Lead
The South Korean professional baseball league canceled all remaining games scheduled for this week on Thursday due to the ongoing heat wave, with the season set to resume early next week, according to Yonhap News Agency.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) made the decision following an emergency executive board meeting attended by the general managers of all 10 clubs, along with representatives from the players' association. The league had already canceled all 10 games set for Wednesday and Thursday, and the status of the weekend series had been in doubt ahead of the meeting.
After about two hours of discussions, the league announced that no games would be played for the rest of the week and that the regular season would resume next Tuesday.
Coverage Comparison
Yonhap News Agency's English-language service, the sole outlet whose coverage was reviewed for this article, reported the cancellations as a proactive safety measure. The reports emphasized the league's priority on the well-being of fans and players, noting that the decision followed an emergency meeting involving club executives and player representatives.
Both articles from Yonhap carried the same core facts: the cancellation of all remaining week's games, the resumption next Tuesday, the shift of weekday and weekend start times to 7 p.m., and the introduction of cooling breaks. One article included additional details about the emergency meeting, including a comment attributed to KBO Secretary General Park Keun-chan.
Key Claims
According to Yonhap, all weekday and weekend games will now begin at 7 p.m. until further notice. Weekday games typically start at 6:30 p.m., while weekend and holiday games have been starting at 6 p.m. during the summer. The KBO made an exception for games at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, the league's only domed venue, where Saturday games will start at 6 p.m. as usual, and Sunday games may begin at 2 p.m. depending on the TV broadcasting schedule.
The league will also introduce a cooling break after the third and seventh innings, and a brief intermission after the ninth inning if a game goes into extra innings. During these breaks, teams will be given four minutes instead of the usual two, Yonhap reported.
The decision came after 25 fans were treated for symptoms of heat-related illnesses at a game in Incheon, and one male fan fell unconscious and was taken to a nearby hospital after receiving CPR, according to the reports.
Park Keun-chan, secretary general of the KBO, said that the majority of participants in the emergency meeting agreed that the priority is the safety of fans and players, not the remaining schedule.
The KBO will consider canceling games in cities not under the highest-level heat wave warning, with a decision to be made up to three hours before the first pitch, Yonhap reported. The number of games wiped out by heat this summer has reached 30.
Earlier, the KBO had canceled three games in the southeastern region over the weekend and two more in Seoul and Gwangju, the two cities placed under the serious heat wave warning, on Tuesday. Three other games set for Tuesday proceeded as scheduled, including one in Incheon, where the heat-related fan incidents occurred.