Baseball fans attend a Korea Baseball Organization preseason game between the Hanwha Eagles and the Samsung Lions at Daejeon Hanwha Life Ballpark in the central city of Daejeon, March 17, 2025. Yonhap
The preseason in South Korean baseball is set to start this week with the nation caught up in World Baseball Classic (WBC) fever.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) will begin its annual exhibition season at 1 p.m. Thursday with all 10 clubs in action. Teams will play 12 games apiece through March 24.
There will be no doubleheaders or extra innings, and rained-out games will not be rescheduled.
Many of the league's biggest stars are away in Miami, where the national team will play in the quarterfinals of the WBC on Saturday morning in South Korean time.
South Korea's first appearance in a knockout round at the WBC since 2009 is expected to make an already popular KBO even more so in the new season.
Last year, the KBO drew a record 321,763 fans in 42 preseason games, and the average of 7,661 fans was also a new preseason high.
The league then went on to establish a new regular-season attendance record with over 12.3 million fans, up from the previous mark of about 10.9 million from 2024.
The KBO said all the new rules will apply during the preseason. The pitch clock, for instance, has been cut by two seconds: pitchers now must deliver their pitches within 18 seconds with the bases empty, and 23 seconds with runners aboard.
The KBO instituted a ban on infield shifts two years ago and added a new wrinkle to it for this year. If a fielder in an illegal spot touches a ball in play, then the batting team can choose one from the following option: have the batter take first base, have a runner advance a base, or make the play on the field stand. The fielder in this case will be charged with an error.
Source: Korea Times News
