SALT LAKE CITY — As every sports league in the United States was suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic, baseball was going on in another part of the world.
In South Korea, professional baseball is being played.
On May 5, opening day of the Korea Baseball Organization was held, without fans. Interest in the 10-team league picked up in America, with ESPN broadcasting one game per day with English commentators Tuesday through Sunday and rebroadcasting the same game during the next afternoon. The broadcasts are also available on demand though WatchESPN. Some new fans in the U.S. woke up in the middle of the night — KBO games are held at 6:30 p.m. local time, which is 3:30 a.m. Mountain time — to watch their new favorite team live. Dan Kurtz, who runs the English-language KBO stats site mykbostats.com, saw his Twitter account explode with new interest from fans across the world as they watched live, regular-season baseball for the first time this year.
The KBO was founded in 1982, originally with six teams, but has since expanded to 10 franchises — the Doosan Bears, based in Seoul, the Hanwha Eagles, based in Daejeon, the Kia Tigers, based in Gwangju, the Kiwoom Heroes, based in Seoul, the KT Wiz, based in Suwon, the LG Twins, based in Seoul, the Lottle Giants, based in Busan, the NC Dinos, based in Changwon, the Samsung Lions, based in Daegu and the SK Wyverns, based in Incheon.
Historically, the Kia Tigers are the most successful franchise, having won 11 championships — the most recent in 2017, followed by the Samsung Lions with eight championships and the defending champion Doosan Bears with seven. Stadium capacities at the ballparks are midsize, with capacity ranging from 13,000 to 26,800.
“The fans were always great there, the city is wonderful. I had a blast there in Salt Lake.” — Former Salt Lake Bees pitcher and current NC Dinos pitcher Drew Rucinski
Each team usually plays 144 regular-season games — though that has been shortened this year. Games are nine innings long, but regular-season games that go past 12 innings are declared a tie and there is a universal designated hitter. The top five teams qualify for the playoffs, which gives a big advantage to the No. 1 regular season team. The playoffs are conducted using a step-ladder system where the No. 5 team plays the No. 4 team in the opening round. The No. 5 team must win two games in the series to advance, while the No. 4 team needs only to win once. The winner of the series faces the No. 3 team in a best-of-five-series and the winner of that series faces the No. 2 team in a best-of-five series. The playoffs cumulate with the winner of the semifinals series faces the No. 1 team in a best-of-seven series for the championship.
Each KBO team is allowed three foreign-born players on the active roster, which means there are 30 foreign-born players in the league. Three of those foreign-born players — pitcher Drew Rucinski, designated hitter Jose Fernandez and pitcher Drew Gagnon — played for the Salt Lake Bees.
Rucinski pitched for Salt Lake in 2015, going 5-7 with an ERA of 5.69 in 22 games and enjoyed his time in Utah.
“I loved Salt Lake. The city is awesome, the outdoors is crazy there. Any time I had a free day, I’d go fishing there. The fans were always great there, the city is wonderful. I had a blast there in Salt Lake,” Rucinski said in an interview via Zoom.
Rucinski pitched three games with the Los Angeles Angels in 2014, finishing with an ERA of 4.91 in 7.1 innings. He got called up to Anaheim again in 2016, where he pitched seven innings over four games with an ERA of 7.71. He found his way to the majors again in 2017 with Minnesota (4.1 innings, 10.38 ERA) before his last stint in the MLB with Miami, where he played his best major league baseball yet, going 4-2 with a 4.33 ERA over 35.1 innings pitched. He posted a career-high 27 strikeouts.
Following the 2018 season, Rucinski signed with the NC Dinos and started 30 games, finishing 9-9 with a 3.05 ERA in 177.1 innings pitched with 119 strikeouts. Rucinski was the Dinos’ No. 1 pitching option during their 73-69 season, one that saw them make the playoffs as the No. 5 seed but lose in the wild card round.
“As much as you want to prepare back home for living in another country, until you’re really there in it, it’s tough to know what you’re getting into. The language barrier is definitely tough sometimes, fortunately I have a couple great translators for me at the field all the time and they’re more than willing to help me off the field, too,” Rucinski said.
Once he and his wife, Sheridan, explored the city and found their favorite restaurants, South Korea started to feel like home. Rucinski feels more comfortable with the players on the team and with the country as a whole.
Rucinski landed in South Korea on March 7 this year for his second KBO season to an unusually quiet Seoul Airport. South Korea was in the midst of a COVID-19 outbreak. Rucinski described the airport as eerie, but he settled into Changwon.
“Once we got to our city, life was kind of normal for the most part. Masks were sort of common anyways, just now everyone had them on,” Rucinski said.
One difference between baseball in America and South Korea for Rucinski is that, before and after road games, players don’t hang around the clubhouse as much. The players are dressed in uniform before getting on the bus to go to the game and then leave right after the game for the hotel without changing.
Rucinski went through spring training in South Korea for almost three months with the start of the season in limbo.
“We weren’t real sure when things were really going to happen. We kept hearing maybe a tentative start date which kept getting pushed back. It was hard because as a starter, how many innings do you build up to (in spring training)? We would throw a couple innings once a week, once every 10 days,” Rucinski said.
Once the season start date was announced, the Dinos had just six preseason games before the regular season started.
On opening day 2020, Rucinski was tapped to be the starter for the first game played without fans. South Korea’s baseball atmosphere is normally rocking, with fans with thundersticks, chants and cheers going on the entire game.
It was a little bit eerie with no fans, but the Lions’ ballpark seemed to be pumping in some sort of crowd noise.
“No fans was weird here. They’re such a huge part of the game. The cheerleaders, the fans, they’re going nuts literally the whole game. Every hitter that walks up has a song that they play for them and a cheer,” Rucinski said. “The fans are such a big part and to not have them there is different. Hopefully we can get them back soon.”
Rucinski pitched six innings, striking out six, allowing just three hits and no runs with four walks, earning the win as the NC Dinos beat the Samsung Lions 4-0.
“I’m happy that I got six innings in, gave our team a chance to score some runs. I felt good at times, I felt a little wild at times — four walks isn’t my favorite — but that’s something that I’ll work to improve on,” Rucinski said. “It was a good first start. I didn’t do too crazy good where I can’t replicate it, but I didn’t too terrible where I’m really upset about it.”
Rucinski is on a six-day rotation, with five days of rest — one more than the regular rotation in the U.S. — which helps Rucinski with recovery.
Rucinski is happy to be playing meaningful baseball again.
“It’s great to finally be playing again. It’s so fun to get out there and compete against guys. Fans, no fans, it’s still a competitive spirit when you get out there on the mound. Guys enjoy it, that’s what we live to do,” Rucinski said.
Playing in the KBO can be good money, especially for foreign players. According to the KBO website, Rucinski earns a salary of $1,000,000, while Gagnon earns $650,000 and Fernandez earns $400,000.
Fernandez played for Salt Lake in 2018, playing 91 games and batting .333 with 19 doubles, 17 home runs and 59 RBIs. He spent 36 games in 2018 with the Los Angles Angels, batting .267 with eight hits, two home runs and 11 RBIs. Fernandez is in his second year in South Korea with the Doosan Bears. Last year, Fernandez hit .344 with 37 doubles, 16 home runs and 88 RBIs, leading the league in hits with 197 and finishing as one of the best batters in the league as Doosan swept Kiwoom in four games in the Korean Series to take the championship.
Through five games this season, Fernandez is batting .591 and has three doubles, a home run and four RBIs.
Gagnon spent 2017 with Salt Lake, pitching in 86.1 innings and 31 games with an ERA of 6.25 and 83 strikeouts. He made his MLB debut with the New York Mets in 2018 and finished the season 2-1 with a 5.25 ERA over 12 innings pitched. The following year, Gagnon went 3-1 with an 8.37 ERA over 23.2 innings. In 2020, he signed with the Kia Tigers. In his first start in the KBO, Gagnon was assigned the loss in a 5-0 defeat by the Samsung Lions. Gagnon surrendered three earned runs on five hits, while walking two and striking out five.
As you continue waiting for the MLB, which could start as soon as July, it’s worth checking out a KBO game — either live or on demand — to scratch your baseball itch.