Korean Baseball Team Replaces Human Fans With Terrifying Remote-Control Robots

I’ve made no attempt over the years to hide my affection for the Philadelphia Phillies. I’ve even been known to attend a few dozen games a year, but sometimes I can’t always make it to the game, or — especially when the Phils don’t have much phight in them — it’s just too depressing to slog down to Citizens Bank Park and wonder why I masochistically pay to witness brutal, almost nightly beatings. If only I were a fan of the Hanwha Eagles.

The Eagles, who aren’t exactly the New York Yankees of Korean Baseball Organization, are now using “Fanbots” — robots who sit in the stands at Eagles games and can be remotely controlled over the Internet by human fans who want the at-the-game experience without having to actually be at the game.

According to the above video [via BigThink], the Fanbots can cheer, hold up electronic message board signs and even do the one thing that no actual baseball fan should ever, ever, ever do — the wave.

(Editor’s Note: Seriously, don’t do the wave at baseball games. Or football, basketball, hockey, cricket, monopoly, or rock-paper-scissors. Just don’t do it.)

A Fanbot can even be customized so that the remote user’s face appears on the bot’s face-screen thing.

Tell us the image below isn’t terrifying:

In the robots’ defense, it’s unlikely that a Fanbot will ever be arrested for deliberately throwing up on a little girl seated in front of it.