The KBO (Korea Baseball Organization) started on May 5th. As a baseball fan I am really excited to finally start watching baseball again. The champion of last year’s KBO league was the Doosan Bears.
One thing I realized about the team names is that there are some names that are the same as major league teams, such as the: Twins, Giants and Tigers. They obviously aren’t from Minnesota, San Francisco and Detroit, but it is cool that the teams have similar names.
There are also many former MLB players that now play in KBO such as Tyler Saladino and Aaron Altherr, just to name a few. There are also a lot of players that used to play in KBO that are in the MLB now. Some being Hyun-Jin Ryu, Eric Thames, Josh Lindblom.
The rules are pretty much the same. One thing I noticed was that they have huge bat flips. Players that have huge bat flips in the MLB usually get the pitcher upset, such as Tim Anderson’s bat flip off of Brad Keller. In the KBO the pitchers don’t get mad or upset, they just keep on pitching.
It also isn’t rare though to see a 3-4 hole hitter to bunt. I found that one surprising because they are supposed to be the big boppers in the lineup. The hitters also don’t try to do too much at the plate either. They just try to get hits and advance runners. The games are high scoring because the players drive in runs and aren’t home run or bust like some MLB players are.
The KBO has many talented players and it forms for a fun league to watch. It is fun to see home runs and web gems but every once in a while it is fun to see a pitcher dominate with his filthy breaking ball or hit after hit and see a pitcher get lit up on the scorecard.