LG Twins

LG Twins
LG 트윈스
Team logo Cap insignia
Information
League	KBO League (1982–present)
Location	Seoul
Ballpark	Jamsil Baseball Stadium (1982–present)
Year established	1982; 39 years ago (1982)
League championships	1983,[a] 1990, 1994
Korean Series championships	1990, 1994
Former name(s)	MBC Chungryong (1982–1989)
Colors	Black, maroon and grey
Retired numbers	9, 41
Ownership	LG Corporation
Manager
Website	www.lgtwins.com
Uniforms

LG Twins (Korean: LG 트윈스) is a South Korean professional baseball team based in Seoul, South Korea. They are a member of the KBO League. The Twins play their home games at Jamsil Baseball Stadium, which they share with their rival, the Doosan Bears;^[1] the stadium is known as "Two families under one roof."

The LG Twins are one of the most popular baseball teams in Korea.^{[citation needed]} They gained many fans in the 1980s–2000s, most of whom live in Seoul.^{[citation needed]}

History[]

The club was first established in 1982 as MBC Chungyong (translation MBC "Blue Dragons"), owned by the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation. For the very first half-season in 1982 the team played at Dongdaemun Baseball Stadium; in the fall season of 1982 the team moved to their current home, Jamsil Baseball Stadium. (In 1985, the OB Bears [now the Doosan Bears] began using the same stadium as their home park.)

The Chungyong were initially led by player-manager Baek In-chun, a Korean who had spent 19 seasons in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball. Incredibly, at age 38, Baek led the league in hitting in 1982, with a record-setting .412 batting average^[2] (albeit in only 298 plate appearances). As manager, Baek brought the Japanese "small ball" technique to his team, focusing on sacrifice bunts, stolen bases, and sacrifice flies.^[2] Although the team finished above .500 in 1982, Baek was let go by the team after the season.

In 1989, the franchise was acquired by LG Corporation, which renamed the team the LG Twins. The Twins won the Korean Series in 1990—the first year with their new name—under the returned Baek In-chun (now a full-time manager). They again won the KBO championship in 1994. The Korean Series MVP was Kim Yong-soo in both Series. Kim's number, 41, was for many years the only retired number of the team, before Lee Byung-kyu's number 9 was retired on July 9, 2017, in a ceremony that took place both before and after the game against the Hanwha Eagles.

The team was originally established as the MBC Chungyong (translation MBC "Blue Dragons"), owned by the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation. On January 18, 1990, LG bought the MBC Chungyong and was officially re-established as the LG Twins on March 15, 1990. That year, LG Twins won their first Korean Series with head coach,  Baek In-chun. And they won their second championship in 1994. However, after their last Korean Series appearance in 2002 the team has gone through the dark ages, not making the postseason for 11 years until 2013. In 2013, LG Twins earned the second seed in the regular season and qualified for the playoff series in 16 years. Since the 2013 season, LG has made five postseason appearances (2013, 2014, 2016, 2019, 2020) but has failed to return to the Korean Series. They hold the second-longest streak for a championship drought, 26 years which is still continuing.

MBC Chungyong[]

LG Twins was originally established as the MBC Chyungyong on January 26th, 1982. MBC Chungyong recorded the first win of the KBO league and reached the Korean Series in 1983 finishing second place in the playoffs. In 1989 based on the agreement between labor and management MBC decided to sell the Chungyong baseball team. LG Group bought the ownership of the MBC Chyungyong on January 18, 1990. The team officially changed its name to LG Twins on March 15th, 1990.

LG Twins[]

Lg Twins first head coach was Baek In-chun who was the first and last head coach of the MBC Chungyong. On their first-year rookie catcher Dong-soo Kim and veteran Chan Yup Noh, Sang-Hoon Kim led the team among the hitters. And Yong-soo Kim Sang-him Jung played a remarkable role as pitchers. Based on the effective performance of the team LG Twins finished first place in the regular season and advanced to the Korean Series. In the 1990 Korean Series, LG Twins faced the Samsung Lions. They recorded a sweep win and became champions in the first year of foundation.

Culture[]

Fan events[]

The LG Twins have a unique cheering culture, and their cheering tools change a lot every few years. In addition, the LG Twins were the world's first team to use cheering stick balloons in the 1994 Korean Series. In the past 90s, yellow pickled radish stick balloons and towels such as Kia-tigers were popular, but most of them disappeared after slump. LG Twins was the first team to cheer for the cheering claps of Korea. Unlike most clubs putting the strongest in front, LG's cheering chant is invincible LG, and LG is the only team that attaches other words than LG. Since then, red bar balloons and yellow paper (limited to home games) were mainly cheered until 2013, but now, unlike other teams, which mainly support bar balloons starting with 2014 and Choi Dong-hoon's support, bare hands, yellow towels, sing-alongs, and glossy baseball jacket cheers are popular.

Season-by-season records[]

Season	Stadium	League	Finish	Regular season									Postseason	Awards
				Rank	Games	Wins	Losses	Draws	Win%	BA	HR	ERA
MBC Chungyong
	Dongdaemun Baseball Stadium	KBO	3/6	3/6	40	22	18	0	.550	.282	65	3.51	Did not qualify
	Jamsil Baseball Stadium			3/6	40	24	16	0	.600
		KBO	2/6	3/6	50	25	24	1	.510	.256	45	2.72	Lost Korean Series vs. Haitai Tigers (0–1–4)
				1/6	50	30	19	1	.612
		KBO	4/6	3/6	50	27	22	1	.551	.253	47	3.19	Did not qualify
				3/6	50	24	26	0	.480
		KBO	5/6	5/6	55	24	31	0	.436	.246	37	3.24	Did not qualify
				6/6	55	20	34	1	.370
		KBO	3/7	4/7	54	28	22	4	.560	.265	37	2.78	Did not qualify	(ROTY)
				3/7	54	31	19	4	.620
		KBO	5/7	5/7	54	24	27	3	.472	.258	36	3.36	Did not qualify
				4/7	54	26	24	4	.519
		KBO	6/7	7/7	54	17	35	2	.333	.260	42	3.95	Did not qualify	Lee Yong-chul (ROTY)
				6/7	54	23	29	2	.444
		KBO	6/7	6/7	120	49	67	4	.425	.252	42	4.28	Did not qualify
LG Twins
	Jamsil Baseball Stadium	KBO	1/7	1/7	120	71	49	0	.592	.271	61	3.38	Won Korean Series vs. Samsung Lions (4–0)	Kim Dong-soo (ROTY)
		KBO	6/8	6/8	126	53	72	1	.425	.244	53	4.38	Did not qualify
		KBO	7/8	7/8	126	53	70	3	.433	.257	108	4.29	Did not qualify
		KBO	4/8	4/8	126	66	57	3	.536	.256	74	3.07	Won Semi-playoff vs. OB Bears (2–1) Lost Playoff vs. Samsung Lions (2–3)
		KBO	1/8	1/8	126	81	45	0	.643	.282	88	3.14	Won Korean Series vs. Pacific Dolphins (4–0)	(ROTY)
		KBO	3/8	2/8	126	74	48	4	.603	.257	79	3.21	Lost Playoff vs. Lotte Giants (2–4)
		KBO	7/8	7/8	126	50	71	5	.417	.246	98	4.11	Did not qualify
		KBO	2/8	2/8	126	73	51	2	.587	.267	83	3.78	Won Playoff vs. Samsung Lions (3–2) Lost Korean Series vs. Haitai Tigers (1–4)	Lee Byung-kyu (ROTY)
		KBO	2/8	3/8	126	63	62	1	.504	.267	100	4.18	Won Semi-playoff vs. OB Bears (2–0) Won Playoff vs. Samsung Lions (3–1) Lost Korean Series vs. Hyundai Unicorns (2–4)
		Magic League	3/8	3/4	132	61	70	1	.466	.281	145	5.49	Did not qualify
		Magic League	4/8	1/4	133	67	63	3	.515	.273	122	4.45	Lost Playoff vs. Doosan Bears (2–4)
		KBO	6/8	6/8	133	58	67	8	.464	.276	85	5.13	Did not qualify
		KBO	2/8	4/8	133	66	61	6	.520	.261	100	3.94	Won Semi-playoff vs. Hyundai Unicorns (2–0) Won Playoff vs. Kia Tigers (3–2) Lost Korean Series vs. Samsung Lions (2–4)
		KBO	6/8	6/8	133	60	71	2	.458	.249	106	4.01	Did not qualify
		KBO	6/8	6/8	133	59	70	4	.457	.259	102	4.38	Did not qualify
		KBO	6/8	6/8	126	54	71	1	.432	.260	105	4.90	Did not qualify
		KBO	8/8	8/8	126	47	75	4	.385	.246	81	4.22	Did not qualify
2007		KBO	5/8	5/8	126	58	62	6	.483	.268	78	4.34	Did not qualify
2008		KBO	8/8	8/8	126	46	80	0	.365	.256	66	4.88	Did not qualify
2009		KBO	8/8	8/8	133	54	75	4	.406	.278	129	5.42	Did not qualify
2010		KBO	6/8	6/8	133	57	71	5	.445	.276	121	5.23	Did not qualify
2011		KBO	6/8	6/8	133	59	72	2	.450	.266	94	4.15	Did not qualify
2012		KBO	7/8	7/8	133	57	72	4	.442	.261	59	4.02	Did not qualify
2013		KBO	3/9	2/9	128	74	54	0	.578	.282	59	3.72	Lost Playoff vs. Doosan Bears (1–3)
2014		KBO	4/9	4/9	128	62	64	2	.492	.279	90	4.58	Won Semi-playoff vs. NC Dinos (3–1) Lost Playoff vs. Nexen Heroes (1–3)
2015		KBO	9/10	9/10	144	64	78	2	.451	.271	114	4.62	Did not qualify
2016		KBO	4/10	4/10	144	71	71	2	.500	.290	118	5.10	Won Wild Card vs. Kia Tigers (1–1)* Won Semi-playoff vs. Nexen Heroes (3–1) Lost Playoff vs. NC Dinos (1–3)
2017		KBO	6/10	6/10	144	69	72	3	.489	.281	110	4.32	Did not qualify
2018		KBO	8/10	8/10	144	68	75	1	.476	.293	148	5.29	Did not qualify
2019		KBO	4/10	4/10	144	79	64	1	.476	.267	94	3.89	Won Wild Card vs. NC Dinos (1–0) Lost Semi-playoff vs. Kiwoom Heroes (1–3)
2020		KBO		4/10	144	79	61	4	.564				Won Wild Card vs. Kiwoom Heroes (1–0) Lost Semi-playoff vs. Doosan Bears (0–2)
Overall record					Games	Wins	Losses	Draws	Win%
Regular Season					4913	2347	2455	111	.489
Postseason					97	46	50	1	.479
Total					5010	2393	2505	112	.489

Personnel[]

Current lineup[]

Managers[]

• Baek In-chun (1982)
• (1983)
• (1984–85)
• (2) (1986–87)
• (1988)
• (1989)
• Baek In-chun (2) (1989–91)
• (1992–94)
• (1995–99)
• (2000–01)
• Kim Sung-keun (2002)
• (2) (2003)
• (2004–06)
• Kim Jae-bak (2007–09)
•  [ko] (2010–11)
• Kim Ki-tae (2012–2014)
• Yang Sang-moon (2014–2017)
• Ryu Joong-il (2018–2020)
• (2021–present)

In popular culture[]

The team features prominently in the tvN drama Reply 1994, where the team's 1994 coach is a main character. The team is referenced under a different name, "Seoul Twins" (Korean: 서울 쌍둥이), due to trademark issues with the LG Corporation.^[3]

The LG Twins have a very unique cheering culture, and their cheering tools change a lot every few years. In addition, the LG Twins were the world's first team to use cheering stick balloons in the 1994 Korean Series. In the past 90s, yellow pickled radish stick balloons and towels such as Kia-tigers were popular, but most of them disappeared after slump. LG Twins was the first team to cheer for the cheering claps of Korea. Unlike most clubs putting the strongest in front, LG's cheering chant is invincible LG, and LG is the only team that attaches other words than LG. Since then, red bar balloons and yellow paper (limited to home games) were mainly cheered until 2013, but now, unlike other teams, which mainly support bar balloons starting with 2014 and Choi Dong-hoon's support, bare hands, yellow towels, sing-alongs, and glossy baseball jacket cheers are popular.

References[]

Notes

General

• "Complete league history and statistics" (in Korean). Korean Baseball League. Retrieved 8 September 2017.

Specific

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to LG Twins.

• Official website (in Korean)
• LG Twins on Facebook (in Korean)
• LG Twins's channel on YouTube (in Korean)
• LG Twins on Instagram (in Korean)