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 Cho 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 KBO 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 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 the country. 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 KBO League debut against the Haitai Tigers at Gudeok Baseball Stadium on 28 March 1982. They defeated the Tigers 14–2, but finished in fifth 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.

1984 season

In 1984, the Giants won their first Korean Series title in the third season after the KBO 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 five out of seven games, had a 4–1 record (one shutout, three complete games, and one five-inning relief appearance), and pitched 40 innings in ten days.[3]

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 43 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 .523 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[lower-alpha 1] 132 75 52 5 .591 Runner-up
2000 2[lower-alpha 2] 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
2016 8 144 66 78 0 .458 Did not qualify
  1. ↑ Lotte Giants finished second in the "Dream Division"
  2. ↑ Lotte Giants finished second in the "Magic Division"

Current roster

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

Bullpen

  • 14 Kang Young-sik
  • 21 Son Seung-jun
  • 35 Lee Myung-woo
  • 38 No Kyoung-eun
  • 49 Bae Jang-ho
  • 55 Kim Yu-yeong
  • 65 Kim Sung-jae

Closer

  • 32 Kim Seung-hoi
Catchers
  •  2 Ahn Joong-yeol
  • 13 Kim Sa-hoon
  • 44 Kim Jun-tae
  • 47 Kang Min-ho

Infielders

  •  3 Oh Seung-taek
  •  6 Moon Kyu-hyun
  •  7 Lee Yeo-sang
  • 33 Jung Hoon
  • 36 Park Jong-yoon
  • 42 Kim Dae-ryuk

Outfielders

Designated hitters

 Pitchers
  • 19 Hong Sung-min
  • 20 Kang Seung-hyun
  • 34 Kim Won-jung
  • 45 Lee Jung-min
  • 48 Jung Tae-seung
  • 52 Lee Jae-gon
  • 63 Kim Young-il
  • 69 Kim Nam-gil
  • 95 Song Joo-eun
  • 101 Kim Woong
  • 129 Kim Jae-yeol

Catchers

  • 39 Kang Dong-kwan
  • 122 Kim Ho-jun

Infielders

  •  0 Hun Il
  •  4 Oh Yoon-seok
  •  5 Son Yong-seok
  •  9 Lim Jong-hyuk
  • 15 Hwang Jin-soo
  • 56 Shin Bon-ki
  • 105 Park Jeong-hyeon
  • 117 Lee Ye-chan
  • 118 Choi Seung-hoon

Outfielders

  • 22 Kim Dae-woo
  • 30 Kim Ji-soo
  • 51 Lee Seung-hwa
  • 59 Baek Min-ki
  • 63 Ko Do-hyeon
  • 98 Jo Jun-yeong
  • 104 Lee Jun-hyung
  • -- Sin Won-jae
Manager
  • 74 Cho Won-woo

Coaches

  • -- Kim Won-hyung (Head & Pitcher)
  • 99 Lee Yong-hoon (Pitcher)
  • 72 Chang Jea-jung (Battery)
  • 81 Julio Franco (Hitting)
  • 94 Kim Dai-ick (Hitting)
  • -- Kim Min-jae (Infield defense)
  • 80 Jung Bo-myung (Outfield defense)
  • 82 Choi Man-ho (Base Running)
Futures League
  • 79 Son Sang-dae (Futures Manager)
  • 85 Jin Pil-jung (Conditioning)
  • 90 Chris Oxspring (Pitching)
  • -- Kang Jun-Gyu (Battery)
  • -- Jang Jong-Hoon (Battery)
  • 86 Park Jung-hwan (Defense)
  • 77 Shin Min-ki (Dream defending)
Dream Team
  • -- Kim Tae-Kyun (Head)
  • -- Joo Hyung-Gwang (Pitcher)
  • -- Kim Seung-Gwan (Hitting)
  • 71 Ku Dong-woo (Rehab)


† Disabled list
* Suspended list
# Military list
Roster updated 11 November 2016
→ All KBO League rosters

Noted former players

See also

References

General
Specific
  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.
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