23-year formula broken, first Samsung-Dusan-SSG-free KS in 21st century… No Eternal Dynasty
Even SSG, the last bastion, was eliminated. For the first time in the 2000s, the Korean Series will be played without Samsung, Doosan and SSG. This breaks a long-standing 23-year formula that ended with the 1999 Korean Series between Hanwha and Lotte at the end of the century.
For 23 years, from 2000 to last year, one of the three teams – Samsung, Doosan and SSG – did not miss the Korean Series. During that time, Doosan reached the Korean Series 13 times, Samsung 11 times, and SSG nine times. Samsung has won the most championships with seven, followed by SSG and Doosan with five and four respectively.
Two of the three teams have faced each other in the Korean Series 10 times. Over the course of 23 years, the three teams have combined to win the title 16 times. They’ve also taken turns building dynasties.
SSG started its dynasty with six consecutive Korean Series titles from 2007-2012 under SK. Most notably, they won three titles in four years from 2007-2008 under Kim Sung-geun, followed by back-to-back titles in 2010. That legacy led to an upset win in 2018 under Trey Hillman, and a first-ever wire-to-wire title in 2022 under SSG.
Samsung also built a dynasty by winning back-to-back unified titles in 2005 and 2006 under Sun Dong-yeol, and then won four consecutive unified titles in 2011 and 2014 under Ryu Jung-il. It was only the second back-to-back championships since Hae-tae in 1986-1989, and the first in the current single-league system. By 2015, they had won five consecutive regular season titles, a dynasty that is hard to top.
Doosan began a new era in 2015, when it defeated Samsung in the Korean Series. With the appointment of manager Kim Tae-hyung, Hwasubun baseball blossomed. 카지노사이트킴 Despite the bad luck of free agency for key players every year, other players constantly stepped up to the plate, and the team qualified for the Korean Series for seven consecutive years until 2022. For the first time, they won the title three times by 2019, including back-to-back in 2015 and 2016.
But nothing lasts forever. Even dynasties don’t last forever.
Samsung was the first to fall. After a five-game winning streak was snapped in 2015 in the wake of illegal gambling scandals involving key players, the team missed fall baseball for five straight years from 2016-2020. They flashed with a second-place finish in the 2021 regular season, but missed the postseason for the second straight year, finishing seventh and eighth. Despite three managerial changes, rebuilding a dynasty is not easy. After the season, the team hired Lee Jong-yeol, the first outsider in franchise history and a former baseball player, to reform the organization.
Doosan, an increasingly dysfunctional organization, ended the Kim Tae-hyung era last year with a ninth-place finish. This year, under Lee Seung-yup, a former superstar in the KBO, the team returned to fall baseball with a fifth-place finish, but the season ended in disappointment, falling one game short in the wild-card game. The lack of growth from the younger players on the offensive side of the ball became a challenge for Lee to solve in his second year.
SSG, who dominated the league last year by winning the wire-to-wire integration title, also saw the need for change this year. They fought for the top spot in the first half of the season, but the team’s strength weakened dramatically in the second half. Although they finished in third place, they ended without a win after losing three straight games to NC in the semi-finals. With a heavy reliance on veteran players in their mid-to-late 30s and 40s, the team has reached a point where a generational change can no longer be put off.