Korea plan to shut down three weeks during Olympics
olympicbaseball February 12th, 2008
For the 2008 Olympic Games, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) may shut down at least three weeks for Olympic Baseball Tournament, according to Korea Times.
Although 2008 Beijing Olympic baseball tournament is scheduled for 12 days, considering the time the players need for preparation and recovery, officials believe that teams would need at least a three-week’s break. Besides, to ease the complications in schedule, the KBO has opening day set for March 29, about a week earlier than normal.
However, before the three-week shutdown really happen, it depends on Korea winning a ticket to Beijing in the Olympic qualifiers next month in Taiwan. The 2008 Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament include eight-nation stakes the final three spots in the Olympic tournament, competitors include Mexico, Canada, Taiwan and Australia which is tough for Korea, as Germany, Spain and South Africa is relative easy opponents.
“It would be hard to expect a meaningful level of public interest during the Olympics anyway,” said Jeong Keum-jo, KBO’s chief manager of baseball operations.
“The number of players on the national baseball squad differs from team to team. It would not be fair to let the regular season commence during the Olympics when some teams would be greatly compromised by sending their players to Beijing,” he said.
By the way, KBO are also discussing lifting the current 12-inning limit on league games from this season, which would assure draws no longer appear next to the win-loss column.
“Owners are agreeing at large on draws and allowing teams to play out to the end for a win,” he said.
“The idea of limiting innings was to prevent the games from getting too long, but throughout the 26-year history of the league, only 10 games went beyond 15 innings,” he said.
“Lifting the innings limit will surely encourage coaches and players to play with an increased level of intensity in the extra innings, which would benefit the fans paying for the tickets.”
Since its launching in 1982, the Korean professional league had imposed 12-inning or 15-inning limits on games to prevent them from dragging too long. The Japanese baseball league currently has a 12-inning limit, while Major League Baseball (MLB) of the United States doesn’t have an inning limit.
The final decision need for approval in a KBO board meeting to be summoned next Monday.
