Televised baseball is back! A report from Jared Diamond of The Wall Street Journal yesterday indicated that U.S. baseball fans can watch KBO, the Korean Professional Baseball League, on the ESPN networks.
Jeff Passan had the full schedule for this week which is helpful for those of you who somehow managed to maintain a normal sleep schedule during quarantine and won’t be awake at 1 a.m. or 4 a.m. to watch live baseball.
For those afraid of missing KBO games because ESPN is airing them live, no need to worry. Our intrepid programming team tells me there will be multiple re-airs every day. Here is the full KBO schedule on ESPN for opening week.
About five hours until first pitch … pic.twitter.com/E3iEo3ssRb
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 4, 2020
Though it’ll be great in general to be able to watch pro baseball again, it always helps to have a rooting interest. With that in mind, I thought it would be helpful to read up on the 10 teams in KBO and compare them to MLB teams. Mind you, I have never watched a single inning of Korean baseball, and the extent I know about it comes from this amazing story by ESPN’s Mina Kimes. In addition to that story, here is a great primer you can check out. The coolest thing about KBO is that the players not only bat flip but celebrate it, as shown in this Passan tweet thread:
Nasty. Saucy. Disrespectful. Felonious. pic.twitter.com/q5vYjlCSmv
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) May 4, 2020
How revolutionary, actually letting the “kids” play. MLB could take some notes. Anyway…onto the team comparisons.
The Doosan Bears as…
…a more successful Los Angeles Dodgers. The Bears are known as an analytically forward organization and they had the MVP winner Josh Lindblom on their team last year. So far sounds a lot like the Dodgers and Cody Bellinger as MVP. They lost Lindblom, but still have 2018 MVP Jae-Hwan Kim…which is a lot like how the Dodgers have 2018 AL MVP Mookie Betts on their team. The difference is the Bears manage to win the whole damn thing, having won the Korean Series in 2015, 2016, and 2019. That is why they are what the Dodgers wish they could be.
The Hanwha Eagles as…
…the Miami Marlins with an actual fanbase. The Eagles have only one title in their history, which is similar to the Marlins who somehow have two titles. They are a new team having only joined KBO in 1986. According to ESPN, the Eagles are the worst team in the league. However, unlike the Marlins, the Eagles have great fans who stay the entire game. Granted no fans are allowed at the games right now, so it’ll really feel like an actual Marlins game.
The Kia Tigers as…
…the Boss era Yankees. The Tigers have the most Korean Series wins with 11, just like the New York Yankees and their 27. The Tigers won the Korean Series in 2017, but have not had much success since then. Just like the Boss would do, the Tigers brought in a famous manager in Matt Williams who used to manage the Washington Nationals. The Tigers may not be great this year, but they still have high expectations. The Tigers sound a lot like the Yankees before Brian Cashman was allowed to do his thing.
The Kiwoom Heroes as…
…the Houston Astros. The Heroes are projected as one of the top teams in the league, like Houston. More importantly, their owner was convicted for embezzlement and many fans are not pleased with that…which is different than the Astros banging scheme but bear with me here. We can’t boo the Astros until MLB is back, but until then, we can happily project our anger onto the Heroes who also have inept management.
The KT Wiz as…
…the Tampa Bay Rays. The Wiz are a young team that is not popular. Just like the Rays. Additionally, they have a hotshot young player, Baek-ho Kang who is expected to be the most famous player in the league soon. That is similar to consensus top prospect Wander Franco who could debut this year for the Rays. Plus, I couldn’t resist a joke about the lack of popularity for the team.
The LG Twins as…
…the New York Mets. It would be easy to compare these Twins to the ones from Minnesota, but really these Twins are more like the Mets because they have a knack for coming up short in the clutch. They also share a stadium with the Doosan Bears, which is similar to how the Yankees and Mets have an older sibling younger sibling type dynamic.
The Lotte Giants as…
…the early year Theo Epstein Chicago Cubs. The Giants actually hired a former Cubs front office guy as their GM and they are committed to being at the forefront of technology and analytics. More importantly, the Giants hired Sung-Min Kim, who used to blog about the Yankees amongst other MLB writing gigs. For that reason alone, the Giants are worth rooting for.
The NC Dinos as…
…the Minnesota Twins. They have a young team that hits a lot of home runs. Sound familiar? Somehow, the Twins set the MLB record for home runs last year with 307, and the Dinos are a good comparison. This is the team that had Eric Thames a few years ago. If the parallel works out fully, look for the Dinos to lose to the Yankees, aka the Tigers in the playoffs.
The Samsung Lions as…
…the San Francisco Giants. The Lions won the Korean Series every year from 2011-2014 but have not had success since which is like how the Giants won three World Series from 2010-2014 but haven’t had success since. The Giants are currently going through a rebuild and so are the Lions. Though they do have the most recognizable sponsor name in Samsung.
The SK Wyverns as…
…the Oakland A’s. The Wyverns are an analytically-driven team that has had recent playoff heartbreak. That reminds me of how the A’s have made the Wild Card game in 2018 and 2019 only to lose both times.
So there you have it. I’m so glad we have some professional baseball again and hopefully, this will tide us over until MLB is back. And because we all deserve it, here’s another compilation of bat flips set to dramatic music.
You can contact Rohan on Twitter @rohanarcot20
