During a game between SK Wyverns and Hanwha Eagles, banners with masked faces of the fans can be seen on Tuesday in the Happy Dream Ballpark in Incheon, South Korea. The Korean Baseball League started its new season this week with the current safety regulations for COVID-19.
Jong Hyun Kim / Anadolu agency via Getty Images
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When the baseball season in South Korea started this week, enthusiastic fans cheered their teams from the stands at Incheon’s Happy Dream Ballpark. Yes, these fans were made of cardboard, but paper people don’t have to follow the same social distance requirements as their flesh-and-blood colleagues.
A cheerleader appears on Tuesday in front of a large screen where baseball fans watch the opening game of the new baseball season in South Korea.
Jung Yeon-je / AFPvia Getty Images
The Coronavirus pandemic has of course canceled or postponed major sporting events around the world. The Korean baseball organization (KBO) was originally scheduled to start on March 28, but its opening day was postponed to Tuesday when the SK Wyverns fought the Hanwha Eagles.
Players, referees, and other staff all wore face masks, as did cheerleaders, who pumped up the crowd to video-watch the game and display it on a giant screen overlooking the field. Even the spectators, who are depicted on banners in the stands, diligently wear face covers.
The KBO with 10 teams It is planned to play a full game plan with 144 games this year. However, if a player or coach tests positive for COVID-19, the league will be closed for at least three weeks. CNET sister site CBS Sports reports.
Cardboard cutouts of fans before the opening game of the Chinese Professional Baseball League between the Rakuten Monkeys and the CTBC Brothers on April 11 in Taoyuan, Taiwan.
Gene Wang / Getty Images
South Korea is not the only country where sporting events were held without fans (living, breathing). In Taiwan, cardboard clippings from fans have participated in Chinese Professional Baseball League games. Some carry signs to support their teams, while others point their cardboard cameras at the field.
In Germany as part of one Campaign “Stay at home. Be in the stands” The fans of the German professional football team Borussia Mönchengladbach bought cardboard cutouts, which are printed with their representations, to be exhibited in the stands in the West German stadium Borussia Park.
These “cardboard comrades” cost 19 euros and save TV viewers and professional players the discouraging sight of empty stadium seats when the German Bundesliga, the Bundesliga, will return on May 16 after being suspended since March.
There are still nine game days left to end the season.
To demonstrate their support for the German professional football team Borussia Mönchengladbach, fans pay for their pictures to be uploaded onto cardboard cutouts. You cannot play games in person due to the coronavirus crisis.
Christian Verheyen / Borussia Mönchengladbach on Getty Images
The league has said that no more than 330 people can gather in a stadium for games, however Simon Rolfes, sports director of the Bayer Leverkusen team said most of them were security personnel to prevent fans from gathering.
Borussia Mönchengladbach is currently fourth in the Bundesliga classification. According to the team, as of April 30, more than 8,000 customers were cut out of cardboard, and more than 2,000 had already been placed on the stands of the Borussia Park.
The smiling fans are happy to cheer on their team. However, they cannot be seen make the wave.
Uplifting scenes of solidarity with corona viruses around the world
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