Tigers, Lions, Eagles and Giants make history, sadly

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Tigers, Lions, Eagles and Giants make history, sadly

While some KBO teams are still competing for a ranking spot in the regular season, four - the Kia Tigers, Samsung Lions, Hanwha Eagles and Lotte Giants - are already completely out of the running for this year’s postseason.

The Lions’ failure to advance to the postseason this year marked a historic milestone for the team - the first time ever it has failed to reach the postseason for four consecutive years. As the Lions are one of the original KBO teams, this is quite an achievement.

The Lions’ losing streak wasn’t the only historic achievement this season. This is the first time ever in the history of the KBO that the Tigers, Lions, Eagles and Giants have all failed to advance to the postseason. Remarkably, all four clubs are based outside of the capital area. Looking at the rankings as of Tuesday’s game, the NC Dinos are the only club in the top five not based in Seoul or Incheon.

Three of the four teams are original KBO teams. The league was founded in 1982 with six teams - the Lions, Giants, Haitai Tigers, OB Bears, MBC Chungyong and Sammi Superstars - and the Eagles joined in 1986.

Between the four of them, they have managed to win a total of 22 Korean Series titles, a huge number considering the league is only 37 years old.

The Tigers lead the KBO in terms of Korean Series titles, at 11. The Tigers have managed to advance to the postseason for the past three years and won both the pennant and Korean Series title in 2017.

The Lions are right behind the Tigers with eight. The team won four straight Korean Series titles from 2011 to 2014 but have struggled since then.

The Eagles hoped to prove that their third place finish last year wasn’t luck but failed to do so. The Giants have struggled all season, stuck at the bottom of the league as of Tuesday’s game with very little chance of moving.

BY KANG YOO-RIM [kang.yoorim@joongang.co.kr]
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