Game 6 of the 2002 Korean Series. The LG Twins were beaten by the Samsung Lions’ Lee Seung-yup and Ma Hae-young on back-to-back home runs.
For the next 20 years, they didn’t even make it to the Korean Series.
On November 13, 2023, Elgie finally shook off the hangover from the last game of the season.
In a best-of-five Korean Series (best-of-seven) game, the team defeated the KT Wiz 6-2 at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul, South Korea, with the team’s signature glossy jumpers and yellow mufflers all over the place.
The four-game winning streak after a one-game deficit propelled the Elsie to the top of Korean baseball for the first time in 29 years, since 1994.
Elgie manager Yeom Kyung-yeop also tasted victory as team commander.
Koo Kwang-mo, chairman of Elgee Group, traveled to Jamsil Baseball Stadium with his executives to watch his father (late chairman Koo Bon-moo) win the title.
■ ‘One-hit baseball’ instead of ‘foot baseball’
After finishing second in the regular season last year and missing the playoffs, Elgee reorganized the team.
They parted ways with coach Ryu Ji-hyun and hired former Heroes and Eskay (SK) Wyverns (now SSG Landers) coach Yoon Kyung-yeop.
Yeom returned to the field after more than two years, and this season, the team has been playing hard-hitting baseball.
Ranking first on the team in batting average (0.279), on-base percentage (0.361), and slugging percentage (0.394), Elsie has been able to shake up opposing lineups with her ‘football’.
He stole an average of 1.15 bases per game (1st), despite a lot of stolen bases and walks.
The postseason was a different story.
After finishing first in the regular season and going straight to the Korean Series, the team had three weeks off to rest up, which led to a more “one-hit” style of baseball. 먹튀검증
In the regular season, the team hit only 0.65 home runs per game (6th overall), but in the Korean Series, they hit 1.6 per game.
Both Game 2 (Park Dong-won’s two-run homer in the 8th) and Game 3 (Oh Ji-hwan’s three-run homer in the 9th) were home runs.
The two teams battled back and forth. In the bottom of the eighth inning, Elgee was down, but in the top of the ninth inning, “Captain” Oh hit a three-run home run.
The ‘one shot’ by Oh Ji-hwan, who didn’t give up until the end, energized the team, while Katie suffered severe internal injuries.
Elsewhere, the team swept Games 4 (15-4) and 5 with momentum.
After going 19-for-6 with three home runs and eight RBIs during the series, Oh was voted Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the series by the press corps (80 out of 93 votes – 86% of the vote) and received a Rolex watch bequeathed to him by the late Chairman Koo Bon-moo.
Chairman Koo bought the Rolex watch worth $80 million in 1998 to give to the Korean Series MVP, and it has been in the club’s safe for nearly 25 years.
He also received a small prize of $10 million from the KBO.
The bullpen fills the void left by Plutko
Elsewhere, the team was dealt a major blow ahead of the Korean Series when Adam Plutko (11-3, 2.41 ERA), who suffered a pelvic contusion in late August, was told by his American doctor that he could no longer pitch.
As a result, Elsie prepared for the Korean Series without Plutko.
The series starting rotation of Casey Kelly, Chan-kyu Lim, Won-tae Choi, and Yun-sik Kim was weaker than Katie’s (William Cuevas, Young-pyo Ko, Wes Benjamin, and Sang-baek Uhm), but Elsie overcame the weakness in the starting rotation with her bullpen.
This was due to the depth of the bullpen, which included Lee Jung-yong, Jung Woo-young, Kim Jin-sung, Baek Seung-hyun, Yoo Young-chan, Ham Duk-joo, and Ko Woo-seok.
After losing the first game, Elgee came back to win the second game after starter Choi Won-tae collapsed with only one out, but seven bullpen members came in one after the other to prevent further runs.
The game two win was a turning point.
In the fifth game of the playoffs against the NC Dinos, Katie’s bullpen, including Son Dong-hyun, Park Young-hyun, and Kim Jae-yoon, was severely depleted.
Despite the loss, Katie, who was trying to win the championship for the first time in two years, rose from the bottom (10th place) in early June to the second place in the regular season, and in the playoffs, she won three consecutive games after two losses.
