NEW YORK _ As Major League Baseball looks overseas for cues on restarting its own season, it's worth noting that having fans in the stadium is a very different concept than allowing revenue-generating crowds.
On Friday, Taiwan's CPBL opened ballparks to spectators for the first time, but capped attendance at 1,000 and kept fans at least three seats apart, with every second row also left empty. Concession stands were closed and food could not be brought into the stadium.
Otherwise, the game between the Fubon Guardians and UniLions in Taipei City had a more normal feel, with the sparse group of fans replacing the cutouts and robots that previously filled the barren sections when the season began. In South Korea _ the only other nation playing the sport at the moment _ the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) opened Tuesday with empty stadiums, but intends to allow fans eventually, increasing the percentage over time.
