The 2019 KBO Baseball League starts next week,.... and to get ready for the new season,.... the players will have practice games over the next 8 days.
And there are also some new regulations and changes for the upcoming season.
Seo Bo-bin has more. Before the upcoming 2019 KBO professional baseball league, the pre-season practice games will begin Tuesday and continue until Wednesday next week.

These practice games will all begin at 1 PM local time on Tuesday in 5 stadiums across the country.
Each team will play a total of 8 games, and should a game get canceled due to rain or high levels of fine dust, it won't be rescheduled.

These games are a chance for teams to improve their tactics and get an insight on their opponents strengths and weaknesses. Also, 19 of the league's 30 foreign players will be making their Korean baseball debut.

The KBO league has made some changes for this season. These include a new official ball that is 1 millimeter larger, and one gram heavier than before. There will also be a new rule banning runners from rough sliding to reach base. This rule comes in due to several severe injuries caused by rough sliding. Fielders will also have to step on base correctly.
The criteria for cancelling games due to fine dust has been specified. Starting this season if there is a fine-dust warning issued, the game can be cancelled one hour before the start of the game.

After the pre-season games end next Wednesday, the 6-month long official KBO league will start next Saturday.

Seo Bo-bin, Arirang News.