leveling the dirt and re-chalking the lines all season. With two clubs sharing the park as their home, maintenance time was always short, but he kept the field ready from early morning so players could play.

Head cook Kim Hyun-sook, 70, has fed the players for 18 years and watched players who joined around age 20 become fathers. She named the dishes to avoid before a game — seaweed soup and mallow soup — explaining with a laugh that “mallow sounds like ‘out,’ so no.” “I cooked with all my heart. I take pride in that,” she said, summarizing 18 years in a sentence.

LG Twins player Moon Jung-bin said, “I think my baseball life is now about in the 2nd or 3rd inning,” looking ahead to the career still to come. The documentary also followed the time it took a boy who once cheered from the stands to stand on the field as a professional, and the dream of a player at a new starting line.

A Ballpark Is Not Records, but Time

The last 72 hours of Jamsil looked beyond one ballpark’s record book, back at the time of the people who loved it. Not the wins and losses, but the time built by fathers and children, couples and friends, and the people who worked there. A ballpark can disappear, but the time spent inside it goes on in each person’s memory.

Sources: The CEN News (on KBS 2TV “Documentary 3 Days,” Korea), 2026-11-02 / MHN Sports (on KBS 2TV “Documentary 3 Days,” Korea), 2026-11-02