The South Korean baseball league decided Tuesday to postpone the start of the 2020 season even further to late April, with its hope of beginning in the middle of next month dashed by the coronavirus pandemic. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) said the new season will not begin before April 20, following a three hour-plus meeting with a board of governors, made up of 10 club presidents. The new regular season was slated to begin this Saturday, but the COVID-19 outbreak forced the KBO to de

Two South Korean baseball clubs halted their offseason training on Tuesday over coronavirus concerns. The Doosan Bears canceled their practice Tuesday after learning that a player had been in secondary contact with a coronavirus patient. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) team said a family member of the player had come in direct contact with the COVID-19 patient at work, and that relative is awaiting test results. In the meantime, all Doosan players have been asked to self-isolate at hom

Just a few weeks ago, when Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) clubs were wrapping up their spring training in places like the United States, Japan and Taiwan, their foreign players, most of them Americans, were rushing to return to their home country. South Korea was struggling to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, while the US appeared to be safe. But the tables have since turned, and those players are now on their way to South Korea. The COVID-19 outbreak forced the KBO to cancel i

A South Korean baseball club canceled its practice and closed its home stadium on Monday after a player reported a fever. The Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) said the unidentified player will be tested for the novel coronavirus later in the day, and the rest of the team will be self-isolated in their homes in the meantime. The Giants, based in Busan, 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul, came home from their spring training in Australia last Tuesday. They had three days of

The South Korean baseball league breathed a sigh of relief on Tuesday after an ill minor leaguer tested negative for the novel coronavirus. The Kiwoom Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) said the player, with their Futures League affiliate Goyang Heroes, will remain quarantined in his team dormitory for 14 days. Both Kiwoom and Goyang were forced to suspend all baseball activities on Monday, and will now resume training on Thursday. The player, who remained unidentified, had a fev

A South Korean minor league baseball player is awaiting the result of his test for the novel coronavirus after reporting to Monday's practice with a fever. The Kiwoom Heroes of the Korea Baseball Organization said Monday one player with their Futures League affiliate, Goyang Heroes, had a fever of 38.3 C when he was checked before entering the team's practice facility in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, just west of Seoul. The player, whose identity is being withheld, was immediately tested at a nea

The South Korean professional baseball league decided to push back the start of the regular season indefinitely on Tuesday, amid concerns over the spread of the novel coronavirus. Following a meeting with club presidents, the Korea Baseball Organization said the 2020 season will begin sometime in April, instead of March 28 as originally scheduled. It marks the first delay of the KBO regular season since the league's inception in 1982. The league said it had consulted with health experts befo

With a cloud of uncertainty hanging over the start of the professional baseball season in virus-hit South Korea, teams' foreign players will train in their home countries for the time being. The Korea Baseball Organization clubs have been scrambling to close their overseas training camps in the past week or so, with more and more countries applying travel restrictions on South Koreans following the COVID-19 outbreak. The Samsung Lions and the LG Twins have returned from Japan. The KT Wiz and

Toronto Blue Jays' Ryu Hyun-jin has completed his second start of spring training -- just not in an actual game. Instead of starting a proper Grapefruit League game, the South Korean left-hander pitched a simulated game against Blue Jays minor league hitters at TD Ballpark in Dunedin, Florida, on Wednesday (local time). His big league teammates were in Port Charlotte, about a two-hour drive south from Dunedin, to face the Tampa Bay Rays. Ryu threw 32 of his 50 pitches for strikes over 3 2/3

St. Louis Cardinals' new South Korean pitcher Kim Kwang-hyun will make his first spring training start this week. Currently training in Jupiter, Florida, the Cardinals announced Monday (local time) that the left-hander will start against the Miami Marlins in Wednesday's home game at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium. It'll be a split squad game for the Cardinals, whose other half will play the Houston Astros in West Palm Beach, south of Jupiter, also on Wednesday. Left-hander Genesis Cabrera will

JUPITER, United States -- The St. Louis Cardinals' new South Korean pitcher Kim Kwang-hyun threw a scoreless inning in his spring training debut on Saturday, giving himself a solid start in the competition for a place in the rotation. The left-hander struck out two and walked one in a hitless frame in relief against the New York Mets at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter, Florida. With the Cardinals ahead 1-0, Kim pitched the top of the fifth inning as the Cardinals' third pitcher of the

JUPITER -- South Korean pitcher Kim Kwang-hyun switched teams this offseason, from the SK Wyverns in his native country to the St. Louis Cardinals in the majors. But both teams use red and white as their main colors of their uniforms. And when Kim donned his Cardinals uniform for the first time in spring training Wednesday, it brought back memories in more ways than one. "I was in full uniform, all the way down to the cleats, for the team meeting before practice," Kim recounted his o

INCHEON -- Toronto Blue Jays' South Korean pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin left the country Sunday for his first spring training with his new club in a new state, confident in his ability to deliver the goods with a clean bill of health. After spending seven years with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Ryu signed a four-year, $80 million free agent deal with the Blue Jays in December. In 2019, Ryu, who led all of baseball with a 2.32 ERA, finished runner-up in the National League (NL) Cy Young Award voting. As a

South Korean pitcher Kim Kwang-hyun left for the United States on Friday for his first spring training with the St. Louis Cardinals, determined to win a spot in the starting rotation as a major league rookie. Kim signed a two-year deal worth $8 million with the Cardinals in December. He'd spent the previous 12 seasons with the SK Wyverns in the Korea Baseball Organization, putting together an All-Star career that included a regular season MVP award as a 20-year-old in 2008. Last year, Kim wen

South Korea stayed at No. 3 in the latest baseball's world rankings released Friday.The World Baseball Softball Confederation said South Korea will head into the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as world No. 3 with 4,622 points, behind Japan (6,127) and the United States (4,676). Chinese Taipei is in fourth with 4,352 points.The WBSC rankings measure national team performance -- from under-12 to professional -- in WBSC-sanctioned international competitions over a four-year period.At the most recent WBSC tou