Kiwoom Heroes coach Hong Won-ki is furious. It’s because of the September doubleheader schedule at the Gocheok Dome. This is the first time a doubleheader has been scheduled at the Gocheok Dome since its opening. Hong strongly expressed his dissatisfaction with the scheduling of a home doubleheader when there was a reserve day for the Gocheok-dome game.
On August 29, the KBO officially announced the schedule for the remainder of the regular season. A total of 121 games will be played through Oct. 11, including 50 games that will need to be rescheduled due to the elimination of the two-game series and the three-game format from this season, and 71 games that will need to be rescheduled, including rainouts.
Among the rescheduled games, doubleheaders are the most prominent, with four of the five regularly scheduled games on Sept. 9 rescheduled as doubleheaders. In addition to the four doubleheaders on that day, there will be six doubleheaders in the remainder of the schedule.
It’s also unusual for Kiwoom to play a home game as a doubleheader. On September 9, Kiwoom will play a doubleheader against the Hanwha Eagles in Gochuk. It will be a challenging week for the Kiwoom squad, as they will play a three-game series away from home against the Changwon NC Dinos in the middle of the week, followed by a four-game series at home on the weekend.
Head coach Hong Won-ki also had some strong words for the doubleheader schedule. “I saw the schedule for the remaining games and felt it was unreasonable,” Hong told reporters after the rainout against the SSG Landers in Munhak on August 29.
He continued, “It’s not like they scheduled a doubleheader in the regular schedule, and there’s a reserve day afterwards. We have to travel to Changwon and then play four games in a row, including a doubleheader. It seems that relatively important games (for the standings) were assigned first, which is unreasonable for a team that has played many games without rainouts.”
In response to Hong’s criticism, the KBO explained that the decision to schedule doubleheaders was made for equity. They wanted to make sure that every team had at least one doubleheader in their schedule.
A KBO official said, “We decided to schedule the doubleheader on September 9 to essentially reduce the tightness of the remaining game schedule. Postponing all doubleheaders until September 10 would have resulted in a schedule that would have been more difficult for clubs and players. The decision to schedule doubleheaders for Kiwoom’s home games was also made to create equity between the teams. Considering that Hanwha also has a large number of remaining games, we decided that the day of the Gocheok Dome game would be a suitable day to organize a doubleheader.”안전놀이터
The KBO official continued, “Kiwoom will still only have to play a doubleheader once. It would be unfair to the other teams if they didn’t play a doubleheader once. Moreover, the change from a two-game series to a three-game series is bound to create this situation. It’s hard for us to fulfill all the conditions if teams say they don’t want to play a doubleheader and then say they can’t play a doubleheader, so I hope they take that into consideration.”