Samsung dominated the KBO League in the early and mid-2010s. From 2011 to 2014, Samsung won four consecutive titles that devoured both the regular league and the Korean Series, ushering in the era of the “Samsung Dynasty.” The four consecutive wins were a great achievement that even the “Haitai Dynasty,” which was called the strongest in the history of the KBO league, dominated the 1980s and 1990s.
Samsung also won the regular league title in 2015 and went straight to the Korean Series to add another medal to their great achievement. However, the team was excluded from the entry list as it was found that three key players of the pitching staff, including the first starter, the key setup man and the closing pitcher, are under investigation by the prosecution for gambling overseas. As Doosan lost the Korean Series trophy, the team’s five consecutive wins became a “秋夢 of autumn dreams.” This represented the beginning of the collapse of the Samsung Dynasty.
From the launch of professional baseball until 2015, Samsung used Daegu Civic Baseball Stadium as its home stadium. Opened in 1948, immediately after liberation, the civic baseball stadium was considered one of the first to be too old and poor. From 2016, the newly built Samsung Lions Park (hereinafter referred to as Rafak) was used as its home stadium, but now the results were not good.
Samsung was famous for its aggressive investment in the past, which was criticized by fans of other clubs as “Donseong,” but coincidentally, the operation of the baseball team was incorporated into Cheil Worldwide since 2016, and it was not able to invest as much as before. Naturally, Samsung faced a dark age as the main players who led the dynasty left the team one by one. 2021 is the only year when it received invitations for autumn baseball after the opening of Lapak. The Samsung Dynasty has become an outdated word that makes Samsung fans feel nostalgic. The dynasty
Samsung fans, who did, are gathering in Lapak in 2024. It seems that Lapak will have a proper opening effect.
Samsung achieved a full crowd with 24,000 seats sold out in the home game against Lotte on the 3rd. It was a packed weekday game in eight years and 607 games since Lapak opened in 2016. It was expected to move around in the lower ranks this season, but the structure of the pitching and hitting changed to the point where it was unrecognizable, and as a result, the fans who left the house returned as it was at the top of the season. Thanks to this, on the 14th of last month, it succeeded in surpassing 1 million spectators in its home stadium for the first time in a season since its professional launch. When the civil baseball stadium, which had only about 10,000 to 13,000 seats, was used as its home stadium, it was a million spectators that could not be dreamed of.
Spectators are not the only ones who came back. The home run that Samsung fans, who had “national hitters” Lee Seung-yeop (current coach of Doosan Bears), have longed for is also back. On Thursday, Samsung won the game 5-1, with four solo home runs, including solo shots by Park Byung-ho and Jeon Byung-woo and consecutive hitters by Koo Ja-wook. As of Thursday, Samsung had 158 home runs, ranking first in all 10 teams. 토토사이트
The team’s No. 1 home run is proof that it is enjoying the Lapak effect properly. Samsung has not exceeded 150 team home runs since 2016 after 176 home runs in 2015. It is a typical batter-friendly stadium with the best home runs among the nine stadiums where the KBO League is currently held, but Samsung has not seen any effect since the opening of Lapak.
It is different this season. Of the 158 homers he hit through Sunday, 108 came from Lapak. It is the first time this season that he hit a triple digit home run at Lapak. Nine years after its opening in 2016, he is finally enjoying the Lapak effect.
Thanks to Lapak, six players in his team have hit double-digit home runs. Koo Ja-wook, who ranks first in home runs, smashed 18 of his 26 home runs at Lapak, while Kim Young-woong, who has 25 home runs, also garnered 18 at Lapak. Lee Seong-gyu, who ranks third in home runs within his team with 20 home runs, also hit 13 at Lapak.
Although he is the “home run king of the past,” it was also Rafak who saved Park Byung-ho, who was on the verge of retirement this season. Park Byung-ho, who lost his starting position at KT with a batting average of 0.198 with three homers and an OPS of 0.638, succeeded in reviving after moving to Samsung with a batting average of 0.249 with 16 homers and an OPS of 0.880. Of the 16 homers Park hit after moving to Samsung, 11 came from Rafak.
As of Thursday, Samsung ranks second with 70 wins, two draws and 56 losses. While the gap between the top-ranked KIA (76 wins, two draws and 49 losses) and Kia (76 wins, two losses) widened to 6.5 matches, the gap between the top-ranked KIA (65 wins, two draws and 58 losses) and the third-ranked LG (65 wins, five losses) also widened to 3.5 matches, which is a likely outcome for the second-ranked team to win the championship. If Samsung secures a direct ticket to the playoffs and overcomes its showdown with the winner of the semi-playoff, the Korean Series could take place for the first time since the opening of Lapak in 2016. Will the first Korean Series be held at Lapak? So far, the mood is going like this.
