The MLB World Tour: Seoul Series, known for sponsorship purposes as the MLB World Tour: Seoul Series presented by Coupang Play, is a series of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

(MLB) games played in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

. It is part of the MLB World Tour series of games played outside of the United States and Canada.

History

In July 2023,

(MLB) announced that the

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

and

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Division. ...

would open the 2024 season at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, playing the first regular-season MLB games in South Korea.

2024 edition

Prior to the regular-season games, the MLB teams played four

exhibition games An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the playe ...

against Korean teams, which were broadcast locally in the U.S. The Dodgers played the

Kiwoom Heroes The Kiwoom Heroes () are a South Korean professional baseball, professional baseball team based in Seoul. They are a member of the KBO League. The Heroes play their home games at Gocheok Sky Dome in Gocheok-dong, a neighborhood located in the sou ...

on March 16, at 8:00 p.m. PDT. On March 17, the Padres played Team Korea at 3:00 a.m. PDT and the KBO's

LG Twins The LG Twins () are a South Korean professional baseball team based in Seoul, South Korea. They are a member of the KBO League. The Twins play their home games at Jamsil Baseball Stadium, which they share with their rivals, the Doosan Bears. ...

at 8:00 p.m. PDT. The Dodgers played Team Korea on March 18 at 3:00 a.m. PDT. The Dodgers and Padres played two regular-season games on March 20–21, with each team designated as the "home team" once. The Dodgers won the first game, 5–2, and the Padres won the second, 15–11. The Seoul series was

Shohei Ohtani is a Japanese professional baseball designated hitter and pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball (MLB). Nicknamed "Shotime", he has previously played in MLB for the Los Angeles Angels and in Nippon Professional Basebal ...

's regular-season debut with the Dodgers; the team signed him to a long-term contract during the 2023–24 offseason. Ohtani was accompanied by his wife, Mamiko Tanaka; the Seoul series was the first time Ohtani and Tanaka appeared in public together, after the couple married during the preceding month. Local police reported that a person sent a

bomb threat A bomb threat or bomb scare is a threat, usually verbal or written, to detonate an explosive or incendiary device to cause property damage, death, injuries, and/or incite fear, whether or not such a device actually exists. History Bomb threats ...

by email, threatening to harm Ohtani and other players at the first game. Police found no dangerous or suspicious activity at the stadium, and both games went on as planned. The games celebrated Asian players past and present in MLB. Ha-seong Kim, a shortstop for the Padres who formerly played in the Sky Dome for the Kiwoom Heroes of the

Korea Baseball Organization The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO; ) is the Sport governing body, governing body for the professional leagues of baseball in South Korea. The KBO was founded in 1981 and has governed two leagues: the KBO League () and KBO Futures League ( (F ...

(KBO), received the loudest cheers of any player.

Chan Ho Park Chan Ho Park (; ; born June 30, 1973) is a South Korean former professional baseball pitcher. Park was the first South Korean-born player in MLB history, and the first South Korean player to be named an MLB All-Star. He played for the Los A ...

, a former Dodgers pitcher who is the first Korean person to play in MLB, threw the

ceremonial first pitch The ceremonial first pitch is a longstanding ritual of baseball in which a guest of honor throws a ball to mark the end of pregame festivities and the start of the game. Originally, the guest threw a ball from their seat in the grandstand to ...

. Ohtani attracted many fans to the game.

Yu Darvish , more commonly known as Yu Darvish (ダルビッシュ有), is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Texas Rangers (baseball), Texas Rangers, Lo ...

, a Japanese pitcher for the Padres, received a loud ovation after an inning-ending strikeout.

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

and

ESPN Deportes ESPN Deportes (, ) is an American multinational Spanish-language pay television sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the ...

broadcast both games, with coverage beginning at 5:30 a.m.

Eastern Daylight Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behin ...

(EDT), or 2:30 a.m.

Pacific Daylight Time The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00). ...

(PDT). ESPN's nationwide U.S. coverage was blacked out in the Los Angeles and San Diego media markets.

SportsNet LA Spectrum SportsNet LA and Spectrum Deportes LA (otherwise known as simply SportsNet LA and Deportes LA and originally known as Time Warner Cable SportsNet LA) is an American regional sports network jointly owned by the controlling owner of the ...

and Padres.TV produced broadcasts for the teams' home markets.

References

External links

* {{ESPN Major League Baseball International baseball competitions hosted by South Korea

March 2024 sports events in South Korea Sports competitions in Seoul Baseball in Seoul Los Angeles Dodgers San Diego Padres Kiwoom Heroes LG Twins Guro District, Seoul

History

2024 edition

See also

References

External links