A number of Asian countries have managed, using lots of testing, tracking, and an obedient citizenship, to control their spread of coronavirus. That means they get to have nice things, including baseball seasons. Japan tried and had a steback, but Taiwan has already started up with their robot and cardboard fans and next up is the Korean league. So let's pick a Korean team!
The teams are named after the companies that own them rather than their locations. You'll recognize some names Kia, LG, Samsung. What do the rest do? Well everything is a conglomerate really meaning they own a bunch of unrelated stuff but I'll give a general idea
Doosan - Construction & Infrastructure support; they own Bobcat
Hanwha - Started with explosives, now R&D and Manufacturing
KT - Telecom
Lotte - Started with chewing gum, now food and shopping in general (the Japan version owns a team in Japan)
NC - Maybe you recognize NCSoft. They make videogames, mostly MMORPGs that are big across the ocean. The one you might have heard of is City of Heroes.
Kiwoom - Finance I think. It says "securities"
SK - Energy and telecom
They can only have three foreign players per team and obviously the pandemic has cut off supply of people who might have come over this Spring as they failed to get major league jobs. Also Korea isn't the first choice of players going over seas so if you were hoping for some familiar names - well too bad. Roger Bernadina did KILL it over there from 2016-2018 but decided to come back to North America last year. Here are some current players, can't guarantee it's all, in case any of these guys excite you.
Doosan Bears - Jose Fernandez (no, not that one. the KBO isn't where baseball players go when they die to play baseball forever. Though it's a nice thought)
Hanwha Eagles Chad Bell, Warwick Saupold, Jared Hoying
Kia Tigers Preston Tucker
Kiwoom Heroes Jake Brigham, Eric Jokisch,
KT Wiz Raul Alcantara, William Cuevas, Mel Rojas JR
Lotte Giants NONE
LG Twins Casey Kelly, Tyler Wilson,
NC Dinos Drew Rucinski,
Samsung Lions Ben Lively,
SK Wyverns Jamie Romak,
Doosan is the reigning champs and one of three teams, with Samsung and Lotte, who have been there and owned by the same group since the beginning in 1982. The Kia Tigers were an ownership change but not a name one. The Twins were both and the Heroes were a dissolution and rebirth.
Of course I've left the biggest news until last. The Kia Tigers are managed by... Matt Williams! There's a couple other Americans on the coaching staff. I think one is Anthony Lerew. Sorry I don't read Korean.
First games tomorrow. I have no idea right now how to watch!
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6 comments:
Interesting, thanks Harper.
Sweet!
Oh No The Dinos lost Opening Day. 8-0. Fire the manager!
When I was stationed in Korea in the 90s the Doosan Bears were the OB Bears. (They were sold in '98, I think).
Since OB was (is?) a major brewery in Korea (roughly equivalent to Anheuser Busch here both in terms of market reach and, um, quality) they were generally the favorite team of U.S. servicemen.
So they basically went from being the Korean equivalent of the STL Cardinals to the Korean version of the Expos/Nationals, depending on how you look at it.
Dinos, are who I'll be supporting. Let's be real the name is awesome.
I'm with Jimmy on this one. All else being equal, you have to root for the Dinos.
As an added bonus, the Dinos are the team that Eric Thames, our new platoon first baseman, played for when he rebuilt his career in Korea. So they obliquely assisted the Nats, so that's another reason to support them.
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