There’s an organization in Korea that’s got a fistfull of statistics it won’t share with the public.

If this were the KCIA then, sure, nice work. Unfortunately this is the Korean Baseball Organization we’re talking about here. Since it’s inception in the early 80s the KBO has kept it’s statistical information under tight wraps. Why? No one knows. Perhaps the KBO itself doesn’t know. Perhaps it’s simply because it can.

From a Korea Beat translation of a Delian article:

Korea Baseball Organization fans can pick up statistics from the KBO’s homepage or from the websites of the various teams. But they can only get limited data, not high-level data. There is clearly more than there was before, but is not good enough to slake the thirst of baseball fans.

At the KBO’s statistics room, you can’t learn how Yang Jun-hyeok does against left-handed hitters, or why Ryu Taek-hyeon is a “left-handed hitting specialist”. Worse, you can’t even find the results from the first-ever 1982 Korea Series.

It’s not that the KBO doesn’t recognize the importance of this data. The KBO posseses this information but doesn’t release it to fans. When you think about the importance of statistics in baseball, it’s clear that the KBO is making a mistake.

I can tell you, I’ve received emails from major league scouts asking how they can get statistics for Korean players. I can’t imagine what they think when I tell them it’s impossible. Why does the KBO do this? I guess on some level you can make an argument that statistics can become overbearing and take some of the charm out of the game, but then of course, people can, um, always make the choice to not look at statistics.

One reader, who is also mentioned in the Korea Beat piece, emailed the KBO to see about getting a hold of Korean baseball statistics. They said it was “no problem,” so long as it was paid $20,000.

As I’ve said before…so shocking that the league nearly contracted a team this offseason.