Broadcasting the KBO League in English?스포츠토토 It may be unfamiliar to domestic fans, but there is someone who broadcasts KBO League games in English. Korean-Canadian Jason Lee.
He broadcasts the KBO League live twice on Tuesdays and Wednesdays through the ‘SPOTV’ Asian channel, which is broadcast in Southeast Asia such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia. He broadcasts for about three hours alone, watching the ‘Sport TV’ relay screen without a commentator. He is playing two roles in one person. Jason Lee, who recently met with the ‘Hankyoreh Newspaper’, said, “Before the live broadcast, I get information about the broadcasting teams through the news, but because it is a Korean article, I can only understand about 50-80% of it. Still, he tries to inform the relay-related teams of the latest situation as much as possible.”
Jason Lee was born in Busan, but grew up in Canada as his family immigrated to Vancouver, Canada at an early age. He is interested in sports, so during his school days he also competed as a wrestler for 5 years. He said, “Wrestling is a fierce battle of heads. It is important to dig into the opponent’s technique and strategy, but in that respect, there are similarities to baseball, which has the charm of strategy.” He said, “It is because a high-level psychological battle comes and goes like wrestling.”
The fun of baseball became more immersive while playing Major League Fantasy Baseball (a virtual baseball simulation game) in the early 1990s. Now it’s via the Internet, but back then you had to mail in your results weekly. Recently, Cho Won-bin (a $500,000 contract with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2022) was added to the roster, and it seems that he will be in the major leagues in a few years.
He worked as a sportscaster and reporter for 7 years at Canada’s ‘Vancouver TV’ and local radio broadcasting. He was also Canada’s first Asian sportscaster. The experience of working in a foreign broadcasting station is his best weapon. In Korea, Arirang TV broadcasted for a long time, and Busan English Broadcasting (BeFM) and Gwangju English Broadcasting (GFN) broadcast Lotte Giants and Kia Tigers. Broadcasting the KBO League, he broadcasts the American way. When there is a home run, shouting is needed, and when the scene is needed, silence is maintained for a few seconds. He laughed, saying, “I tend to shout more than Korean casters.”
Jason Lee’s favorite KBO league player is Lee Jeong-hoo (Kiwoom Heroes). Lee Jung-hoo announced his advance to the major leagues after this season. He said, “I think Lee Jung-hoo will become the face of MLB’s KBO in the future.”
He has pride in promoting Korean baseball abroad. He regrets not being able to know the feedback of people who watched the broadcast in Southeast Asia. He also wants to broadcast all Korean series live in English. For Jason Lee, baseball is like math. After careful calculation, the correct answer must be found. So he thinks that baseball broadcasting can be solved like math. He conveys the sport of baseball in a different language, but he wants to make people who don’t know much about baseball feel the essence of baseball.