The opening game of the 2024 MLB season will take place in Seoul
Article by Yoon Sojung
The 2024 American Major League Baseball (MLB) season will open in Seoul with the first match between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres baseball teams lasting 2 days from March 20-21 2024 (Korean time).
According to the official information page of MLB, the match between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres baseball team in 2 days is the opening match for next year’s season. This is the first time an MLB match is held in Korea.
Los Angeles Dodgers is a baseball team quite familiar to many Koreans because famous Korean baseball players have played for this team including Park Chan-ho, Choi Hee-seop and Ryu Hyun-jin . Player Park also played for the San Diego Padres and current pitcher Kim Ha-Seong belongs to this team.
The opening match between these two teams will take place as part of MLB’s world tour. This will be the 9th international opening match held outside the 50 states of the United States and Canada in history, and also the 3rd match to take place in Asia after Japan and Australia.
Previously, the opening match for the 1999 MLB season was held in Monterrey (Mexico) and after that, the opening 5 matches for the 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2019 MLB seasons took place in Tokyo (Japan). ; the opening game for the 2001 MLB season took place in San Juan (Puerto Rico); and the opening match for the 2014 MLB season took place in Sydney (Australia).
The San Diego Padres participated in the opening game against the Colorado Rockies for the 1999 MLB season in Monterrey (Mexico). For the Los Angeles Dodgers team, this will be the second time participating in the opening match taking place outside the US, after 10 years since the opening match with the Arizona Diamondbacks team in 2014.
Los Angeles team president Dodgers, Stan Kasten, on July 12 said: “Our players are excited for the opportunity to showcase their talents in a country rich in baseball tradition and talent, including including players Park Chan-ho, Choi Hee-seop and Ryu Hyun-jin, who played for the Los Angeles Dodgers.”
On the same day, the San Diego Padres team also posted an interview clip with player Kim Ha-seong, and promotional images on the official social network channel to share their plan to organize the opening match of the season. MLB 2024 in Seoul in March.
In the clip, player Kim Ha-seong said: “When I joined the San Diego Padres, I never imagined that I would have the opportunity to represent the team. ball and professional baseball in my hometown.”
“I cannot express in words how happy I am to play in Korea wearing the San Diego Padres uniform,” he added.
Along with the world tour in Seoul, the MLB Office will organize 4 world tours in the Dominican Republic (Bostion Red Sox team – Tampa Bay Rays, March 9-10); Mexico (Houston Astros – Colorado Rockies, April 27-28); and London (New York Mets – Philadelphia Phillies, March 8-9).
