With their 20-game preseason ready to start Tuesday, the Korean Baseball Organization released its manual to help function during what they are hoping is a full 144-game season.
All 10 teams in the KBO will have to adhere to the following mandates while South Korea continues to battle COVID-19:
- All players and team officials must minimize contact with outside visitors.
- Players must have their temperatures checked twice before games and fill out daily health questionnaires on a KBO app.
- Players will be strongly recommended to wear masks in the clubhouse and in all areas of the stadium during games, except for the field and the dugout.
- High-fives and handshakes with bare hands will be discouraged.
- All umpires must wear masks and plastic gloves, and they will be banned from making any physical contact with players. Front office employees, trainers and interpreters who travel with teams, bat boys and video replay officials will also be required to don masks and gloves.
- If a player shows symptoms of COVID-19 during the preseason or regular season, the player will be immediately quarantined, and the stadium where his team last played will be closed for at least two days. And if he tests positive for the virus, a government-appointed epidemiologist will conduct contact tracing and determine others who will be ordered into two-week quarantine.
And then there is this one ...
- Spitting will be "strictly prohibited."
Up until that last item, the rules seem like a list Major League Baseball can build off of when planning its own return. But believe or not, the spitting thing would be a problem.
Added another former major leaguer Justin Morneau, "You got a lot of nervous energy when you’re playing, so you need something that distracts you a bit."
Not high-fiving is one thing. Not spitting? That will be a tough one.