KOREA FILLING MLB VOID
Real, live pro baseball has started in that country with no fans or high-fives
People who qualify to use a cart may share the golf cart with a member of their household. Also, the carts should be disinfected between rounds and uses.
Sheriff’s officials said they issued the clarification after consultation with the County Public Health Officer.
Still banned in the county is tennis, although that could change soon.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday the state is ready to move into the second phase of its reopening plan by the end of the week even while efforts continue to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Wilma Wooten, San Diego County’s public health officer, said Tuesday officials “will explore including” tennis in the plan the county must submit to the state for Stage 2.
“Counties and cities will have the capability to open up further if we meet or submit a plan and (it) would be approved by the state,” Wooten said. “... Usually two people just playing (tennis), that seems reasonable, but at this point they are not included (among permitted activities) but we will explore including them in Stage 2.”
According to the website tennisleague.com, there are approximately 50 tennis clubs throughout the county.
SEOUL
Former U.S. major league player Kim Hyun-soo sent the ball cracking over the left-field fence, marking the first home run of the longawaited season of South Korea’s beloved baseball league.
But instead of basking in thunderous applause and hollers from adoring fans, Kim loped across home plate to a smattering of claps from a few dozen reporters and league employees. After scoring two runs for his Seoul-based LG Twins, Kim approached a teammate who waited with his arms up, but caught himself at the last second, narrowly avoiding a high-five — banned by the league as a coronavirus precaution. He bumped elbows with another teammate.
Most of the stadium’s 25,553 seats — a tough get in a normal year for a game between the Twins and archrival Doosan Bears — were
Upcoming ESPN games
Thursday: Doosan Bears vs. LG Twins, 2:30 a.m.
Friday: KIA Tigers vs. Samsung Lions, 2:30 a.m.
LG Twins vs. NC Dinos, 1
Saturday: a.m.
Saturday: 10 p.m.
LG Twins vs. NC Dinos.
empty.
Baseball returned to South Korea under drizzly and overcast skies Tuesday, a rare professional sporting league to resume games while much of the world remains under lockdown with no end in sight to the COVID-19 pandemic. The fivegame opening day showed Korea testing the waters for a cautious return to normalcy on a day the country reported just three new cases of the coronavirus, a sign that the virus’ community spread has largely been halted.
With ESPN reaching an 11thhour deal to broadcast Korea Baseball Organization games, a host of
U.S. fans starved for live sports were turning to the Korean league, with its distinct culture and avid fandom. Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League, which started up April 11, has also gained a following among Americans watching online.
“Major League Baseball teams (in the U.S.) are more corporate, a little more sterile, not as passionate. The KBO feels like a college football game,” said Dan Kurtz, a longtime fan behind the site Mykbo.net. Kurtz said he was being inundated with messages from sports-deprived Americans in the lead-up to the season. “The KBO is going to fill that void, and that’s awesome.”
The 144-game season, originally set to begin in late March, was pushed back a few times before getting underway with a number of precautions. A 44-page manual distributed to the league’s 10 teams outlined detailed protocols — including bans on high-fives and spitting, and the minimizing of player contact with the general public. All games will initially be conducted without spectators; the league has said it will consider phasing in a limited of number of fans at a later date.
On the field in Seoul’s Jamsil Baseball Stadium on Tuesday, umpires and base coaches wore masks and gloves. The mascot for the home-team Twins — twin robot boys named Lucky and Star — also wore masks, as did the team’s cheerleaders and a drum squad that did its best to make up for the absence of fans. When they fell silent, an uncanny hush blanketed the stadium, interrupted only by the whiz of nearby traffic and the satisfying thwack of hits.
The quiet was especially odd in a stadium typically filled with songs and chants customized to each hitter and situation and boisterously belted out by fervent fans throughout the game.
“Without them, it’s a totally different animal,” said Twins pitcher Tyler Wilson, formerly of the Baltimore Orioles, who has been playing in South Korea since 2018. “Their energy and their passion and how into it they are, from the first pitch to the end, is what makes the games so special.”
Wilson, who didn’t play in Tuesday’s opening game, said that during this year’s preseason games, it
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