A major league (MLB) game will be held in Korea? The possibility of the 2024 season opener between the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers has been raised.
Local media in the United States reported on the 8th (Korean time), “There is a possibility that San Diego and the Dodgers will have an opening match in Korea in 2024.” The Major League Baseball is leaving its hometown and holding games in order to globalize baseball.
Overseas opening games were held seven times: Monterrey, Mexico (1999), Tokyo, Japan (2000, 2004, 2008, 12, 19) and Sydney, Australia (14). In 2019, the MLB World Tour of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox was held in London, England.
MLB resumed overseas games this year after the corona pandemic subsided. San Diego, which has many Latino players, played two consecutive games against the San Francisco Giants in Mexico City. Next month, the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs play in London.
ESPN even mentioned a specific schedule, saying, “San Diego and the Dodgers will play an opening game in Korea before the other 28 teams start the season.” It is a measure that takes into consideration the distance between Korea and the United States.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) and MLB continue to cooperate closely. In particular, after President Huh Gu-yeon took office, he personally토토사이트visited Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco to meet the team’s top managers. At this meeting, they discussed holding the opening game of the KBO League in California, USA in March next year. The KBO also met with MLB officials in Arizona, where the WBC camp was held this year.
San Diego and the Dodgers are very familiar clubs to Korean fans. For the Dodgers, the first Korean major leaguer, Park Chan-ho, played an active role, as well as Choi Hee-seop and Seo Jae-eung. In 2013, Ryu Hyun-jin (now Toronto Blue Jays) joined the team and played an active role until 2019. In San Diego, Kim Ha-seong is active as the main player.
Unlike the Korea-US All-Star Game, which was canceled last year, the reality is high. At the time, the All-Star Game was canceled right before the opening due to the issue of the amount of money while a domestic agency was discussing with the MLB secretariat. However, for the opening game in 2024, MLB and KBO had a direct conversation. Even in the MLB overseas game schedule released by The Athletic last year, it was planned to play the opening game in Asia, Mexico in May, and London in June in 2024. It plans to expand to Paris, France by 2025.