Doosan Bears

The Doosan Bears (두산 베어스) are a professional baseball team based in Seoul, South Korea. They are a member of the Korean Baseball Organization.

The club was founded in Daejeon, South Korea in 1982 as the "OB Bears", and moved to Seoul, South Korea in 1985 before being officially renamed the "Doosan Bears" in 1999. The Doosan Bears (formerly the OB Bears) won the Korean Series in 1982, the inaugural KBO season. They have won three Korea Series titles (1982, 1995, 2001) and play their home games at Seoul's Jamsil Baseball Stadium.

The team's principal sponsor, Doosan, is primarily involved in construction and heavy industry, although like many Korean chaebol it has an extremely wide-ranging portfolio of interests. It claims to be Korea's oldest company. The previous sponsor, OB (Oriental Brewery) produces one of South Korea's top selling lager brands.

Korean-American Pittsburgh Steeler Hines Ward threw out the first pitch at a Doosan Bears game on a visit to Korea in 2006.

Season by Season Records

Roster

Doosan bears are currently competing against the LG Twins for 5th place

Retired Numbers

The Bears have retired numbers 21 and 54. The number 54 is in memory of the catcher Kim Young-Shin who died, and the number 21 is the legendary pitcher, Park Chul-Soon, whose nickname is "Phoenix." Park won the Most Valuable Player award in the 1982 Korean Series. Next year he was injured but won the award again. He continued to play when injured throughout his career and had much success. He is still held in high esteem from not only most Bears fans but many Korean baseball fans.

External links

• Doosan Bears baseball team