Pado Ballworks said on Monday it was recalling 31,200 sensor-equipped baseballs after an imaging workshop in Busan found that some of their tracking capsules had shifted inside the ball’s core. The Korean Diamond League has quarantined 8,420 balls delivered to its 10 clubs and frozen tracking data from 22 games.
The review covers 1,806 player entries, including a 171 km/h (106 mph) pitch reading that had topped the season’s speed charts. The league says no umpire’s call or match result has been changed; the disputed figures come from sensors used for statistics and broadcasts, not from the officials judging play.
The scan that stopped the season
The fault came to light at a baseball-repair workshop in Busan’s Jangnim-dong district, where a technician checking a returned ball noticed an uneven shape on its X-ray. A scan of 216 balls from the same production run found 37 with capsules more than 3 millimetres (0.12 inches) off centre; nine also produced inconsistent readings during bench tests.
Each capsule holds motion sensors that send data to the league’s tracking system. Pado Ballworks said the misalignment could distort measurements of spin and speed, though it had found no evidence that the balls’ flight was altered. The company estimated the recall and replacement programme would cost ₩1.9 billion (about €1.25 million).
We found a ball that looked ordinary from the outside and was telling the system a different story on every turn.
Andreja R. Kobal, engineer at the Haneul Sports Materials Lab
The workshop’s scan was shared with the league on Friday, said Andreja R. Kobal, who examined the images for the Haneul Sports Materials Lab. “It was not a routine check for this kind of ball,” she said. “Once we saw the capsule sitting at an angle, we asked for the whole batch to be tested.”
Players wait on their numbers
The league’s rules director, Natalia Piotrowska, said the 22 games would stand, but tracking-based leaderboards and broadcast graphics would remain frozen until the review ends. The league expects to publish corrected figures by 16 November, before its annual awards are announced. Box scores, which record official plays, are not under review.
The recall covers 31,200 balls made between 4 May and 19 August. Clubs received 8,420; the remaining 22,780 went to sporting-goods shops and training centres. Pado Ballworks said customers could return affected balls for replacements, and its quality chief, Adalberto Treutel, said the company had stopped shipments from the production line.
For players whose numbers may change, the delay is more than a broadcast glitch. A batter’s ranking for hardest-hit balls and a pitcher’s season-high speed both rely on the tracking feed. “You train all year to have your numbers tell the truth,” said Seoul Comets pitcher Freddie Wilkinson. “Now we have to wait and find out which ones were real.”
The league has asked clubs to use untagged balls in training until replacements arrive. Its next scheduled games are due to begin on 7 November, but officials said no team would be allowed to bring the affected batch back into play, even if its tracking capsule appeared correctly positioned.
