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암흑기 탈출 LG, 첫 PS 넥센, 미라클 두산… 서울야구의 화려한 부활

Oct. 25, 2013 - 18:28 By 윤민식

야구팬들이 지난 17일 열린 두산 베어스와 LG 트윈스와의 플레이오프 2차전을 지켜보며 열광하고 있다. (김명섭 기자/코리아헤럴드)


야구팬이라면 누구나 꿈꾸는 가을야구 무대, 그 정점인 한국 시리즈에서 치열한 포스트시즌의 생존자인 두산 베어스와 디펜딩 챔피언 삼성 라이온즈가 맞붙고 있다.

여느 때와 다름없는 광경이지만 이번 포스트 시즌의 대진표는 특이한 점이 눈에 띈다. 한국시리즈에 직행한 1위 삼성을 제외한 세 팀이 모두 서울연고 팀이라는 것.

2013시즌의 경우 유독 서울팀들의 선전이 눈에 띄었다. 두산 베어스의 경우 올해까지 최근 10년간 단 두 차례를 제외하고 포스트시즌에 진출한 강호이지만, 베어스와 같이 잠실경기장을 홈으로 쓰고 있는 LG 트윈스의 경우는 2002년 한국시리즈 진출 이후 기나긴 가을야구 가뭄에 시달려야 했다.

지난 시즌에도 페넌트레이스 7위에 그쳤던 LG가 이번 시즌 달라졌다.

엘지의 낮은 성적을 빗댄 “꼴쥐,” 시즌 초반의 돌풍이 후반까지 이어지지 못한 것을 비꼬는 “엘레발 (LG+설레발),” DTD 효과(내려갈 팀은 내려간다” 등 굴욕적인 별명만 잔뜩 얻은 LG가 달라진 것을 올해부터였다.

과거 LG는 좋은 선수 구성에도 불과하고 조직력 부족으로 “모래알 구단”이라는 소리를 들어야 했다. 그러나 작년 부임한 김기태 감독은 코치들과 이병규, 박용택 등 베테랑 선수들을 활용해 팀내 분위기를 바꿔갔다.

허구연 MBC 스포츠 플러스 해설위원은 “근래에 와서 (LG) 선수들이 감독이나 구단 프론트하고 그렇게 혼연일치가 되가지고 야구한 적이 없다”면서 김 감독의 리더쉽을 극찬했다.

달라진 분위기는 경기력 향상으로 이어졌다. 5월까지 하위권에 맴돌던 LG는 돌풍을 몰며 한때 삼성을 제치고1위를 달리기까지 했다.

LG는 팀 평균자책점 1위, (3.72), 타율 전체 3위 (.282)에 오르며 안정적인 공격과 수비를 자랑했다.

또한 지금까지 문제점을 지적되던 마운드를 강점으로 바꾸는데 성공했는데, 류제국 (12승), 우규민 (10승), 리즈 (10승) 등 10승 투수를 세 명이나 배출했으며 베테랑 봉중근이 마무리로 든든히 뒤를 지키며 단단한 전력을 자랑했다.

트윈스를 플레이오프에서 꺾은 두산 베어스의 약진 역시 눈에 띄었다. 이번 시즌 두산의 정규시즌 성적은 작년과 크게 다를바 없었다.

그러나 4위로 진출한 포스트시즌에서 두산의 뚝심은 빛을 발하기 시작했다. 넥센 히어로즈와 맞붙은 두산은 2패를 먼저 안은 상황에서 3연승을 달려 “리버스 스윕”을 달성하더니, 2위 LG와의 결전에서 4차전만에 승리를 거머쥐며 5년만의 한국시리즈 행을 확정했다.

‘미라클’이란 별명을 얻을 정도로 승승장구한 두산은 24일, 기어이 페넌트레이스 1위팀 삼성까지 꺾으며 한국시리즈 첫 경기를 승리로 장식, 유리한 고지에 올랐다.

한편 목동구장에 자리잡은 넥센 히어로즈 역시 이번 시즌 중반 단독 1위를 달리는 등 선전을 거듭하며 3위로 준플레이오프에 안착했다.

비록 시즌 최종전에 최하위 한화 이글즈에게 일격을 당하며 플레이오프 직행에는 실패했고, 준플레이오프 5차전에서 두산에게 아쉬운 13회 연장 패배를 당하며 시즌을 마무리했지만 지난 2008년 창단 이후 첫 포스트시즌 진출은 충분히 달콤한 것이었다.

팀 성적 외에 관중 동원 면에서도 서울팀들은 두각을 나타냈다.

이번 시즌 관중 동원 1,2위는 나란히 128만, 115만 명을 기록한 LG, 두산의 몫이었다. 사상 첫 9구단 체제로 인해 팀들이 장기간 휴식을 취하는 등 관중 감소가 우려되었고 실제로 LG와 신생팀 NC 다이노스를 제외한 모든 팀이 관중 감소를 겪은 가운데 나란히 백만관중을 넘긴 LG와 두산은 프로야구 흥행의 견인차 역할을 했다.

그러나 서울팀들의 흥행은 또 다른 문제점을 부각시켰다. 프로야구 흥행이 서울, 부산 등 빅마켓에 좌우되고 있지 않나 하는 점이다.

사상 최초로 700만 관중을 넘긴 작년의 경우에도 부산 연고의 롯데 자이언츠가 139만여 관중을 동원하면서 흥행돌풍에 중요한 몫을 차지했다.

허구연 해설위원은 이러한 빅마켓 의존도에 대해 “비정상”이라면서 “이러한 점이 빨리 바뀌어야 우리나라 야구문화가 정착을 할 수 있다”고 지적했다.

 


<관련 영문 기사>

Baseball comes roaring back to Seoul

Seoul team trio back in limelight after successful season

By Yoon Min-sik

The lights are on, the crowd cheers and you can almost taste the tension of players and fans alike mixed with the cool autumn breeze. It’s “Autumn Baseball,” a term coined by Korean fans to highlight the excitement brought about by the postseason of the country’s top baseball league.

At the peak of Autumn Baseball, the Doosan Bears and Samsung Lions are locking horns in the championship Korean Series, which will continue throughout the next week.

Much is at stake for both teams. If Doosan ends up winning the title, it will go down in history as the lowest-seeded team to win a championship. Should the Lions triumph, the team will become an unprecedented “three-peat” champion.

While the Bears’ trip to the finals was hard fought, their opponent was what underscored the unique nature of this year’s postseason: three of four teams competing were based in Seoul.

With the Seoul trio of Doosan, LG Twins and Nexen Heroes performing at such a high level, the city has established itself as the baseball capital of the country, at least in terms of popularity.

The second round playoff match between Doosan and LG packed out the stadium.

“The defense is what excites me the most. Plays like the sliding catch get me all worked up,” said Kim In-yeong, a 23-year-old fan of the Bears, while waiting for Game 2 of the Doosan-LG series last Thursday.

“This is my second time going to a baseball game. And I love it most when a player hits a home-run!” a little girl en route to support her beloved Twins chimed in.

As Doosan has made the postseason twice in the last decade, that they snared No.4 seed hardly came as a surprise. The Heroes and the Twins, on the other hand, shocked baseball circles with their runs.

Since joining the league in 2008, the Heroes had been practically a non-entity, with their best record being sixth overall last season.

The team turned it around this season, powered by reigning league MVP Park Byung-ho, becoming the fastest team to reach the 30-win mark in June and finishing the season in the No.3 spot to make its first-ever postseason appearance.

The biggest story of the season, however, belongs to the LG Twins, the former doormat team of the 2000s which clinched its first playoff berth since 2002 by taking second place in the regular season.

It is difficult to pinpoint how a team that finished second to last just the year before managed to rebound and compete for the top spot.

Experts said that the Twins had been able to turn their two biggest weaknesses into strengths: the pitching and team chemistry.

“LG always had a weakness in their pitchers. Now, they’re topping the league in team ERA (earned run average),” baseball commentator and former KBO coach Heo Koo-youn told The Korea Herald.

Last year, the Twins’ team ERA was 4.02, seventh worst in the league.

Heo also pinpointed LG’s third-year manager Kim Ki-tae as the main reason behind the team’s little-expected surge.

“In the past, LG was notorious for its abysmal team chemistry, but Kim managed to unite the players behind him,” Heo said. “The players, the coach, and the team management have never been so in sync.”

Despite respectively falling to the Bears in the first and second round of the postseason, which is in the form of a stepladder tournament, the Heroes and the Twins exceeded the expectations of most people and gave their fans plenty to cheer about.

A 25-year-old college student Kim Byung-soo said that he had been teased in the past by his friends for rooting for such a hopeless team.

“We all supported different teams and it was hard for us LG fans in the ‘darker times.’ But LG fans do not waver, even in those times,” said the life-long Twins fan, adding that he was proud of his team’s success.

The stellar performance by LG resulted in strong attendance. In the regular season, some 1.29 million fans -- up 2 percentage points from the year before -- walked through the turnstiles to see the Twins.

LG’s feat was even more pronounced in light of every other team drawing fewer fans compared to the 2012 season.

Prior to that season, it was widely anticipated that the introduction of the expansion team NC Dinos would hurt the KBO league’s popularity. As the first time the league operated with nine teams, one of the teams was forced to take days-long breaks in the middle of the season.

Experts said that this might drive away the fans used to baseball teams playing six times a week.

Lotte Giants, one of the league’s most popular teams, suffered the most as decline in overall popularity coincided with the team failing to reach the postseason for the first time since 2007. The Giants’ numbers nearly halved to 770,681 this year from 1.37 million in 2012.

LG and Doosan Bears, which drew 1.15 million fans, were the only two teams that had more than 1 million fans attend their games this season. Combined with Nexen, whose fan base is relatively small due to its short history, the number of fans who attended games of Seoul-based teams accounted for roughly 45 percent of the total attendance.

The fact that these teams nest in a city of roughly 10 million was a decisive factor behind their popularity. Another important aspect was their marketing strategy.

The Doosan Bears are a striking example. The team mapped out a strategy of targeting young adults and putting extra effort into appealing to women; as a result, it retained a higher number of fans in the stands.

Traditionally, the majority of baseball fans in Korea have been men, but the percentage of female fans has been going up in recent years.

According to 2012 research by an online ticket sales site, Ticketlink, 40.7 percent of those who attended baseball games last year were women, up 2.5 percentage points from the year before. The Bears were quick to absorb this batch of newfound fans.

Kim Cheong-gyun, head of Doosan’s Baseball Marketing Team, said that women made up 47 percent of Bears fans. At events such as Queens’ day -- on which the team gives away gifts and discounts to female fans -- female fans outnumber their male counterparts 51 to 49, he said.

Seoul teams’ rise to prominence poses an inevitable question: Is the Korean baseball league too dependent on big markets?

Last year, the KBO league set a new attendance record thanks to Busan-based Giants attracting the most fans in the league. The trend was repeated this year as LG and Doosan carried the load.

Teams dwelling in smaller cities -- such as Daegu’s Samsung Lions -- are removed from the public eye. Despite defending champion credentials and the best record in the regular season for the third year running, the Lions drew a meager 451,000 fans to their ballpark. The only team that hosted fewer fans was the Hanhwa Eagles, which finished last.

“Although baseball remains the most popular sport in the country, it (the dependence on big cities) is abnormal,” Heo said. “What will happen if the teams based in those cities fail to deliver? The attendance will plummet.”

(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)

Intern reporter Im Woo-jung contributed to this article. -- Ed.