Korean baseball provides an escape for those awaiting the mlb's return

Chris Hirons

May 18, 2020

SOUTH KOREA - Up until two weeks ago, Syracuse University freshman and baseball superfan Kyle Miller frequently slept until noon in his Phillies themed room located in a suburb just west of Philadelphia.

On May 6, he set an early morning alarm — something he hadn’t done since Syracuse canceled in-person classes on March 10.

Now, Miller and many others who are starved for live sports, wake up at 5:30 a.m. on weekdays to watch the Korean Baseball Organization — a baseball experience like no other.

The league began play on May 5 and for the first time in its history, the league is being broadcast live on ESPN. Over 173,000 Americans tuned in to ESPN’s coverage of the KBO’s Opening Day at 1 a.m. — plus a 30-minute rain delay — to catch their first glimpse of baseball since mid-March.

The Korean version of baseball, that most Americans likely saw for the first time, is an authentic baseball game mixed in with a three-and-a-half hour circus.

Cheerleaders dancing on top of the dugout, jubilant bat flips that don’t result in pitcher retaliation (Madison Bumgarner would throw fits) and ties after 12 innings are just a few of the features that give Americans extra insight as to how the game is played worldwide.

American sports leagues dropped like flies after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the coronavirus on March 11. Hours after the news broke, the NBA announced it would suspend all operations that — more than two months later — have yet to be resumed.

In the days that followed, other sports leagues either paused mid-season or delayed the start of the season.

“I’ve missed sports more than anything,” Miller said. “Waking up that early to watch it live, it’s worth it.”

Miller, of course, alludes to the massive hole that the mass cancellation of sports left in the entertainment industry worldwide. Slowly but surely, sports are starting to crawl their way back after the coronavirus pandemic halted the world.

The English Premier League is set to return on June 19, barring more pushback from clubs and players. Across the pond, major American sports leagues have started to announce their initial plans to resume play but no start dates have been given.

The Bundesliga, a top German soccer league, resumed their season late last week as the rest of the soccer world looked to their social distancing rules. Player contact was limited to elbow and ankle taps and goal celebrations were awkward as well. Bench players wore masks to protect themselves and others. Fans will be barred from entry for the foreseeable future.

Not only are international leagues returning, but also American sports are beginning to resume action.

Through their own social distancing measures, NASCAR made its return Sunday afternoon in Darlington, South Carolina. Like the Bundesliga, fans were forced to watch the race from the comfort of their own home and anyone outside of the car must wear a facemask.

The KBO, like MLB, delayed the start of its own season which was slated to begin on March 28.

Both the United States and South Korea announced their first coronavirus case and death within a few days of each other. However, with a significantly smaller population and more widespread testing, South Korea was able to control the virus quicker than the U.S., which prompted the KBO’s quick return.

The season could shut down as quickly as it returned, though.

Before restarting the season, the league instituted many precautions, including mandatory masks in the dugout, discouraging high fives, a ban on spitting and a ban on fans.

If just one player or coach were to test positive for the coronavirus, the 10-team corporate-owned league would automatically go on a two-week hiatus and every player would be forced to self-quarantine.

With initial signs looking promising, the MLB will likely follow suit with most and if not all of the precautions that the KBO already has in place. Furthermore, Commissioner Rob Manfred & Co. could look to take some pieces of the Korean game to add to the American side of baseball.

In an age where MLB has quickly acted on pace-of-play rules, all while trying to attract the attention of a younger audience, the league could certainly steal some unconventional — at least by American standards — rules from the KBO’s book.

The KBO uses the aforementioned 12 inning tie rule, but during postseason play, if the game remains tied after 15 innings, then the team with the higher seed is rewarded with the win.

The league also uses a universal designated hitter, something major league owners are trying to push in the next CBA, which expires after the 2021 season.

With different rules, comes different strategies.

In an age where home runs and strikeouts dominate the majors, the KBO focuses less on power and more on simple contact with bat-to-ball skills. Compared to the American game, players typically hit for higher averages but fewer home runs in South Korea — a league full of Ichiro Suzuki-prototypes.

Only 10 players hit 20 or more home runs last season. Though KBO hitters generally record a higher average than their American counterparts, the spike in batting average is mainly in part due to less dominant pitching.

Most Korean-born pitchers aren’t able to dictate the game by overpowering hitters with a 97 MPH fastball like Jacob deGrom of the New York Mets does.

Instead, pitchers tend to sit around the low 90s and use the movement and location of their off-speed pitches to get hitters out, mainly through ground and fly balls rather than strikeouts.

Baseball isn’t just a game over in Korea — it’s an event.

Despite the ban on fans, the KBO has still found a way to add the flair the American game doesn’t have.

The cheerleaders continue to dance as if the park was sold out, in a way reminding us of the World Baseball Classic. The culture views baseball through a celebratory lens, something the United States has yet to figure out.

After watching two weeks worth of Korean baseball, one thing remains clear: MLB is late to the “Let The Kids Play” act, because in South Korea, the kids have been playing for quite some time.