KIA of professional baseball has won the regular league title for the first time in seven years since 2017 and has won a ticket to the Korean Series (KS). Attention is focusing on whether KIA, which boasts an “unbeatable myth” of winning all the championships in the KS 11 times, including the days of full-body Haitai, will be able to achieve the “V12” by winning the 12th KS as well.
KIA lost 0-2 against Incheon SSG on the 17th, but erased the remaining magic number “1” as second-ranked Samsung lost 4-8 to Doosan. KIA, which had 83 wins, 2 draws and 52 losses and a winning rate of 0.615 as of the day, will not be able to catch up with second-ranked Samsung (75 wins, 2 draws and 60 losses) even if it loses all seven remaining games.
To name three keywords for winning the KIA regular league, coach Lee Bum-ho (43), Kim Do-young (21), and Yang Hyun-jong (36).
Kia faced an unfavorable situation even before the 2024 season started. Just two days before the departure of its spring camp, news spread that former coach Kim Jong-kook will be investigated by prosecutors over alleged bribery, and Kia replaced him. Kia’s choice for the new leadership was based on internal promotion of its batting coach Lee Bum-ho. Since his retirement from active duty in 2019, Lee has built up its leadership career by taking key posts including scouts, general manager for the second tier team, and batting coach for the first tier team. Although Lee has been taking lessons from the next coach step by step, Lee has risen to the managerial post faster than expected. As a well-prepared head coach, however, he led the team to victory in the regular league in his first year after taking office.
Lee, the first head coach born in the 1980s in the KBO League, united the team with his “first-born leadership.” Kia has suffered a flurry of injuries through pitching and hitting, but Lee did not lose the lead by making the most of its players on the mound and fielders to minimize leakage of power. It was possible because Lee had been in Kia’s coaching staff for a long time. Lee was sure when he had to approach the players in a friendly manner but was strict. He replaced the team relentlessly when key players including Kim Do-young, Park Chan-ho, Na Sung-bum and Socrates Brito played defense or baserunning that gave up the basics. His disposition was fair and his message was clear, so he had no complaints.
“Every novice head coach is a position that everyone has to go through at least once. I just thought about how I can win the game without thinking that I am a beginner,” Lee said. “The fact that I won all 11 Korean Series titles does not put any burden on me. I trust the players. I will win the 12th title as well. I will trust them and prepare well.” 스포츠토토
KIA’s batting lineup has been exploding consistently throughout the season. As of Wednesday, Kia’s team batting average (0.301), team scoring (818), team RBI (778), team on-base percentage (0.370), and team slugging percentage (0.464) all ranked first, showing off different levels of offense from other teams. At the center of Kia’s batting lineup is Kim Do-young, who has exploded his potential in the third year since his debut. Kim achieved the feat of 30 homers and 30 steals by playing the ninth and youngest game in his career on April 15, and is currently 37 homers and 39 steals, aiming for the second 40 homers and 40 steals after Eric Thames (NC, 47 homers and 40 steals) in 2015. Kim Do-young, who is the strongest candidate for MVP in the regular league, is expected to be able to become a unanimous MVP if he joins the 40-40 club.
In the pitching staff, Yang Hyun-jong, the “great pitcher,” shone. Of the five starting pitchers he envisioned at the beginning of this season, Yang Hyun-jong is the only one who has been guarding the mound so far. Lee Eui-ri and Will Crowe were out of the lineup early due to elbow surgery in May, and left-hander Yoon Young-chul, the fifth starter, is also on leave after being found to have fractured his spinal fatigue in July. James Nail, who served as a foreign ace, also suffered a broken jaw due to a hit in the match against NC on the 24th of last month. Under these circumstances, Yang kept the mound bravely despite being the best member of the pitching staff, and thanks to this, the KIA team was able not to collapse.
Meanwhile, the 2024 KBO League opened the era of 10 million spectators for the first time in 43 years since the launch of professional baseball, with a total of 77,084 spectators entering the four stadiums on the 15th, recording 1,027,758 cumulative spectators. As of the 17th, the cumulative audience was 10,144,279. Analysts say that the reason for opening the era of 10 million spectators for the first time in history was the influx of a large number of young fans through social networking services (SNS) and a significant increase in female spectators.
