Baseball league cancels remaining games for this week, pushes back first pitch

The South Korean professional baseball league abruptly canceled all remaining games for the week due to an ongoing heat wave, with the season set to resume early next Tuesday. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) made this decision following an emergency executive board meeting attended by the general managers of the 10 clubs and representatives from the players' association.

Earlier this week, the KBO had already canceled all games scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, leaving the status of Friday through Sunday's games uncertain. The league decided to push back all weekday and weekend games to 7 p.m. until further notice, deviating from the typical start times of 6:30 p.m. for weekday games and 6 p.m. for weekend games during the summer months.

In a move to address the extreme heat, the KBO introduced cooling breaks after the third and seventh innings, as well as an additional intermission after the ninth inning if a game extends into extra innings. The KBO had initially canceled 10 games set for Wednesday and Thursday, shifting the schedule for Friday through Sunday's games into doubt. The recent decision brings the total number of games canceled by heat this summer to 30.