Professional Baseball Back in Korea

-
Choi Jun-seok, a burly slugger for Lotte, is a sort of mythic figure among connoisseurs for the consistency and quality of his bat flips after home runs.

Baseball fans rejoice! The Korean Baseball Organisation has started its season, making it one of the first major professional sports leagues to return since the start of the Corona Virus pandemic. If you don’t already plan on watching the KBO, maybe it’s time you start thinking about it. Here is a short guide to help you on your way.

It was founded in 1982 and features 10 teams. The defending champions are the Doosan Bears, with the most titles being held by the Kia Tigers (11). It will, however, be an uphill struggle for the Bears to defend their title as they lost league MVP, Josh Lindblom, to the MLBs Milwaukee Brewers. As far as the standard of play goes, you are looking at AA ball in the USA, maybe a step higher than the currently playing Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) which ranks around A ball.  It might not be what MLB fans would have wanted six weeks ago, but it is a potential for live baseball that we are all craving.

If you are in the US you are in luck. ESPN will be streaming a game a day, starting with NC Dinos vs Samsung Lions. If you aren’t in the US, you can stream the games on Twitch TV by just typing KBO into the search menu. The games do have Korean commentary, but that is something I’m sure you can put up with. Or learn Korean and you're golden. Hopefully, the league pounces on what is an incredible opportunity to grab interest in their league. Not only from baseball fans looking for something to watch, but non-baseball fans, who also have nothing to watch at the moment, there is literally no competition around the world right now.

There are a few minor differences between the MLB and the KBO, one of them being that games can end in ties after the 12th inning, meaning that games cant go on for 15+ innings lasts 5+ hours, and go on until 3 in the morning. They also love a bat flip. Batters can launch a moon rocket, flip there bat 50 feet in the air and not have to worry about being beamed by the pitcher next time up. Players can actually have fun without being worried about repercussions (Don’t tell Madison Bumgarner).


There are also a few names currently playing in the MLB that once graced the stadiums of the KBO. The biggest biceps in the MLB and Current Washington Nationals Eric Thames played for the NC Dinos.  He won a gold glove and an MVP while there, before coming back to America to sign with the Brewers. Hyun-Jin Ryu, once of the Los Angeles Dodgers and now of the Toronto Blue Jays is one of the most famous people in Korea, let alone athletes. Over there he is like a combination of MJ and Tiger Woods, everyone knows who he is.

If you were looking to get more information as the season goes on and maybe a team to support, I would certainly check out @baseballbrit twitter account. The guy does more (and a better job) to promote baseball than MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and certainly knows his stuff.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MLB Cancelled?

-
Image
After all the talk between the MLB and MLBPA, it looks like we are finally going to get ourselves a baseball season. At this point there looks like there is nothing in the way of us seeing our favourite summer pastime. Or is there? Our sources tell us that discussions have been taking place between the Owners and Rob Manfred, and a new plan has been devised to stop the season going ahead.   Rob Manfred will declare the old school, unwritten playground rule ‘it’s my ball I’m going home’. It’s a rule as old as time, for those who have never seen or used it, this is how it works:  When you are playing a sport with friends, and you own the ball being used, you can decide to randomly take your ball and go home. People will do this for a couple of reasons. 1. If they have to actually go home (the least common use of the rule). 2. If they are losing or 3. If the ball owner hasn’t got their own way with regards to rules or teams, they will take their ball so no one else can play and go home.  
Read more

College Football is Cancelled

-
Image
2020 gets worse by the week. Recent announcements have seen college football conferences cancelled or suspended until the spring of 2021, leaving players, coaches and fans reeling in the news. One of the biggest questions that have come from these announcements is what will happen to the players. As a student-athlete, you are now just a student, which means you will finally have to start going to class. If you are an athlete reading this, you are in the right place, below we cultivated a list on what to do next, and thrive as a student. Get a pen and paper. This will be key, you will need this in all of your classes, to take notes from the teacher, or "coach" of the class.  The teacher is in charge, but instead of shouting at you when you miss a catch or fumble the ball, they will shout at you when you get an answer wrong or fall asleep in class. Try not to fall asleep in class. Books. What is a book you ask? It's like a playbook for the class you are taking, it contains
Read more

The Weekly Puttdown 6-12/1/2020

-
The Weekly Puttdown Welcome to the weekly Puttdown. A weekly run through off the major news from the major sports around the globe. Short and to the point, cutting through the drivel and not to be taken to seriously. NFL: The Texans blew a 24-point lead; they blew it so quickly it was gone before half time. The Packers ruined Lynches coming out of retirement party, but it was nice to see they game him the ball on the goal line twice, unfortunately, this doesn’t change history. Baltimore Ravens players decided not to turn up in their most important game of the year, forgetting that, when the ball is thrown to you, that you are meant to catch it. Derrick Henry continued to walk through defences, one point even making an opponent in to a lead blocker.   The 49ers blew out the Vikings, which led the Cleveland Browns to employ the Vikings OC as their new head coach after he got embarrassed that same weekend, a move that only the Cleveland Browns would do. NBA: Th
Read more