Professional Baseball Back in Korea

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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.


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