Major League Baseball is canceling the 2022 Korea Series that had been scheduled for next month, reports Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News (Twitter link). The league cited a contractual issue with a local promoter as the reason for the cancelation, Yoo notes.
In late August, MLB and the Players Association announced the creation of the Korea Series. The event would’ve pitted some major league players against players from the Korea Baseball Organization in a four-game exhibition, with two contests scheduled apiece in Busan and Seoul. Earlier this week, Michael Clair of MLB.com listed a number of players who’d been set to participate — including Randy Arozarena, Steven Kwan, Salvador Perez, former KBO slugger Darin Ruf and South Korea natives Ha-Seong Kim, Ji-Man Choi and Hoy Park.
MLB noted at the time of its announcement that it would be the first time players from MLB traveled to play games in Korea since 1922. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and KBO commissioner Koo-youn Heo have also previously discussed the possibility of playing some KBO games in the United States and MLB games in South Korea down the line.
There’s no indication the cancelation of the upcoming event has any bearing on longer-term plans, although it’ll still come as a notable disappointment to a number of fans inside South Korea. The event was set to kick off in just over two weeks time, with the first game scheduled for November 11.
The Korea Series had been part of a broader “World Tour” arrangement. Established as part of the most recent collective bargaining agreement, the program is set to play as many 24 regular season contests and 16 exhibition games throughout Latin America, Asia and Europe between 2022-26.
MLB once again doing all they can to not grow the game.
Is there any evidence this is MLB’s fault?
Reminds me of White Sox cancelling sox fest. You hear a lot of talk about how “baseball needs to grow” and catch up with football but then you see this, this is just the opposite. Not helping the cause.
Sox fans were too busy trolling the Cubs Convention than going to Sox fest, hence why it was canceled
As a player, I would not be interested in going to South Korea considering the security issues.
Four games cancelled in South Korea….so what!
Shut your face. No one cares about your insecurities.
“Shut your face”? Wow. I haven’t heard that since the last time I heard “Keep your shirt on”.
So there went my chance to watch mlb players since they came to Japan in 15
What are the security issues in South Korea?
its northern neighbor
You know the little dictator called ROCKETMAN
@jdgoat It is expected that China invades Taiwan.
South Korea is one of the safest countries in the world.
Right, but within a matter of seconds it can quickly become the least safest country in the world.
Hypersonic missiles can hit any spot in the world within 15 mins. Technically we shouldn’t feel “safe” ANYWHERE if we wanna go that route…
If you don’t have the technology to shoot down the missiles then yes there really is no safe place except in countries that have that technology
Yeah, we got intercepters at Vandenberg and Alaska sure…But they have ALWAYS had no more than a 40-50% intercept rate under the most controlled conditions. That is us shooting down ONE…Not hundreds at once with multiple decoys….Then again, we have much more advanced things to pull out before that. It will never happen anyway because everyone knows the US has other offensive and defensive measures that supersede nukes that very few even know about (experimental and space based weaponry).
everyone knows the US has other offensive and defensive measures that supersede nukes that very few even know about
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Often, your best defensive weapon is secrecy. It is the unknown that others fear. Like them or not, Reagan and Trump were successful because our adversaries could not count on them doing what our adversaries would consider the nest “logical ,move”.
My guess is that the US knows how to shut down the entire grid in China and Russia, and maybe even know how to turn off all their electricity
As could the U.S., what’s your point?
It’s not NKorea.
Cities in South Korea are as safe or safer than any city in America.
Excuse me? Have you even been there? What security concerns? Seoul and Busan are both safer than practically every major US city.
Do you really think those 4 games will grow the game? MLB’s biggest problem is growing the game in THIS country.. Baseball is supposed to be America’s national pastime and right now it is clearly third and possibly falling even further in the near future as more young people latch onto soccer.
Makes even more sense to grow the game outside of the States then. In Europe we are getting bored with soccer.
Depends on the pitching, but with Arenado, Trout and the likes of them the USA will have no rival on the hitting side.
Reply fail lol
As a fan “growing the game” has zero impact on me. It simply a way to increase revenue streams, which is absolutely fine. MLB could fall behind MLS in revenue and it would still be MLB regardless if it’s “America’s Pastime” or not.
Just out of curiosity, do you know anything, or just making schitt up?
No, they’re ‘growing’ the game by handing out extra wildcards. Pathetic.
Bummer… I was looking forward to those games.
I suppose I could understand a delay if it really is a contractual issue but a full on cancellation seems heavy.
Too bad. I suspect it will still happen, but not this year.
The promoter probably held exclusive rights, but realized at the last minute that it wasn’t profitable as structured. Maybe they were expecting a subsidy from MLB that didn’t materialize. If it was a money-maker, it would have happened.
Whonose is correct. Even if safety was an issue if they could’ve found a way to make a boat load of money it would’ve happened
NOOOO I WAS SO HYPED FOR IT! DOGGONE IT MLB!!
I wasn’t looking forward to it because I didn’t know about it. I am looking forward to the WBC, though I don’t know how well the USA will do compared to teams from the DR, Mexico, etc.
I really like the Korean names. Fun to say!!!!!!
Does KBO, Japan, Mexico, allow 2nd place teams to compete for the championship?
Japan has 12 teams 6 make the playoffs every year. So yes they allow 2nd and 3rd place teams in.
So, Japan baseball sucks too?
Nope, not at all.
So, Japan baseball sucks too?
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So, Dodger fans still whining about the Padres kicking their butts?
In the postseason they had no business being in after LOSING every series to LA along the way to finish 20+ games back? Yeah, exactly that.
Also, I refute the notion that being Dodger fan makes me, individually, delusional. All teams have delusional fans, so there’s that. I also argue that those teams are perennial losers or WC contenders, thus adding to their fans delusions that their team belongs in the postseason after failing to secure a top seed birth.
I didn’t even stand up when we won it all in Arlington. And it was the part of me that knew all of the hate was coming that subdued my reaction.
Why?
Because the COVID trophy deniers are the exact same people roasting us right now for this loss. The top argument being October baseball is just different, work your lineup different, whatever.
Okay, the entire 2020 season was just…….different. Everyone played 60 games, more teams got to the postseason, we still won. I’ll accept the asterisk.
It’s a pity, we would have seen Dae-Ho Lee play one more time had it not been cancelled. Maybe even Seung-Hwan Oh, Hyun-Soo Kim, Kwang-Hyun Kim and more.
Bor Derfnam is a PITA and he’s LAF for this.
They’ll probably play in the WBC
Raymond: How did you hurt this?
George: I don’t know.
Raymond: You don’t know?
George: No.
Raymond: But you just told me–
George: Korea.
Raymond: You hurt it in Korea?
George: What?
Raymond: The hamstring.
George: Korea.
Raymond: How?
George: Hamstring.
I think it moved…
It was imperceptible, but I think it moved
I know this is all about “growing the sport” but I am not a fan of these boondoggles. The playing MLB games in England is nauseating. However, playing in places like Puerto Rico that are hotbeds for baseball talent is a fine idea. As long as it helps them economically.
MLB cancelled M.A.S.H.? Great show.
This is a bummer. I was stationed out in South korea and it was probably my favorite country outside of the USA. The locals are super friendly …they love American culture and they know how to have a good time.
Shame I hope mlb reschedules
The locals are super friendly …they love American culture and they know how to have a good time.
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I had short assignments in the UK, Singapore, and Japan, and the same was true in all three places.
Major League Baseball thought they were going to make a killing off this. Money isn’t going to be what they thought and MLB opted out or took them selves out for breach of contract. It’s all about the money. To all the nonthinkers out there no I do not have inside information. It’s all about the bottom line. Or the players can’t be bothered. That’s possible too.
You could’ve just said “my ego tells me that I know everything”.
Their username already tells you that though
Millennials lol.I read comments and I quickly realized I have nothing to worry about on this site.
You continue to live in that little world you created. Worries are not a part of it.
Lol.
To all the nonthinkers out there no I do not have inside information.
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This is a good step forward. We’ve had an infestation of people coming in here, opining on Cashman telling Boone exactly what to do, the Minny coaches giving their players bad exercise advice, etc.
You know, stuff that they know exactly -0- about. It’s nice to have someone come in, make up schitt, and then acknowledge that they made it up. That saves me the trouble of making fun of them.
So you’re dumb. Good to know.
Instead of saying something as dumb as that why don’t you try putting some thought into what happened.
Formula One, Soccer, they should have known better about Korea.
If the MLB players mentioned in this article were the biggest stars going to South Korea for these games, then I understand why the Korean promoters would pull out. No big stars no butts in the seats.
This was on CNN yesterday:”
South Korean and US officials have been warning since May that North Korea may be preparing for a seventh nuclear test – its first since 2017 – with satellite imagery showing activity at its underground nuclear test site.”
The fact that the archaic broadcast package means anyone who doesn’t have an old fashioned cable TV subscription cannot watch the playoffs tells you everything you need to know about why baseball’s popularity is tailing off. I can pay for a package to watch every regular season game, but how dare I want to watch the playoffs.
And their IS the in-season black-out policy too… MLB TV blows.
*there
I rent out my place in Thailand to a couple Koreans from time to time and CCTV has twice captured them defecating in the street.
Did you fap?