The ‘draw abolition theory’ on the cutting board… Will the KBO introduce matchmaking?

The match between Hanwha Eagles and SSG Landers held at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on the 14th ended in a 3-3 draw despite 12 overtime matches. The two teams played for 4 hours and 58 minutes, but could not decide the winner.

After the game that day, SSG owner Jeong Yong-jin left a message on his social network service (SNS), “What a damn draw in baseball. If you lose, you lose, and if you win, you win.” He continued, “From the 12th inning, we have to play a game,” adding, “Baseball is originally a game without a draw.” As a result, the majority of netizens agreed with the words of the owner, and the theory of the abolition of the draw in professional baseball was ignited.

According to the rules of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), if the game is tied at the end of the 9th inning, overtime will be played up to 12 in the regular season and 15 in the post season without time limit. If a winner cannot be determined by this point, it is a draw.

Since its inception in 1982, professional baseball has maintained a draw system while changing various rules. Then, in 2008, for the first time in the history of the league, a match rule without a draw was made. On September 3 of that year, the match between Hanwha and Doosan Bears lasted 5 hours and 51 minutes, extending to the 18th inning. The end game rule was abolished after one season for reasons such as player injury concerns.

The current draw rule was introduced in 2009안전놀이터. In the second half of 2021, a 9-inning limit rule was introduced without overtime in the aftermath of the season suspension due to the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19). The result was 50 draws in one season.

Opinions were also divided over how to reflect a draw in baseball’s team performance. Currently, draws are excluded from the calculation of odds, but in the past, draws were counted as 0.5 wins or 0.5 losses.

In this process, the opinion that the match should be decided in some way was continuously raised, and the match-up was introduced for the first time in the 2013 World Baseball Classic (WBC), drawing attention. The major league (MLB) this season has permanently introduced the overtime game, and the voice to introduce it to Korea has grown louder.

The KBO piloted the match-up rule in the Futures League last year and officially introduced it this season. As the match-up system was officially introduced in the Futures League, there is a possibility that a match-up will be operated in the first team game in the near future.

A KBO official said to News 1, “The abolition of a draw or the introduction of a match is an issue that we have been reviewing for quite some time.”

“It is not an issue that can be introduced right away because it is necessary to consider the power of each team and discuss how to handle the records generated during the match,” he said. I think it is necessary,” he added.