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| The NC Dinos players pose at the team's New Year meeting at Masan Baseball Stadium in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, Monday. The Dinos, who joined Korea's top professional baseball league starting in the 2013 season, placed third in the regular season last year. They will leave for Arizona on Thursday to set up a spring training camp. / Yonhap |
By Baek Byung-yeul
The 10 top professional Korean baseball clubs embark on overseas spring training this week ahead of their season openers on March 28.
To escape the severe cold winter in their homeland, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) clubs traditionally set up camps in warmer regions, such as the Pacific islands of Guam and Okinawa or the U.S. states of Florida and Arizona.
They will leave Korea Thursday and Friday and will strive to train in overseas camps for the next 50 days until their exhibition season begins on March 7.
The 2015 season will mark a new epoch in the history of the KBO as the KT Wiz will officially join the country's top baseball league, becoming its tenth team.
The KBO, which opened its inaugural season in 1982 with only six teams, added its ninth club, the NC Dinos, in 2013. The KT Wiz spent last season in the Futures League, the KBO's equivalent of the minors. They will set up their spring training camp in Japan's Miyazaki and Kagoshima.
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| Ryu Joong-il, manager for the Samsung Lions, center, and his team's players hold up their hands in a "fighting" pose during their New Year meeting at Gyeongsan Ball Park in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province, Monday. The reigning Korean Series champion Lions will set up spring training camps in Guam and Okinawa. / Yonhap |
Lions to train in Guam
The Samsung Lions, who won their fourth consecutive pennant and Korea Series crown last season, will set up their camp in Guam as usual.
After spending some 20 days there, the team will open its second training camp in Okinawa.
While the Lions manager Ryu Joong-il has declared the team will challenge for a fifth consecutive pennant, it will be by no means easy as the team lost three core members.
They include Rick van den Hurk, a right-handed starting pitcher, who recorded 13 wins and 4 losses while pitching 152 2/3 innings; veteran right-handed pitcher Bae Young-soo, who captured 8 wins and 6 losses in 133 2/3 innings; and left-handed relief pitcher Kwon Hyuk, who struck out 38 batters in 34 2/3 innings.
The 29-year-old van den Hurk, who also led the KBO in ERA and strikeouts, signed with Japanese pro baseball club the Softbank Hawks in December, while Bae and Kwon signed contracts with the KBO's Hanwha Eagles.
The Lions CEO Kim In called on his team's players to make the most of their ability and go beyond their expectations by "10 percent."
"For example, for a batter who recorded a .270 batting average last year. If he does 10 percent more, his average will be .300 this season. This is ‘the 10 percent more campaign' that I am accentuating. If everyone in the club does 10 percent more, I am sure that we can capture a fifth consecutive pennant," he said at a meeting in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province, Monday.
Can Eagles spread their wings and fly again?
The Hanwha Eagles will probably be one of the most watchable teams in the KBO as the team has inked veteran manager Kim Seung-keun.
The Eagles, the worst team in four of the past five seasons, will expect Kim, who's famous for his nickname "God of Baseball," to lift the team to loftier heights.
The 72-year-old Kim, who earned three Korean Series crowns when he was a manager of the SK Wyverns from 2007 to 2011, has 1,234 career wins for seven KBO clubs, which is the second-highest behind the Eagles previous manager Kim Euong-yong's 1,567 wins.
At Kim Seung-keun's request, the Eagles signed three notable free agent pitchers during this offseason ― Kwon and Bae from the Lions, and the Kia Tigers right-handed pitcher Song Eun-bum.
The newly formed Eagles will leave the country Thursday to set up their camp in Japan's Kochi until Feb. 14, and then move to Okinawa from Feb. 15 to March 3.
Five other baseball clubs ― the Nexen Heroes, who lost to the Lions in the Korean Series last year; the NC Dinos, who placed third in the regular season; the LG Twins, the Doosan Bears and the Lotte Giants ― will leave for Arizona for their training camps.
The SK Wyverns, who placed fifth last season, will stay in Florida and Okinawa, while the Kia Tigers, who finished eighth, will continue to train only in Okinawa.
