The Korean Baseball Organization kicked off its 2020 season Tuesday, and, despite being broadcast in the middle of the night for anyone stateside, the games are already offering home runs, bat flips, and more!
The first pitch at one of the games was awfully memorable too and not just because there were no fans in the stands celebrating the start of the season, which was scheduled to begin March 28 but was delayed several weeks because of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Before KT Wiz’s game against the Lotte Giants on Tuesday, a young boy delivered a socially distanced first pitch from inside a large, clear balloon. The balloon itself also seemed to serve as the first-pitch ball because it was decorated like a baseball, and the boy, obviously, didn’t literally throw or hand the catcher anything. (They high-fived.)
Different, but certainly creative under the circumstances. Here’s how Reuters described it.
Lee Raon, a nine-year-old baseball fan, stood on the mound. But instead of throwing the ball, the boy, inside a giant clear balloon, walked towards the catcher in what was called a “socially distant first pitch” for South Korean club KT Wiz on Tuesday.
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