Seven thousand miles away, Kim Hun-Gon’s face smashed into the right-field wall at the Samsung Lions’ stadium in South Korea.
I smiled.
Competition!
Oh, I didn’t know how much I missed it. To see a grown man run head-first into a wall like Wile E. Coyote while trying to prevent an extra-base hit from former Korean Series MVP catcher Yang Eui-Ji was the most satisfying medicine since the spring weather showed up.
There’s a real novelty to watching a different culture play a game we’re so familiar with, but playing it with such a different style.
As we approach our eighth week sitting at home away from gyms, away from fields, away from ice and away from anywhere else that hosts competition, the Korean Baseball League found itself in the rare position as the center of the sporting universe on Tuesday morning.
At 1:30 a.m. ET, or 2:30 p.m. local time in South Korea, anyone with ESPN could’ve tuned in to watch the Samsun Lions against the NC Dinos in an opening day matchup.
I’ll admit, I had my guard up the first few innings while wondering if they were being safe about the coronavirus, but South Korea has things under control, with widespread testing and daily new cases in the single digits, and the players are being tested for their temperature before being allowed in the park.
You’ll see an elbow-bump instead of a high-five. There’s no spitting allowed. Players don’t jump on each other upon returning to the dugout after a home run (but they do first bump). And while the trainers, umpires and first- and third-base coaches wear masks, all the players go with their faces uncovered.
It looks safe enough, and hopefully it stays that way. The league has promised to shut down for three weeks if anyone tests positive.
The stadium was mostly empty. Fans were not allowed. But cheerleaders and drummers and mascots were.
There was fake crowd noise pumping through the stadium (you could hear it softly on the broadcast) and it changed based on the situation of the game (loud cheering for home runs).
The game itself, a 4-0 win for the Dinos, was entertaining and moved along quickly. It finished in 2 hours, 45 minutes (though it’s worth noting that another KBO game between the SK Wyverns and the Hanwha Eagles was over in 2 hours, 6 minutes, a league record).
You aren’t going to confuse the on-field product for Major League Baseball, but that’s OK. The KBO has its own thing going on.
The hitters came out swinging, and swinging hard. When they connected, it was a scene to watch. They have no problem admiring their work. There are bat flips.
Na Sung-Bum, a 30-year-old Scott Boras client who might be playing in America next year, stood still at home plate for a while after jacking a homer narrowly inside the right-field foul pole. A bit later, Mo Chang-min blasted another one. In one motion, he followed through his swing by launching the bat back toward the third-base line.
BAT FLIP ALERT pic.twitter.com/uqGOjBCgMD
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 5, 2020
The pitching was simple, nothing too intricate, and all the guys were around the zone consistently. Anything in the low-90s is fast for this league, and a few guys flashed that kind of heat in this game. There are some big, looping breaking balls from the Korean pitchers, and Wisconsin-born Drew Rucinski, a one-time Miami Marlin, had a much more traditional slider, a tight one, that was his signature pitch.
But for me, the defense was most fun to watch.
Not because it was fantastic — it was just OK, actually — but because that’s where you get a big inhale of competition.
Hun-Gon, the Lions right fielder, went flying into the wall chasing a fly ball (he missed it), Dinos left-fielder Lee Myung Ki had to fully extend for a leaping catch alongside the side-wall and the Dinos’ Park Sok-min looked like he was firing 100-mph fastballs from third base.
Meanwhile, Eui-ji showed off a major league release behind the plate as he gunned down an attempted steal of second.
These guys were emphatic. They played with personality (one of the Dinos was compared to Manny Ramirez by an informative guest on the broadcast, Daniel Kim). And without much background noise, you can hear the players collectively react to notable plays in real time.
Did we mention the bat flips?
The whole thing was easy to watch. And while it might not be something that holds your attention for 2 or 3 hours, it doesn’t need to. The mere fact that you can leave it on in the background (or, if you aren’t up at 1:30 a.m., record the game and throw it on in the evening) and hear the sounds of bat-on-ball contact, a catcher’s glove or cleats sliding into dirt — it all feels like a miracle.
And the broadcast is totally watchable.
Karl Ravech and Eduardo Perez called the game for ESPN from their homes while watching an official feed from the KBO, but they keep the conversation light, provide plenty of digestible information about the league and remain invested in every outcome throughout. The only hiccup was when they frequently interrupted each other, but let’s hope ESPN can fix the audio lag for the next broadcast.
If you’re up late or you have a recording device, give the Korean Baseball League a try. You might not want to, but once you see the green grass and the excitement of competition, it’s hard to turn it off.
ESPN will air six KBO games per week. Here's the schedule for this week! pic.twitter.com/QB0mb9srDZ
— Jared Diamond (@jareddiamond) May 4, 2020
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