The Korea Baseball Organization's(KBO) 2024 regular season kicked off on Saturday with the league's ten teams seeing sold-out stadiums for all five opening games.
The match between reigning champions LG Twins against the Hanwha Eagles, which recently signed former Major League Baseball(MLB) All-Star pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin, opened to a crowd of 23-thousand-750 at Seoul's Jamsil Baseball Stadium, while SSG Landers took on the Lotte Giants in Incheon in front of 23-thousand spectators.
The Kia Tigers locked horns with the Kiwoom Heroes in the southwestern city of Gwangju with a crowd of 20-thousand-500, while KT Wiz battled Samsung Lions in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province in front of 18-thousand-700 and NC Dinos took on Doosan Bears in the southeastern city of Changwon in front of 17-thousand-891.
The teams will each play 144 games, before crowning the Korean Series champions during post-season.
The KBO has adopted an automatic ball-strike system(ABS) this season to guarantee fairness, the first top-tier professional league in the world to do so.