Korea Baseball Organization

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Korea Baseball Organization
Korea Baseball Organization
Sport Baseball
Founded 1982
No. of teams 8
Country(ies) Flag of South Korea South Korea
Most recent champion(s) SK Wyverns
Official website koreabaseball.or.kr (Korean)
Korea Baseball Organization
Hangul 한국야구위원회
Hanja 韓國野球委員會
Revised Romanization Han-guk Yagu Wiwonhoe
McCune-Reischauer Han'guk Yagu Wiwŏnhoe

The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) of South Korea is the country's professional baseball league. It was founded with six teams in 1982 and currently has eight. The teams are named after the companies or conglomerates which they belong to.

The first game was played on March 27, 1982 between Samsung Lions and the MBC Blue Dragons (now the LG Twins) in Dongdaemun Stadium, Seoul. Then-president Chun Doo-hwan threw the first pitch .

The inaugural teams were:

In 1985, the Sammi Superstars became known as the Cheongbo Pintos. The next year, 1986, saw some major changes, with the OB Bears moving from Daejeon to share the Jamsil Baseball Stadium with MBC Cheongryong in Seoul. A new team, the Binggeurae Eagles, joined to replace OB in Daejeon and expanding the league to seven teams. 1988 saw the Cheongbo Pintos change ownership again, becoming the Taepyeongyang Dolphins. In 1990, MBC Cheongryong became the LG Twins and an eighth team was added, the Ssangbangul Raiders who represented the Jeollabuk-do region.

There was little change in the 90's except for a few major sponsors: 1993 saw the Binggeurae Eagles become the Hanhwa Eagles, in 1995 the Taepyeongyang Dolphins became the Hyundai Unicorns and the OB Bears in 1999 became the Doosan Bears. Bigger changes were affected in 2000 when the Hyundai Unicorns moved from Incheon to Suwon, and a new team, the SK Wyverns took their place in Incheon. The Ssangbangul Raiders became defunct. Finally, in 2001, the Haitai Tigers became the Kia Tigers, and all teams exist in their current incarnations today.

From 2008, the Hyundai Unicorns franchise will change for a fourth time as they will be sold for the 2008 season. Their attendance for 2007 was the lowest among the eight teams.

The championship is the Korean Series.

As of 2007, founding member the Kia Tigers (formerly the Haitai Tigers) had won 9 of the 26 national championships.

Most players are Korean, but teams are allowed a limited number foreign players, with Americans, Dominicans and Cubans featuring in the league. The foreign player limit is currently set at two.

On the 17th of July every year, the best players participate in the Korean All-star game. The teams participating are divided into two regions: East (SK, Samsung, Doosan, Lotte) and West (Hyundai, Kia, Hanhwa and LG). The titles 'East' and 'West' do not directly correspond to the geographical regions of the teams involved, as both SK and Doosan, being from Incheon and Seoul respectively, are clearly based on the Western region of Korea, despite representing the East. Unlike in the MLB, the Korean All-star game does not determine home-ground advantage in the Korean Series. The most recent Korean All-star game was played in Busan and won 6:3 by the East team.

Many of the players who excel in the Korean league go on to play for teams in Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. Current successful players in the the NPB who have played for Korean teams in the past include Lee Seung-yeop for the Yomiuri Giants (former Samsung Lions player), Lee Byung-gyu for the Chunichi Dragons (former LG Twins player) and Tyrone Woods also for the Chunichi Dragons (former Doosan Bears player).

Contents

v • d • e
Korean Baseball Organization
Teams Doosan Bears (Seoul) · Hanhwa Eagles (Daejeon) · Hyundai Unicorns (Suwon) · Kia Tigers (Gwangju) · Lotte Giants (Busan) · LG Twins (Seoul) · Samsung Lions (Daegu) · SK Wyverns (Inchon)
Series Korean · Asia
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea_Baseball_Organization"
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