ESPN’s 2020 Korean Baseball League announcers relive pandemic memories
It was four years ago, but it feels like a lifetime ago.
It was the time of the coronavirus pandemic, a period that changed our lives forever.
We were introduced to Zoom. We discovered that office space was no longer a necessity but a luxury. We reexamined our priorities. We took time to appreciate the beauty of the outdoors.
We also were reminded how much sports means to all of us.
When Karl Ravech and Eduardo Perez step into the Gocheok Sky Dome in
Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday (6 a.m. EDT, ESPN) for the first time to broadcast the 2024 season opener between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, the sheer and raw emotions of their 2020 experience could completely overwhelm them.
“I’m sure walking into the stadium, seeing some of the same faces, the cheerleaders at the ballpark,” Ravech tells USA TODAY Sports, “it’s going to hit us. I think there will be an emotional reaction coming here and remembering just what transpired.
“It wasn’t an enjoyable time. There were people desperately looking for food, Kleenex, toilet paper. It was tragic.
You’re wondering, when does this end. Will the pandemic ever end?”
Says Perez, on a Facetime call from his hotel room in Seoul: “Just being here, remembering what happened then, it’s just so surreal.”
Ravech and Perez were the ones who brought baseball back into our homes beginning May 5, 2020, after being without MLB games in April for the first time since 1883. Televising games from the Korean Baseball League (KBO) was the brainstorm of Phil Orlins, ESPN vice president of production, and MLB producer Andy Jacobson.
Sure, no one ever heard of the teams from the KBO. No one knew any of the Korean players.
They weren’t in anyone’s fantasy leagues.
But hey, the mound was still 60 feet, 6 inches from home plate. The bases were 90 feet apart. And, no matter that it was being played halfway across the world, it was still baseball.
“It was an amazing time with no live sports out there,” Orlins said. “So, it literally was like, ‘Let’s figure out a way to bring live sports to a place, ESPN, that is built around live sports.’ And from there, it really became a question of how do we make this reasonably entertaining and how do we approach it from like a talk radio or podcast aspect to it.”
It took Perez and Ravech a while just to wrap their heads around the idea of trying to broadcast games when they’re more than 7,000 miles away from the action.
“I remember Phil called me and told me and said we’re going to do the KBO,” Perez says.
“I told him, ‘Phil, there’s a two-week quarantine over here. I’ve got to take my family there. They’ve got to come with me.’ ”
Orlins quickly interjected. He and Ravech weren’t going anywhere. They would install video equipment at their homes. They would watch the KBO on TV screens in their house, and they would broadcast the games as if they were there.
They were required to get up at 3:30 in the morning, set up the equipment, and then go on the air at 5:30, three days a week.
Ravech did the entire season from his Bristol, Connecticut, bedroom, with his wife, Christine, who was still asleep, but still got up to make sure Ravech stayed alert with fresh cups of coffee.
Perez did the games from his Miami garage where he had just built a studio, with his dog, Mickey, by his side.
“I’ll be honest,” Ravech says, “I never thought there would be something like COVID. I never thought we’d be broadcasting baseball games from our houses. I never thought we’d be broadcasting games from Korea. It was crazy.”
Still, they had fun and were entertaining, bringing on special guests from Perez’s high school geography teacher to the cheerleaders at the games. And, oh, did they ever learn to improvise.
It was the first week of games when the original scheduled game was rained out, forcing Ravech and Perez to scramble, knowing they knew nothing about the teams they were about to cover.
“We didn’t know the two teams we were doing let along the two teams we haven’t studied,” Ravech says. “So, I found the teams on the internet, printed out the rosters, walk back from the headphone, and hear Eduardo welcoming KBO from ESPN.
“I didn’t know if he was rehearing or was live. I missed the welcome. I thought the game started at 5:30, not 5:25. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, you can’t make this stuff up.”
The MLB season, shut down in spring training on March 12, finally started four months later on July 23 with a condensed 60-game regular-season schedule. Even with baseball back, Perez and Ravech lobbied to broadcast the Korean Series in November, volunteering to travel to Korea to do the games in person.
The travel proposal was nixed, but when ESPN got the rights to televise 2024’s opening two-game series in South Korea, it was an easy decision on who to send: Ravech and Perez.
Four years later, they are broadcasting games played in South Korea, only this time in person and of major league games that count in the regular season.
“It was 100% therapeutic to do those games,” Perez says. “We had a purpose in getting up. As hard as COVID was for the entire country, I was blessed to do this, bringing baseball into households.
“Korea kept me sane; it kept me going.”
Ravech is clinging onto the first home life equipment kit ESPN ever used for the remote telecasts. It remains in his office: HLE kit, 0001.
“I don’t want to ever give it back,” Ravech says. “I’m hanging onto it. Maybe one day it’ll be in someone’s museum.”
Together, Ravech and Perez will reunite with Daniel Kim, ESPN’s KBO analyst, cheerleaders from the KBO games, mascots and a female disc jockey who wrote songs for their broadcasts.
“Having Daniel Kim in Korea, he not only gave us instant credibility,” Ravech says, “but he introduced us to so many people in South Korea. They were so open to letting us introduce themselves into our own world and a different side of Seoul.”
It was never about the ratings, Orlins and Jacobson said. It was never about trying to make the KBO players into household names. It was simply a form of entertainment, allowing everyone a momentary reprieve from the cruelty of the pandemic.
“It was a crazy time, we knew the fan base was craving live sports, just something to follow,” Jacobson says. “We attacked those sports shows almost like we’re doing a spring training game. The game is there as a backdrop, and we certainly didn’t expect viewers to all of a sudden know the players and just publicly become consumed by it.
“The goal was to watch some baseball over a cup of coffee at whatever time in the morning that was and just enjoy some sense of normalcy again.” It worked.
Sure, it wasn’t like you were listening to St. Louis Cardinals announcer Jack Buck on summer evenings on KMOX, or Vin Scully on Dodgers games throughout Southern California, but during all of the fear, anxiety and heartbreak of the pandemic, it was soothing.
“Baseball is not just a sport; baseball is part of the fabric of people’s lives,” Ravech says. “It’s such a routine during the summer. Even though you’re not always paying close attention, you want to hear the sound, the voices, night after night. It’s reassuring. All of that was taken away.”
The Korean Baseball games on ESPN at least dulled the pain, brought some enjoyment, and everyone who got up early can say they saw Padres shortstop Ha-Seong Kim play before becoming a star in San Diego, along with a first look at new San Francisco Giants outfielder Jung Hoo Lee.
“We have such immense amount of gratitude to everyone there,” Ravech says. “They brought joy into our lives. Now, four years later, we get to thank them in person. It’s going to be special.”