A fierce battle unfolds between the alumni teams that stake the pride of their alma mater.
The ‘2023 No Brand High School Alumni 안전놀이터 Baseball Tournament’ hosted by the Korea Baseball Softball Association (KBSA) and sponsored by E-Mart kicks off with preliminaries for each province.
The No Brand Cup high school alumni baseball tournament, which was born last year with the goal of expanding the baseball base for everyday sports, promoting friendship among graduates of the alma mater, and supporting the baseball team, is expected to be a hot game again this year with more than 40 schools participating nationwide.
In the first competition in 2022, the finals and 3rd and 4th place matches were held at Gocheok Sky Dome after intense regional preliminaries and finals, and Gunsan Sangil High School (formerly Gunsan Sanggo) defeated Bukil High School to become the first champion.
This year, preliminaries will be held at baseball fields in each city and province, and the first place team in each preliminaries and the excellent team for promoting the competition will advance to the finals, and a round of 24 final tournament will be held at the Bukil High School baseball field. The final is scheduled for the Gocheok Sky Dome following last year.
The high school alumni baseball tournament, which thrilled baseball fans with the participation of many top legends such as Jo Gye-hyun, Song Jin-woo, Jang Jong-hoon, Yang Jun-hyuk, and Ma Hae-young, this year, in addition to the previous year’s players, Lee Man-soo, Han Dae-hwa, Jang Won-jin, Choi Sang-deok, Park Ji-cheol, Jeong Geun-woo, Chae Tae-in, Shin Yong-un, etc. This participation is expected to evoke nostalgia for baseball fans and pride for the alma mater.
Meanwhile, some matches of the final tournament held at the Bukil High School baseball field and the final match scheduled at Gocheok Sky Dome will be relayed and broadcasted through Spotify. Each team will receive 7 million won in prize money for the development of alma mater baseball.
KBSA President Lee Jong-hoon said, “Continuing from last year, the No Brand High School Alumni Baseball Tournament was successfully held. As an attractive competition in which legendary players who commanded Korean baseball and baseball-loving players run on the ground wearing the same uniform under the name of the same school, the association will do its best to ensure that this tournament is successfully operated.”