The ‘novice command towers’ who achieved 10 consecutive wins in their first season in charge experienced at least ‘fall baseball’. There was also a case of the best result of winning the Korean Series. Where will the final destination be for Doosan Bears manager Lee Seung-yeop, who is making a sensation in the second half?
Doosan, led by coach Lee Seung-yeop, lost 2-7 against the Lotte Giants in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League held at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on the 26th. With this, the undefeated march between Doosan and manager Lee Seung-yeop ended in ’11’.
With this streak, Coach Lee will once again remain on a page in the history of the KBO League. He became one of the five coaches in the KBO League who achieved 10 consecutive wins in his first year in office. Among them, he was the only domestic coach to achieve 11 consecutive victories, and together with coach Jerry Royster, set a tie record for the most consecutive victories in the first year regardless of nationality.
Prior to Lee, there were four coaches who achieved 10 consecutive victories in their first year in office: Cheon Bo-seong (LG) in 1997, Lee Hee-soo (Hanwha) in 1999, Lee Kwang-eun (LG) in 2000, and Royster (Lotte) in 2008. Among them, there is no director who has risen to the ranks of ‘master general’ and has been in power for a long time. However, all of them achieved satisfactory results that year when they achieved 10 consecutive wins.
Director Lee Hee-soo climbed to the highest point. At the end of the season, Hanwha, who was on the rise with 10 consecutive wins, climbed to second place in the Magic League at the time of the two major leagues and defeated the Doosan Bears, who ranked first in the Dream League, with 4 wins and no losses in the playoffs. 먹튀검증 In the Korean series that followed, Lotte, who had been in a bloody battle with the Samsung Lions, overcame Lotte with 4 wins and 1 loss, winning a thrilling championship. This remains Hanwha’s only win to this day.
The season win rate was 0.554 (72 wins, 2 draws, 58 losses), and if it had been a single league system, it would have been 4th, but it was a case that benefited from the two major league systems.
Coach Cheon Bo-seong, who led LG in 1997, also achieved a runner-up in the Korean Series. LG, who came in second with 73 wins, 2 draws and 51 losses (0.587) in the regular season, calmed the storm of double drops in the playoffs, but failed to overcome Haitai’s stronghold in the Korean series.
Coach Lee Kwang-eun took the baton of LG in 2000 and had a 10-game winning streak, but his regular season performance was not very good. With 67 wins, 3 draws and 63 losses (0.515), the win rate barely exceeded 50%. This is the lowest win rate among the 4 ‘novice coaches’ who have achieved 10 consecutive wins.
However, LG also benefited from the two major leagues and rose to the top of the Magic League. In the playoffs that followed, Doosan lost 2 wins and 4 losses and failed to advance to the Korean Series.
Lotte under coach Royster in 2008 is the only case that failed to even step into the playoffs. At that time, Lotte recorded 69 wins and 57 losses (0.548) in the regular season and ranked third, but collapsed with three consecutive losses to Samsung in the semi-playoffs.
However, the impact was the most intense, such as bringing Lotte, which had been in the ‘dark period’ for several years, to fall baseball, causing a ‘Royster craze’.
Where will director Lee Seung-yeop and Doosan’s final destination be? Until June, Doosan, which had been in the mid-rank with a win rate of 50%, became a solid third place with a recent 11-game winning streak. At this rate, like the previous four coaches, it is possible to at least advance into fall baseball.
LG and SSG, which are the ‘yanggang’, still look far away, but considering the number of remaining games, there is a possibility of overturning them.
Coach Lee Seung-yeop, a ‘beginner’ who took the helm of the first team without coaching experience and gave birth to many concerns as well as expectations. Will coach Lee, who has won 11 consecutive wins and turned concerns into ‘praise’, will be able to laugh until the end?