# 'Cloud spectators' at exhibition games... baseball fever is in the air

The final exhibition game for the 10 teams before the start of the 2023 Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) season kicked off on Sept. 9. The exhibition games will also test the new robotic umpires (ABS) and pitch clocks.

The 2024 Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) exhibition games are being played with great excitement. The opening five games on September 9 were attended by 36,480 fans. That's an average attendance of 7,296, up 188.7% from last year's average attendance of 2,527. Last year's opening game, which was played on a weekday instead of a weekend, drew 799 fans, and the excitement continued on the 10th. Hanwha fans filled all 12,000 seats at the Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon for the opening game against Samsung for the second consecutive day. The game between SSG and Lotte at Sajik Stadium in Busan was also a big hit, with 18,433 fans in attendance.

When ABS was first unveiled in exhibition games, reviews were mostly favorable. The ball was ruled as it crossed the strike zone, unaffected by the catcher's framing. There were no contested calls.

Of course, there were some problems. There were two instances where the umpires failed to make calls during the Lotte SSG game at Sajik Stadium in Busan on September 9th. The umpire had to talk to the third-base umpire and the ABS operator before making [토토](https://www.majortotosite.top) the call, as part of the camera that illuminates home plate was blocked, and the umpire also realized that errors could occur when a swarm of day lizards stayed on home plate. "We will thoroughly analyze the issues identified in the exhibition game and prepare for the regular season," said a KBO official.

Reviews of the pitch clock, which requires pitchers to throw a ball within 18 seconds, were mixed. Pitchers felt the pressure. The KBO plans to pilot the pitch clock in the first half of the season before deciding whether to implement it in the second half. As a result, some clubs have instructed their pitchers to ignore the pitch clock and just throw the ball the way they normally do. However, during the game between KT and LG at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, the crowd counted down the remaining time and put pressure on the pitchers.

On the other hand, PitchClock, along with ABS, is having a positive effect on shortening games as the KBO intended. The average game time in the exhibition games held in five venues on Tuesday was just 2 hours and 39 minutes. That's 33 minutes shorter than last year's regular season average of 3 hours and 12 minutes.

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