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Before Dan Straily arrived in Korea six weeks ago, his new club, the Lotte Giants of the Korean Baseball Organization, sent the 31-yr-quondam correct-hander an information packet to assist him ameliorate acclimatize to his new workplace.
The packet, which covered things such as navigating the language barrier and conventions of Korean civilisation, also contained an unabridged subsection on bat flips, a veritable fine art form in the KBO.
"The Korean players, and (within) the Korean culture with baseball, they meet information technology every bit like the last function of your swing," Straily, an eight-twelvemonth MLB veteran who pounced on a guaranteed contract overseas following a dismal 2019 entrada with the Baltimore Orioles, said in a telephone interview final week. "And it is for the fans."
In the coming weeks, many American fans will get their start gustatory modality of the KBO's distinct flavor. With Major League Baseball on indefinite pause considering of the COVID-19 pandemic, ESPN reportedly reached an agreement to broadcast half-dozen KBO games per calendar week, with their coverage commencement Tuesday, the league's deferred Opening Day.
Straily was the Opening Day starter for the Giants, allowing ii runs, three hits and three walks in 5.ii innings. He left abaft ii-1 but Lotte came back to win 7-two over KT Wiz.
Like MLB, the KBO'south season was derailed past the coronavirus, which pushed the beginning of its campaign dorsum six weeks. But Korea's much lauded testing and containment strategies enabled the 10-team league to resume preseason play two weeks ago, albeit with numerous safety protocols, such as no fans allowed and no spitting, which volition remain in identify indefinitely. The league withal hopes to go far a full 144-game regular season.
The quality of play, needless to say, is well beneath that of Major League Baseball game. "The Koreans playing in Korea dream of going to the major leagues anytime," Straily says, and the league's scattering of deposed big leaguers, like himself, typically venture over to beat upwards on inferior competition for the purpose of revitalizing their major-league careers. Most recently, that strategy worked out for Brewers pitcher Josh Lindblom, Diamondbacks pitcher Merrill Kelly, and the Nationals' Eric Thames before them.
Still, it's the highest-quality baseball being played in the world correct now, and so long as MLB remains on hiatus, the KBO will accept center stage, effectively filling the baseball game void in North America'southward heart with its ain rules, aesthetics, and style of play.
"It's not the major leagues - and that'southward OK," Straily says. "Information technology's very adept baseball, just it's just dissimilar. The style of play is different. The way of what the hitters are trying to accomplish is different. ... Merely kind of everything about the game is a lilliputian different.
"Only over again, that's not a bad affair. It only is what it is."
So how, exactly, is it different?
Well, for starters, the KBO has several rules and structural elements that differ from Major League Baseball. Different MLB, the KBO uses a balanced schedule, with each of its teams playing the ix others 16 times. Each club is immune a maximum of three strange-born players. The league features a universal designated hitter. Regular-flavor games that remain deadlocked afterwards 12 innings are alleged a necktie. And, eventually, the league'south top five teams make the playoffs, with the acme squad receiving a adieu into the best-of-seven championship circular, the Korean Series.
The differing aesthetics between the two leagues, all the same, loom larger than the relatively pocket-sized discrepancies in the rules, and whatsoever such comparison has to start with bat flips. They really, really, really like to flip their bats in Korea. They flip their bats on homers. They flip their bats on foul assurance. Such insolence would warrant retribution in the big leagues. In Korea, however, the bat flip is, as Straily noted, indispensable, just the last motion in the swing's kinetic chain.
"There's going to exist times when guys bat-flip stuff when it's a popup, and that's simply part of the KBO," Straily says. "Obviously, if information technology happened in America, information technology'd exist very polarizing. You'd see a lot of guys run across it equally like, 'Oh, it's entertainment.' And then y'all'd have other people exist like, 'No, he's showing us upwardly.
"It's part of baseball game hither."
Korean baseball looks different in the field, as well. Sound fundamentals are paramount. Flashy plays are exceedingly rare.
"We never see anybody backhand a baseball," Straily adds. "Like, they try to make it front of everything."
Interactions betwixt the players and umpires, meanwhile, are both less frequent and less adversarial.
"When you jog out to the mound, you bow to the umpire," Straily says. "Information technology's a respect thing. There is no talking dorsum to the umpire. There is no questioning the umpire."
And, of grade, Korea uses the metric system, which, depending on how involved ESPN wants to go with its broadcasts, could confuse some viewers.
"Seeing everything in kilometers per hour, (that) might take a picayune chip of adjusting for some people," Straily says.
Baseball game doesn't but expect dissimilar in Korea, though. The tactics of play - which is to say, the fashion managers operate - differ, too. Despite the relatively cozy confines of KBO ballparks (and prior to 2019, at least, the league's hitter-friendly reputation), managers tend to play more small ball than their North American counterparts, placing a greater emphasis on bunting, stealing, and situational hitting.
"In the first inning, the three-hole hitter could be laying a bunt downwardly to squeeze in a run to go the lead," says Scott Richmond, the journeyman right-hander who spent parts of four seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays before signing the Lotte Giants alee of the 2013 campaign. "Sometimes, these former-school managers, their philosophy is (just), 'Win.' And yous tin't win if yous don't take the lead. And so they get the lead so they set upwardly their bullpen accordingly.
"Hitters in America would exist quite upset if you pay them a bunch of millions of dollars and they're going up at that place bunting, squeezing, and moving them over in the start inning," Richmond says. "Information technology's like, 'Hey, you're paying me to striking the ball. Let me see this guy and see what I can practice, (maybe) do some damage here.' So it's just different."
Indeed, the axis of small ball within the Korean game is undeniable: In 2016, the KBO held a bunt derby as part of its All-Star Game festivities.
In improver to their relative tactical heavy-handedness, managers besides tend to be far less forgiving in Korea. Poor play will earn players a mid-game benching, a maneuver seldom seem at the sport's top level.
"If a guy'southward having a bad game, they're not agape to pull him out of the game in the third inning and put the backup and accept him finish the game out because (the starter) struck out his kickoff two at-bats and fabricated an error," Richmond says.
Some may find the KBO's conventions charming. Others may non. Ultimately, though, it's loftier-quality baseball that's beingness televised, and that should exist a welcome sight for whatsoever fan irrespective of their opinion on bat flips or bunts.
"I remember people will find it very entertaining," Straily says. "I think people will exist happy just to take baseball game on Television set. Even though they won't know very many of the players. I recall fans are just going to take it for what information technology's worth and enjoy the game, bask the style. And it'south great exposure for the KBO. (It'll) show people that what's going on over hither is practiced, loftier-quality, fun baseball game."
Jonah Birenbaum is theScore's senior MLB writer. He steams a adept ham. You can notice him on Twitter @birenball.
Source: https://www.thescore.com/mlb/news/1972469