Baseball team to open Asian Games camp 1 week before tournament

Ryu Ji-hyun, manager of the Korean national baseball team, announces his roster for the 2026 Asian Games at a press conference in Seoul, June 11. Yonhap

The national baseball team will begin training for the Asian Games one week before the start of competition in Japan, an official said Wednesday.

The official said the national squad, made up of players from the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), will open training camp Sept. 14 and leave for Nagoya on Sept. 17.

The KBO regular season will not pause during the competition, and those named to the national team will play for the respective clubs until Sept. 13 before reporting for the Asian Games duty.

The baseball tournament will run from Sept. 21 to 27 at Okazaki Central Park Baseball Stadium in Okazaki, about 35 kilometers southeast of Nagoya, and Toyohashi Municipal Baseball Stadium in Toyohashi, some 60 kilometers southeast of Nagoya.

Managed by Ryu Ji-hyun, Korea will try to win its fifth consecutive gold medal.

For the preliminary round, Korea has been paired with Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong and Thailand in Group B. Korea's first game will be against Chinese Taipei at 6:30 p.m. on Sept. 21 in Okazaki.

The Group A teams are Japan, China, the Philippines and Palestine.

After round-robin play, the top two teams from each group will advance to the Super Round.

Japan typically sends semi-pro players, not stars from Nippon Professional Baseball, to the Asian Games and has only won one gold medal so far — as the host country in 1994 in Hiroshima.

Chinese Taipei is widely considered Korea's biggest rival at the competition. It has not yet finalized its roster but is expected to bring players based in U.S. and Japanese minor leagues.

Korea and Chinese Taipei clashed in three of the past four Asian Games finals, with Korea winning each time.

All Korean male athletes who have not already completed their military duty will receive exemption by winning an Asian Games gold medal. After years of being criticized for picking undeserving, older players just to give them a chance to earn that exemption, the KBO, which governs professional baseball, began selecting younger players at the 2023 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

For this year, the KBO went with 21 players under 25, plus three "wild card" players in the 25-29 age bracket.

Manager Ryu recently had a scouting trip to watch Chinese Professional Baseball League games in Taiwan and plans to travel to Tokyo later this month to get an early look at Asian Games-bound players at a semi-pro tournament.