Lotte Giants

Lotte Giants
롯데 자이언츠
Team logo Cap insignia
League KBO League (1982–present)
Location Busan, South Korea
Ballpark
Year established 1975 (1975)
Nickname(s) Busan Seagulls
Korean Series championships (2): 1984, 1992
Former ballparks
Colors Black and orange
         
Retired numbers 11[1]
Ownership Lotte
Manager Jo Won-Woo
General Manager Lee Chang-Won
Uniforms
Mascot emblem

The Lotte Giants (Korean: 롯데 자이언츠) are a professional baseball team based in the southeastern city of Busan, South Korea, and one of the original franchises of the Korea Baseball Organization league. The Lotte Giants are owned by the South Korean-Japanese Lotte conglomerate, which also owns the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Professional Baseball.

From 1982 through 1986, they played at Gudeok Baseball Stadium and since then have played at Sajik Baseball Stadium. They won the KBO Championship, the Korean Series, twice in 1984 and 1992. The team drew about 1.38 million spectators during the 2009 season, a record which remains as the most attendance[2] in a single season in any Korean sports league. They are often called the Busan Seagulls (Korean: 부산 갈매기) because the official bird of the city of Busan is the seagull, and their main fight song is Busan Seagulls. Concidentally, a seagull also serves as the mascot for the Chiba Lotte Marines.

History

The Lotte Giants were founded as an amateur baseball team of the Korea Baseball Association in Seoul, South Korea, on 6 May 1975, when there was no professional sports team in Korea. On 22 February 1982, the Giants became professional and moved to Busan, the second largest city after Seoul in South Korea.

1982 season

The Lotte Giants made their the Korea Professional Baseball league debut against the Haitai Tigers at Gudeok Baseball Stadium on 28 March 1982. They defeated the Tigers 14-2, but finished in 5th place out of six teams with a .388 winning percentage. Choi Dong-Won, Yu Do-Yeol, and Sim Jae-Won of the Korea national baseball team postponed joining the Giants to play for the country in the 1982 Amateur World Series held in Seoul, South Korea. This might be one of the reasons the Giants had such a disappointing season.

1984 season

In 1984, the Giants won their first Korean Series title in the third season after the Korea Professional Baseball league was launched. They beat the Samsung Lions 4-3 in the Korean Series. They were led by Choi Dong-Won, one of the most dominant pitchers in Korea Professional Baseball league, who finished 1984 with 27 wins, 223 strikeouts, and a 2.40 ERA and won the regular season MVP Award.[3] In the 1984 Korean Series, he appeared in 5 out of 7 games, had a 4-1 record ( 1 shutout, 3 complete games, and 1 five-inning relief appearance), and pitched 40 innings in 10 days.[3]

2011 season

The Giants suffered many game losses (41 losses) in the first half of the season because of rookie manager Yang Seung-ho's trial and error. As time passed, manager Yang found the way to make the best use of the players, and the Giants finished the regular season in second place at 72-56-5. However, they were defeated by the SK Wyverns, which finished in third place in the regular season, in the best-of-five playoffs. Thus, they didn't make it to the Korean Series. According to the league's rules on standings—the teams playing in the Korean Series have the first and second places respectively—their final place is a step down from the second place of the regular season.

During the off-season, the club failed to reach an agreement with star player Lee Dae-Ho, who later signed with the Orix Buffaloes of the Nippon Professional Baseball, while it obtained free agents Lee Seung-Ho, a former SK Wyverns left-handed reliever, and Chong Tae-Hyon, a former SK Wyverns underhand closer.

Popularity and attendance

Fans cheering the Giants at Sajik Baseball Stadium in 2011

The Giants are the most popular team in the Korea Baseball Organization league.[4] According to a Gallup Korea's survey conducted in 2011, the Giants were chosen as the most popular team three times in a row.[4] They attracted over 1 million fans to Sajik Baseball Stadium in 1991 for the first time in the league. In the 2009 season, they set the all-time record of home attendance of 1,380,018 fans.[2] In the 2011 season, they also led the league in the total home attendance with 1,358,322 fans at 67 home games.[5] The average attendance was 20,273 fans per game, and therefore the stadium was about 71 percent full.[5] From 2008 to 2011, they drew over 1 million fans four years consecutively, which is the first time in Korean professional baseball history.

Retired number


Choi Dong-Won
P
The club's first retired number is Choi Dong-Won's squad number 11. He was one of the top pitchers in the Korea Professional Baseball league and died of cancer in 2011.[1]

Season-by-season records

Year Rank Games W L D Win% Postseason
1982 5 80 31 49 0 .388 Did not qualify
1983 6 100 42 56 1 .434 Did not qualify
1984 1 100 50 48 2 .510 Winner
1985 2 110 59 51 0 .536 Not held
1986 5 108 50 52 6 .490 Did not qualify
1987 3 108 54 49 5 .524 Did not qualify
1988 3 108 57 49 2 .537 Did not qualify
1989 7 120 48 67 5 .421 Did not qualify
1990 6 120 44 71 5 .388 Did not qualify
1991 4 126 61 62 3 .496 Semi-playoff
1992 1 126 71 55 0 .563 Winner
1993 6 126 62 63 1 .496 Did not qualify
1994 6 126 56 67 3 .456 Did not qualify
1995 2 126 68 53 5 .560 Runner-up
1996 5 126 57 63 6 .476 Did not qualify
1997 8 126 48 77 1 .385 Did not qualify
1998 8 126 50 72 4 .410 Did not qualify
1999 2 132 75 52 5 .591 Runner-up
2000 5 133 65 64 4 .504 Semi-playoff
2001 8 133 59 70 4 .457 Did not qualify
2002 8 133 35 97 1 .265 Did not qualify
2003 8 133 39 91 3 .300 Did not qualify
2004 8 133 50 72 11 .410 Did not qualify
2005 5 126 58 67 1 .464 Did not qualify
2006 7 126 50 73 3 .407 Did not qualify
2007 7 126 55 68 3 .447 Did not qualify
2008 3 126 69 57 0 .548 Semi-playoff
2009 4 133 66 67 0 .496 Semi-playoff
2010 4 133 69 61 3 .519 Semi-playoff
2011 3 133 72 56 5 .563 Playoff
2012 4 133 65 62 6 .512 Playoff
2013 5 128 66 58 4 .532 Did not qualify
2014 7 128 58 69 1 .457 Did not qualify
2015 8 144 66 77 1 .462 Did not qualify

Current roster

Lotte Giants roster
Active roster Inactive roster Coaches/Other
Pitchers
Starting rotation

Bullpen

  • 14 Kang Young-sik
  • 35 Lee Myung-woo
  • 49 Bae Jang-ho
  • 67 Kim Sung-bae
  • -- Yoon Kil-hyun
  • -- Kim-Woong
  • -- Yang Hyung-Jin
  • -- Son Seung-lak

Template:Plauer Closer

  • 32 Kim Seung-hoi
Catchers

Infielders

  •  3 Oh Seung-taek
  •  6 Moon Kyu-hyun
  • 13 Hwang Jae-gyun
  • 33 Jung Hoon
  • 36 Park Jong-yoon

Outfielders

Designated hitters

 Pitchers
  • 17 Shim Soo-chang
  • 19 Hong Sung-min
  • 20 Kang Seung-hyun
  • 22 Lee Ji-mo
  • 61 Huh Jun-hyuk
  • 45 Lee Jung-min
  • 48 Jung Tae-seung
  • 52 Lee Jae-gon
  • 54 Moon Dong-wook †
  • 65 Lee In-bok
  • 95 Song Joo-eun
  • 96 Kim You-young
  • -- Ko Won-jun #
  • -- Kim Sung-ho #
  • -- Kim Won-jung #
  • -- Park Si-yeong #
  • -- Park Hee-sung #
  • -- Lee Kyung-woo #
  • -- Jang Kuk-hon #
  • -- Jin Myung-ho #

Catchers

  • 42 Kim Sa-hoon
  • 44 Kim Jun-tae
  • -- Yoon Yeo-woon #
  • -- Lee Ji-hyuk #
  • -- Kang Dong-gwan

Infielders

  •  4 Oh Yoon-seok
  •  5 Son Yong-seok
  •  9 Lim Jong-hyuk
  • 15 Lee Yeo-sang
  • 56 Sin Bon-ki
  • 66 Hwang Jin-soo
  • -- Kim Sang-ho #
  • -- Baek Wang-jung #
  • -- Hor Il #

Outfielders

  •  0 Kim Joo-hyun
  • 18 Kim Dae-woo
  • 51 Lee Seung-hwa
  • 57 Shin Won-jae
  • 59 Baek Min-ki
  • 63 Ko Do-hyeon
  • 93 Cho Hong-suk †
 Manager
  • 00 Jo Won-U

Coaches

  • 70 Kim Tae-gyun (Head)
  • 70 Kong Pil-sung (Defence)
  • 76 Joo Hyung-kwang (Bullpen Pitching)
  • 88 Yang Yong-mo (Battery)
  • -- Jang Jong-Hun (Hitting)
  • -- Jeong Bo-Myung (Hitting)
  • 77 Jang Jae-young (Training)
  • 81 Park Hyeon-seung (Defence)
  • -- Choi Man-Ho (Base Running)
Futures League

  • 85 Lee Dong-hoon (Futures Battery)
  • 84 Lee Yeong-jun (Futures Training)

  • 75 Lee Yong-ho (Dream Team Pitching)
  • 72 Ahn Sang-jun (Dream Team Defence)
  • 82 Kim Sung-hyun (Dream Team Battery)
  • -- Lee Yong-Hun (Dream Team)
  • -- Ryan Sadowski (International Scout)


† Disabled list
* Suspended list
# Military list
Roster updated 2014-05-06
→ All KBO League rosters

Noted former players

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Yoon, Hyun (2011-09-30). "Iron arm Choi Dong-Won becomes Busans everlasting number 11" (in Korean). Ohmynews.com. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
  2. 1 2 KBO 역대관중현황 Archived December 4, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  3. 1 2 (Korean) 한국시리즈 '나홀로 4승' 불꽃투, 우승 이끌다. Sports Seoul. Retrieved 8 December 2011.
  4. 1 2 프로야구 롯데, 3회 연속 최고 인기구단 (in Korean). Article.joinsmsn.com. Retrieved 2013-08-10.
  5. 1 2 홈관중몰이 1위 롯데 (in Korean). News.sportsseoul.com. Retrieved 2013-08-10.

External links

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