Tigers Chasing Asian Title
By Kang Seung-woo
Staff Reporter
After clinching their long-awaited 10th Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), the Kia Tigers now have their sights set on another goal ― then Asian championship.
The Tigers, the 2009 Korean Series champion, will meet the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) champion in the Korea-Japan Club Championship at Big N Stadium in Nagasaki, Japan on Nov. 14.
The Yomiuri Giants and Nippon Ham Fighters have advanced to the Japan Series, scheduled to start Saturday.
The inaugural event will supersede the Asia Series, which was established in 2005 and was played until last year with the four league champions from Korea, Japan, China and Taiwan.
The winner will receive 20 million yen (256 million won, $218,000) and the losing team will get 5 million yen.
A Giants win will set up an intriguing matchup between Kia Tigers hurlers and Giants first baseman Korean Lee Seung-yeop in a one-game contest.
Lee, 33, who has come off the bench to pinch-hit in the postseason after a season-long slump, faced his former team, the Samsung Lions, in the first Asia Series in 2005, when he played with the Chiba Lotte Marines.
In addition, Lee, who moved to NPB in 2004, had famously quarreled with Tigers current manager Cho Bum-hyun when both were with the Lions.
Cho worked as a battery coach for the Daegu-based team from 2000 to 2002 and contributed to the team winning the Korean Series in 2002. The following year he took over the SK Wyverns.
The Tigers, who produced an all-out effort to grab a league-best 10th trophy after reaching the Korean Series for the first time since 1997, plan to start training for the Club Championship Wednesday. The Gwangju-based team is seen as an underdog against either Japanese side. While they will have more time to rest ahead of the game, they will be missing several key players.
The dominant one-two punch of Aquilino Lopez and Rick Guttormson, who combined for 27 wins this season, will not join the team as both right-handers returned to the United States Sunday.
In addition, right-handed ace Yoon Suk-min and speedy outfielder Lee Yong-kyu are likely to be left off the roster because they have to report to a four-week-long military boot camp on Nov. 5.
Unlike the national team, which was the Olympic champion and a finalist at the World Baseball Classic (WBC), the professional teams have not had great success in international play, with no titles from the last four Asia Series.
The Lions, which finished second behind Marines in 2005, failed to reach the final the following year.
The Wyverns participated in the past two series, losing to the Chunichi Dragons 6-5 in the championship game in 2007 and bowing out early last year.