Baseball Returns to Korea; is the US Next?

(image courtesy of ESPN Press Room)

After baseball returned to Taiwan on April 11th to little fanfare outside of the United States, I was shocked.  I thought for sure that the first major professional sport in the world resuming competitive play would be swallowed up by American networks that were starved for entertainment.  I even watched an entire episode of Sportscenter for the first time in maybe 15 years just to search for highlights.  The lack of coverage was a sign to me at the time that perhaps the appetite for sports was being dwarfed by growing concern and fear over the virus, and rightfully so.  It seemed like a distant fantasy that a region that is just across the sea from the original epicenter of the virus was playing baseball when our country (well, not the entire country - you stupid governors know who you are) was still in a lockdown and confirmed cases were growing more rapidly by the day.  

However, as one of the many things this virus has taught us, a lot can change in just a few weeks.  The Korean Baseball Organization began play last week and ESPN wasn't going to let a second opportunity pass by.  Broadcasts were immediately picked up by the network showing one live game every morning in the 10-team league, with ESPN's familiar faces giving the play-by-play remotely from their strategically manicured baseball-laden home offices.  I think the sudden enthusiasm for Korean baseball instead of Chinese baseball could be for a few reasons.  The KBO is viewed by scouts as comparable to a AA-level of competition, but still worlds ahead of China, so it is a better product to watch with a few familiar names from the states.  The Brewers have plucked former league MVPs Eric Thames and Josh Lindblom from the KBO in recent years, and former Brewers Tyler Saladino and Drew Gagnon now play in the league.  But as I eluded to in the last paragraph, I think the most important reason is the timing.  Think back to where we all were on April 11th.  Weather was still pretty terrible, unemployment was not yet at record levels, and people weren't walking around in masks.  Dr. Fauci was painting a challenging but optimistic picture on a daily basis.  There were a few summer events cancelled or postponed, but nothing alarming.  At that time Wisconsin's "safer-at-home" order was set to expire in a couple of weeks, and initial projections showed much of the country's death totals peaking around the end of April/early May.  The outlook was cautiously optimistic.  Fast forward to now and for a variety of factors I think it is pretty clear we are in this for the long haul.  As states aross the union start opening up their ecomomies, it provides relief but also a strong fear of the unknown reality in the post-covid world, and a major opportunity for the virus to continue spreading or return as idiots like my neighors have parties in the warm summer months.  This is really all a long way of me trying to say...I'm not expecting a return to normal life anytime soon, so if that means I have to watch Korean baseball on tape delay, then so be it.  ESPN conducted a recent survey that found 88% of sports fans will watch as much sports as they can on TV even if there is never one fan allowed in the stadium, and this is our reality now.

That brings us to today.  A third reason that the industry is all watching the KBO is that it is serving as a blueprint and "canary in the coal mine" to what Major League Baseball might look like this year.  MLB released a proposal yesterday that was crafted by the league and team owners and now moves to the MLBPA for approval.  Some of the highlights include an 82-game season starting 4th of July weekend, universal DH, geographical based scheduling with play in empty home ballparks, and an expanded playoff format.  That all sounds great on paper but there are two major things it does not address: player salaries and player safety.  I'm still optimistic that there will be some sort of season this year as it is in everybody's best interest to play, but I would be very surprised if this particular proposal is accepted, at least not without amendments.  Owners are arguing that they have already paid for months of player salaries when they were under no obligation to do so, but if I am a player and have no guarantee of salary and there is no plan in place for rapid testing, then it seems like a high risk/low reward situation for me.  Baseball is a unique sport in that it still makes the majority of its revenue from ticket sales, so with no fans, there is going to have to be a creative way to pay players during this season.  The elephant in the room is what would happen if a player does test positive?  I'm not sure what the Korean policy is, but I know the CPBL league has stated they would shut down immediately for a period of time if even so much as a greenskeeper tested positive.  

We all see baseball players as these unattainable figures that live in the clouds with their millions of dollars and should be able to deal with this situation for our amusement, but at the end of the day they are people too.  I think that this proposal is just step 1 of a long process to getting baseball back in our living rooms.  Until then, as long as I'm working from home I will be watching Korean bat flips every afternoon.