MLB to Play South Korea Games for 1st Time in 100 Years

MLB will play games in South Korea for the first time in a century.

On Friday, the league and players’ association announced via press release that Major League Baseball and Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) players will participate in the 2022 Korea Series — a set of four exhibition games and other activities to be held from Nov. 9-16.

The Busan Sajik Baseball Stadium will host the events on Nov. 11 and 12, with Seoul’s Gocheok Sky Dome picking up the action on Nov. 14 and 15.

The players participating and ticket information have not been announced yet, but Korean media outlet Yonhap News Agency reports that those will be released sometime in September.

Tampa Bay’s Ji-Man Choi, San Diego’s Ha-Seong Kim, and Toronto’s Hyun-Jin Ryu are among the South Korean products currently playing in MLB — though the latter is currently recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Major Leaguers have not played a game in South Korea since 1922, when a group of players led by Casey Stengel, Waite Hoyt, and Herb Pennock traveled to Asia to play in Japan, South Korea, and China.

The Korean Series is part of a larger effort by the league to implement more international games into its offering, as the MLB World Tour is set to play up to 24 regular-season and 16 exhibition games abroad through 2026.

Earlier this month, MLB announced that the Cardinals and Cubs will play a two-game regular-season series in London next season.