The Kiwoom Heroes defeated the LG Twins 9-4 to halt their four-game losing skid in the young Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) season on Sunday. The top two hitters in the Heroes' lineup, Seo Geon-chang and Kim Ha-seong, combined to go 6-for-10 with six RBIs and three runs scored for the Heroes, who pounded out three solo home runs among 17 hits at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul to end their losing streak at four games. Kiwoom starter Eric Jokisch tossed six scoreless innings for his second win of t

Kiwoom Heroes' rookie manager Son Hyuk is an optimist by nature. Even with his Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) club mired in a four-game losing skid heading into Sunday's action, Son is maintaining his "glass half-full" mindset. "In the past two, three seasons, we had mediocre starts and then picked things up in the summer," Son noted before facing the LG Twins at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul. "As long as we stay afloat, I think we'll be just fine." The Heroes won f

LG Twins' manager Ryu Joong-il got out of bed Sunday morning with his back hurting a little more than usual. He had just managed a double header against the Kiwoom Heroes for more than six hours on Saturday, and he spent the majority of that time standing in and pacing around the dugout at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul. This was the first double header of the young Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) season. That the Twins won both games eased Ryu's pain. "This was our first double header in qu

Kiwoom Heroes' catcher Park Dong-won is a manager's dream. He does not care about his playing time. He does not care about his personal stats. As long as his Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) club keeps on winning, Park is a happy man. And the Heroes have done quite a bit of winning lately. They defeated the Samsung Lions 3-2 at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Tuesday for their fourth straight victory and climbed to first place in the young 2020 season at 6-1. Park delivered a game-tying solo h

The South Korean baseball league announced rules on running "special" suspended games and subsequent double headers on Tuesday. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) will bring these suspended games into play this season, which opened last Tuesday after more than a month of delay due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the past, a game that had to be stopped because of inclement weather before the completion of the fifth inning was wiped clean, and the teams had to play a new game from

When Dan Straily left the United States for South Korea to continue his pitching career in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) in 2020, he thought he was through getting much exposure in his home country. He was only focused on getting back to Major League Baseball (MLB) someday, so his son can watch him pitch in the bigs. But life can throw you a curve at the most unexpected times. No one could have predicted the coronavirus pandemic would have ground sports leagues around the world to a ha

After coming home from a hectic day at work, Patty Noakes likes to wind down by watching baseball on ESPN. But it is not just any baseball she is watching on the US cable station these days. ESPN will be carrying six Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) games per week this season, while Major League Baseball (MLB) remains grounded due to the coronavirus pandemic. For fans like Noakes, who grew up in Cincinnati during the "Big Red Machine" era of the early 1970s, KBO is the only basebal

The South Korean baseball league has hit a home run with its television and online ratings on the first day of the new season. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced Wednesday that the five Opening Day games from the previous day had an average rating of 1.47 percent on terrestrial and cable networks, up from 1.39 percent from last year's Opening Day. The 2020 season began belatedly Tuesday, after the original, March 28 start date was pushed back due to the coronavirus outbreak. With

The LG Twins defeated the defending champions Doosan Bears 8-2 to start the 2020 regular season in the Korea Baseball Organization on Tuesday, powered by the first home run of the season from their captain. Kim Hyun-soo blasted his fourth career Opening Day home run for the Twins at Jamsil Stadium and drove in three runs, as the Twins got the better of their Seoul rivals. Kim's was the KBO's very first long ball of the new season.  It was one of five games played across the nation, as

A South Korean baseball game was interrupted by a fire that broke out near a stadium in the southern part of the country on Tuesday. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) season opening game between the Kia Tigers and the Kiwoom Heroes was halted during the bottom of the fourth inning, when black smoke from a fire near Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju reached the ballpark. When it became too difficult to see, home plate umpire Jeon Il-soo suspended the game, with the Heroes ahead 4-0 wi

The scene was eerily quiet. If you were only trying to pick up some sound without seeing what was happening, you wouldn't have guessed that you were at a baseball game. Maybe you could still have heard a pin drop, but as LG Twins left-hander Cha Woo-chan was getting ready to deliver his first pitch of the 2020 Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) season Tuesday, the few people that were allowed at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul -- media, team officials and cheerleaders -- were waiting with bated breath.

With the global coronavirus pandemic having brought most of the sporting world to a halt, LG Twins manager Ryu Joong-il is grateful for the start of a new South Korean baseball season and also for an opportunity to get the brand out to the international audience. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) will become the second pro baseball league, after the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in Taiwan, to start a season. The Twins will host their Seoul rivals Doosan Bears at Jamsil Stadiu

The US sports cable giant ESPN will broadcast South Korean baseball games to its American audience, starting with the first day of the season on Tuesday. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced Monday that ESPN has struck a deal with Eclat, the Korean company with international distribution rights to KBO games. ESPN will air one game per day and six games per week, with an opening day game between the Samsung Lions and the NC Dinos leading things off. The game is set to begin at 2 p.m.

Starting this season, when umpires in South Korean baseball put on their headsets to connect with the league replay center, fans will be able to watch the same feed as officials in the video room. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced Monday that it will post replay clips in real time on its website, www.koreabaseball.com, starting with Opening Day on Tuesday. When managers challenge a call, the replay center reviews the play using feeds from about a dozen cameras from the broadcast

Of the many signs that life in South Korea is returning to normal amid the global coronavirus pandemic, the start of a new baseball season may be among the clearest. After all, if it is safe for grownups to take their bats and gloves and play a game for three hours, then it must be OK to engage in other activities, too. The 2020 Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) season will start Tuesday after being delayed from the original March 28 Opening Day due to the COVID-19 outbreak. As they prepare fo