Josh Lindblom and the Lotte Giants Helmet

​Team Jokbal has been unable to make a trip down to Sajik in Busan to catch Lotte on their home turf this year. We have tried several times to make our way down there (5 hour one-way trip for most of us) this season but weather and unforeseen scheduling conflicts always left us hanging out to dry.

The Lotte Helmet

​Last Sunday (09/09/2017), we were finally able to take possession of a Lotte Giants helmet, but with a few modifications. Once a shiny, new, unremarkable black baseball helmet bearing the Lotte Giants emblem, it had been transformed into a masterpiece bearing brilliant white signatures of Giants stars and living legends. It's a beauty and sure to bring some serious coin at the charity auction. Bearing the signatures of Korean players such as Lee Dae-ho, Kang Min-ho, Choi Jun-seok, Son Ah-seop and Son Seung-lak, the helmet has come to life. However, the helmet doesn't just have Korean players. It also bears the signatures of Josh Lindblom, a great guy and great pitcher, and Andy Burns, a star player that joined Lotte this season.

The Josh Lindblom Story

Now back to the story and how this masterpiece came into being. After experiencing the setbacks earlier in the season during our attempts to make a trip to Sajik, Team Jokbal began to wonder if their glorious drive to collect items from all teams for the charity auction would come up dry. We are not a group that gives up easily, nor are we a group that wants to let down the orphanages that we will be donating to this winter so we took matters into our own hands and got into contact with Lotte Giant pitcher, Josh Lindblom, and posted a blank Lotte Giants helmet to him.

Josh, a guy with a heart of gold and a great pitching arm, had rejoined the Giants at the end of July after having to leave them earlier in the year due to health issues with his daughter. After taking care of matters back in the States and with his daughter's health improving, Josh was able to come back to Lotte after the release of his replacement Nick Additon.

Back to the Helmet and setbacks

But once again, I digress so let's get back to the helmet and story. After posting the helmet to Josh, I was able to contact him again and let him know that Team Jokbal would be making their way to Suwon Stadium to catch a game between the Giants and the Wiz and we would be more than happy to meet him there and pick up the helmet at the game. With sleep still in ours eyes, we made early departures from our homes to go to Suwon Stadium to collect the helmet, as well as some promised items from kt Wiz players. We were able to easily catch the Wiz guys and pick up some great items from them. However, the Lotte setbacks began again.

Setback #1 and overcoming

On our way over to the bus area to catch Josh upon arrival, we were just a bit late and ended up missing the players exiting the buses. Feeling a bit down for not catching them upon arrival, we didn't give up because we were sure that we would be able to catch him inside the stadium. We also know the kind of guy that Josh is so we were sure that he would come through inside the stadium. After deciding that it was time to pack it in and head into the stadium, we went over to the car to put the kt Wiz items away. While walking by the outfield gate we saw Josh in the outfield talking with players. We continued on to the car and came back in hope of catching him there. Upon our return to the gate, Josh spotted us and came over for a brief chat and to sign for fans. We shook hands, thanked him for his kindness, and arranged to meet him inside the stadium.

The Security, Setback #2, & overcoming

We headed into the stadium and went over to the area where he was standing and he asked us to make our way over to the "exciting zone" area next to the dugout so that he could pass the helmet to us. We headed over to the area where he asked to meet and were immediately held up by security. They told us that we couldn't enter the area because our tickets were not for that area. We kept reassuring them that it was okay and we were only going there for a couple of minutes to catch Josh, whom we know, and then we would return to our seats. They keep reassuring us with the "no" and arms crossed in an "x" that we would not get there.

A few seconds later Josh reappeared from the dugout with the helmet and we were still dealing with security. We pointed to him and told them to look and see that he was bringing a helmet to us and that we were just going to pick it up and come back out. Josh even got in on the action motioning and asking for them to let us down, but they were having none of it and continued with their string of "no." Then Josh told us to just meet him over at the bullpen and grab it there.

We made our way back over to the bullpen area and were met by security once again. They were asking us to move away from the rail and bullpen and return to our seats. At this point we just had to ignore them and tell them no and that we were meeting our friend Josh to collect a helmet from him. It also helped that we were standing face to face with Josh and talking with him by this point. We had a bit longer chat at this point and once again thanked him for his kindness. Before leaving him and returning to our seats, he also said that he would get some more things together at the end of the season and get them to us for the auction.

Nothing stops Team Jokbal & Josh Lindblom

​While we once again experienced some minor delays due to security (it's happened on several occasions), we had accomplished what we had set out to accomplish when leaving our homes at 6:30 am. We had possession of the Lotte Helmet and it's all thanks to a wonderful guy named Josh Lindblom. He's a great guy with a big heart and we are happy that he was able to help us out. If you would like more information about Josh and to see how he helps others, be sure to take a look at his non-profit, The Josh Lindblom Foundation, at the following:

​www.joshlindblom.com

Cheers,

Team Jokbal