Jeon Sang-hyun’s Bullpen Ironman Streak: 5 Straight KBO Seasons of 10+ Holds In American bullpens, we call it “setup man consistency” — the reliever who shows up every single year, bridges the seventh and eighth innings, and hands the ball to the closer with the lead intact. In the KBO League, that role is measured … Read more
Every summer, a handful of American pitchers who once stood on an MLB mound quietly pack their bags for South Korea. Most of them are chasing a second chance, a bigger role, or simply a starting rotation spot that no longer exists for them back home. Very few of them turn into the best story … Read more
The manager who beat Team USA is now taking a serious look at Korean baseball. Hideki Kuriyama, the architect of Japan’s unforgettable 2023 World Baseball Classic championship run, traveled to Seoul and walked into KBO headquarters — sitting down with the league’s commissioner, and separately with Korea’s national team leadership, to talk about what it … Read more
Every import pitcher who signs with a KBO League club arrives with a scouting report, a set of expectations, and almost no margin for a slow start. Fans in South Korea watch import arms with a specific kind of scrutiny, because a single foreign pitcher’s roster spot is worth more to a club than almost … Read more
American baseball fans understand exactly what it means when a hitter clears 30 home runs in a season — it’s the line that separates good power seasons from great ones, the number that gets a player’s name mentioned in MVP conversations and puts him on the radar of scouts half a world away. On July … Read more
An eight-year MLB veteran with 67 career home runs just hit one of the more meaningful long balls of his life — and it happened not in a big-league ballpark, but at a minor-league stadium in Ulsan, South Korea. On August 15, first baseman and designated hitter Choi Ji-man went 2-for-3 with 3 RBIs and … Read more
Baek In-chun, Korean Baseball’s Only .400 Hitter, Dies at 83 Baek In-chun, the only player in the history of South Korea’s professional baseball league to finish a season batting over .400, has died. He was 83. Baek passed away on August 15, 2026, at Dankook University Hospital in Cheonan, South Korea, where he had been … Read more
Choi Hyoung-woo Becomes First Player in KBO History to Reach 2,700 Career Hits On August 18, 2026, Samsung Lions veteran slugger Choi Hyoung-woo did something no player in the history of South Korea’s top professional baseball league has ever done. Facing the SSG Landers at Samsung Lions Park in Daegu, Choi hit a home run … Read more
Standing 6’8″ on a mound is unusual anywhere in professional baseball. Standing 6’8″ on a KBO League mound, as the very first player ever signed under a brand-new roster rule, is the kind of debut that gets remembered. On August 14, 2026, the LG Twins signed Australian left-handed pitcher John Kennedy for a total of … Read more
For a few weeks this summer, the KBO — South Korea’s top professional baseball league — was one front-office decision away from landing a pitcher with a real chance to help a major league staff. Instead, that pitcher, 29-year-old right-hander Troy Watson, stayed exactly where he was: inside the Detroit Tigers’ system, on a path … Read more