The 2023 baseball regular season schedule is being disrupted by the unrelenting rain.
After a summer rainy season and a ‘secondary rainy season’, autumn rains are falling on the 13th. The Korea Meteorological Administration predicts that the rain will continue through the weekend.
The KBO secretariat’s struggle to prepare for the postseason is intensifying.
On Aug. 29, the KBO announced the remaining schedule of 116 games, including 50 unrescheduled games and 66 games canceled due to rain.
The goal was to finish the regular season on Oct. 10 and hold the wild-card deciding game on Oct. 12, two days later, the first gateway to “fall baseball.
However, on the day of the announcement, five games were canceled due to rain across the country, and seven more were not played.
KBO officials were perplexed as their carefully crafted schedule was threatened to be disrupted again.
“If even one game is canceled per day, the regular season schedule will be extended by one day,” the KBO explained. “As of the 12th, the regular season was scheduled to end on October 14 and the postseason on October 16, taking into account the later cancellations, but if it is canceled again due to rain on the 13th, the final game of the regular season will be moved to October 15 and the start of the postseason to October 17.”
If the rain continues through the weekend, the worst-case scenario is that the wild-card series might not begin until October 20. Winter baseball is a reality.
The KBO is considering alternatives, such as playing a doubleheader and playing the remaining games between teams eliminated from the postseason during “fall baseball.
In an effort to learn from this year’s scheduling difficulties, which have been described as “epic,” the KBO is set to finalize the outline of next year’s regular season schedule at its Executive Committee meeting on Nov. 19.
Based on public opinion in the baseball world, they are expected to discuss starting the regular season in the early 20s of March, more than a week earlier than this year, as well as organizing Monday games instead of doubleheaders, as some on-field leaders have argued.
As the third Premier12, organized by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), will be held from Nov. 10 to 24 next year, the postseason schedule must be completed by the end of October to allow for national team training. 안전놀이터