The 2012 Asia Series baseball tournament closed here Sunday with the Yomiuri Giants of Japan beating the Lamigo Monkeys of Taiwan for the title, as the two South Korean participants were relegated to the role of observers.
South Korea served as the first time host of the annual continental baseball competition, as six teams from five countries descended on Busan.
The Samsung Lions represented the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) as the champions, joined by the Lotte Giants, the team based in the host city of Busan.
Yomiuri and Lamigo are champions of Japanese and Taiwanese leagues, respectively. The Perth Heat came here as the Australian Baseball League (ABL) champ, and the China Stars represented the China Baseball League (CBL) as an All-Star team.
The six teams were paired into two groups of three, with the top teams from each group advancing to the final after two intra-group games apiece. The Lions drew the Monkeys and the Stars, two inferior opponents on paper, in Group A. Over in Group B, Yomiuri, one of the most storied clubs in Japan, was paired with Lotte and Perth, both seen as underdogs.
Before the tournament, managers of the participating teams predicted a final between Samsung and Yomiuri. Despite growing parity in baseball in Asia, Korea and Japan remained ahead of the pack, the thinking went, and the league champions from those two countries would have clear paths to the final.
Not so fast.
The Lions, defending Asia Series champs, crashed out of the tournament in their very first game, losing to the Monkeys 3-0 on Friday.
The Taiwanese club had pounded the Stars 14-1 a day earlier, and the shutout victory over the Lions put the Monkeys in the final.
The Lotte Giants took down the Heat 6-1 in their first game on Thursday, but the tournament organizers' hopes of having at least one KBO club in the final were dashed on Saturday, when Lotte suffered a 5-0 shutout loss to Yomiuri.
A win would have pitted Lotte against Lamigo, but the Busan team managed only five hits against the Japanese champions.
The Lions, apparently hung over from clinching their second straight Korean Series title on Nov. 1, were undone by their lack of preparation.
Their hitters looked lethargic against the Lamigo starter Michael Loree, who threw a complete game shutout and gave up just three hits. Some, such as slugging first baseman Lee Seung-yeop, often took half-hearted swings at Loree's off-speed pitches.
Ryu Joong-il, the Lions' manager, had watched the Monkeys rout the Stars 14-1 Thursday and said his team would not take the Taiwanese opponents lightly.
After the stunning defeat to the very same Monkeys, however, Ryu admitted he hadn't previously watched Loree pitch.
"We've seen everyone else on that team play on tape," Ryu said. "He was the only one that we missed."
The Lions may also have been guilty of looking ahead to a potential meeting with Yomiuri in the final. They had said Jang Won-sam, their No. 1 starter who led the KBO with 17 wins in 2012, would start the final if they reached that far.
Ryu, it turned out, never got to use his best starter.
The Lotte Giants started the Asia Series with a win, but went flat against Japan's Giants.
Lotte entered the Asia Series as a club in transition. The team's manager, Yang Seung-ho, abruptly resigned on Oct. 30, to take the fall for the team's failure to reach the league final during his two-year tenure. His replacement, Kim Si-jin, was named three days before the start of the Asia Series, and will be inaugurated on Wednesday.
With bench coach Kwon Doo-jo serving as the interim manager during the Asia Series, Lotte also had key players sit out with bumps and bruises from the Korean season.
Chong Tae-hyon and Kang Young-sik, two key relief pitchers, were not on the Asia Series roster. Chong had been dealing with left knee pains since the South Korean playoffs last month. Kim Joo-chan, an outfielder and a leadoff man, made the team despite leg problems, but had just one pinch-hit at-bat. (Yonhap)