With the 2020 season over, we now look to the future and the offseason and free agency. Some of you may not be as interested as others in offseason moves. It can get boring at times with no MLB on TV right now. The WBC is canceled this year. “What do I do now?” However, you can cure that boredom, at least for now. The KBO “Playoff” is in it’s biggest, most exciting phase. Let’s take a look at Korean Baseball.
Humble beginnings
The KBO stands for the Korean Baseball Organization. The league was founded in 1982 in Korea, starting with only 6 franchises, and now has 10 teams. Korea is home to many major leaguers, the best one being Hyun JIn-Ryu, who has finished in the Cy Young Award top 3 in back to back years. Compared to all of the other leagues, the KBO is one of the newer leagues throughout the globe. The CPBL, the Chinese Professional Baseball League, was founded in 1989, the newest league yet. The KBO is built out of Korean born players or local to the area, and former Major League players who’s careers didn’t quite pan out. They are given a brand new second opportunity overseas. Some of those players being Addison Russell. Yes, Addison Russell. Aaron Brooks, Casey Kelley, Aaron Altherr, the list goes on. There are 10 teams in the KBO, the Doosan Bears. LG Twins, Kiwoom Heroes, NC Dinos, KIA Tigers, Lotte Giants, Hanwha Eagles, Samsung Lions, KT Wiz, SK Wyverns, and Hyundai Unicorns. Each team plays 144 games a year.
Now that you know a little bit about the KBO, let’s look at their playoff bracket.
It’s tiiiiiiiiimmmme for Korean Baseball! -Vin Scully
To be honest, I am actually kind of jealous of this bracket. It is so simple yet so rewarding. It rewards the higher seeds by letting them have byes each round. Let me explain. It all starts in a best of 3 series between the 5 and 4 seed. Whoever wins that series, moves into the “wildcard series”. Whoever won the previous series plays the 3 seed. Whoever wins that moves into the “semi winner” series. The winner of the previous series plays the 2 seed in a best of 5. The winner will play the 1, who has had the past like 2 weeks off, in a 7 game set in the “Playoff Winner” series. The winner takes home the trophy, or as Robert Manfred puts it, “just a piece of metal”. If we were to reword the KBO bracket, the first series would be the Wildcard, then the Divisional Series, followed by the Conference Series, then the greatest stage of all, the World Series. The game schedule for the “Playoff Winner”, wil be linked right here. KBO Playoff Schedule
So there you have it. Although the MLB regular season is over, up until the 15th of November, you can watch Korean Baseball. Tune in to watch players all over the world, from America, Korea, Japan, and other countries, compete for The KBO trophy.
