(ATTN: ADDS details, comments throughout)

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, Aug. 6 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean professional baseball league on Thursday canceled all the remaining games scheduled for this week due to the ongoing heat wave, with the season set to resume early next week.

The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) reached the decision following its emergency executive board meeting with the general managers of the 10 clubs in attendance, joined by representatives from the players' association.

The KBO had earlier canceled all 10 games set for Wednesday and Thursday, putting the status for the Friday-Sunday weekend series for its 10 clubs in doubt ahead of the meeting.

After some two hours of discussions, the league said no game will be played for the rest of the week and the regular season will resume next Tuesday.

The KBO also said all weekday and weekend games will start at 7 p.m. until further notice. Weekday games normally begin at 6:30 p.m. throughout the season, and games on weekends and holidays start at 6 p.m. during the summer months.

The KBO made an exception for weekend games at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, the league's only domed venue, where Saturday games will start at 6 p.m. as usual and Sunday games may begin at 2 p.m. depending on the TV broadcasting schedule.

The KBO will also introduce a cooling break after the third and the seventh innings, and there will also be a brief intermission after the ninth inning if a game goes into extra innings.

During these breaks, teams will be given four minutes, instead of the typical two minutes.

The KBO first canceled three games in the southeastern region over the weekend and two more in Seoul and Gwangju, the two cities placed under the serious heat wave warning, on Tuesday.

Three other games set for Tuesday proceeded as scheduled, including one in Incheon, which was placed under a lower-level heat wave advisory despite its proximity to Seoul. The KBO had announced earlier Tuesday that it would reserve the right to cancel games in cities under the most severe heat advisory but games would be played in places facing lower levels of heat alerts, adding that the start of such games may be delayed by up to one hour.

And during that Incheon game between the LG Twins and the SSG Landers, 25 fans were treated for symptoms of heat-related illnesses. One male fan in particular fell unconscious and was taken to a nearby hospital after receiving CPR.

The incident in Incheon forced the KBO into action, as club officials and player representatives decided to press pause on the season.

Starting next week, the KBO will also consider canceling games in cities not under the highest-level heat wave warning. A decision on scrapping such games may be reached up to three hours before first pitch.

Park Keun-chan, secretary general of the KBO, said a couple of teams were opposed to canceling the upcoming weekend games.

"The majority said we may experience further problems if we resume the season without proper measures in place," Park said. "But there were some dissenting voices that said fans are waiting for baseball and it will not be too hot to start playing again in some parts of the country."

In a year that has seen a fewer-than-usual number of rainouts, these unexpected cancellations will affect the late-season schedule.

Park said all participants of the meeting agreed that they will worry about September or October games when they get there.

"We also said the priority right now is the safety of our fans and players, not the remaining schedule," Park added.

The latest decision brings the number of games wiped out by heat this summer to 30.

jeeho@yna.co.kr

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