Former KBO pitcher Lindblom calls Korea 'proactive,' USA 'reactive'

While Major League Baseball's timeline for 2020 is still up in the air, the Korean Baseball Organization is set to begin its regular season in early May following the country's largely successful response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Pitcher Josh Lindblom, who signed with the Milwaukee Brewers this offseason after spending the last three years in the KBO, says a key cultural difference between Korea and the United States has contributed to the different timelines.

"In Korea, they are very proactive with just about anything," Lindblom told Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "It’s a way of life; it really is. Take masks for example. The reason people there wear masks, most of the time, is not because they don’t want other people to make them sick. They do it because they don’t want to risk getting other people sick. They think of others first.

"They are proactive, whereas a lot of the precautions we’re taking now (in the United States) are reactive."

MLB's and KBO's Opening Days were both originally scheduled for late March before the pandemic forced postponements. With far fewer people contracting the virus in South Korea - and with the number of new cases in the country dropping significantly in recent days - the KBO is planning to stage exhibition games during April and then begin its regular season in early May, according to The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, MLB is reportedly mulling whether it can start the 2020 campaign in mid-May with all teams playing out of spring training facilities in Arizona. Many players have already expressed displeasure with the proposal, which would separate them from their families for months.