LG beats Doosan in final Jamsil rivalry before stadium demolition this year

Jamsil Baseball Stadium opened in 1982. It is not only the beloved home for the LG Twins and Doosan Bears and a playground for fans of both teams, but also one of the most iconic baseball arenas in Korea. But that very stadium will be demolished after this year and disappear into history as a new ballpark takes its place.

On Wednesday, longtime Jamsil tenants LG Twins and Doosan Bears played their final regular-season matchup at the stadium. Fans flocked to witness the historic occasion, as all 23,750 seats sold out an hour and 15 minutes before the game began. At the end of the night, LG came from behind to beat Doosan 7-5 in a meaningful final showdown at the stadium.

The two clubs’ inevitable history as rivals sharing the same home began in 1986. Jamsil was initially used exclusively by the MBC Blue Dragons, LG’s predecessor. The OB Bears, Doosan’s predecessor, moved its home base from Daejeon to Seoul in 1985 and began sharing Jamsil with the team the following year.

In the 1990s, LG surpassed Doosan in both popularity and performance with its refreshing brand of baseball. From the 2000s onward, Doosan established a dynasty with regular postseason and Korean Series appearances, while LG endured a long period of struggles. The tables turned again in the 2020s, with LG winning the regular season and Korean Series in the same year twice and pulling ahead of Doosan.

The longtime rivals will roll out merchandise together for the first time to commemorate the occasion, including a “ground glass bottle” containing dirt from Jamsil and a “ground stadium” containing its grass. They will be made with actual dirt and grass collected from Jamsil Stadium after the postseason and all other games there conclude this year. It will be the first time that dirt and grass on which players have stepped, run and slid will be turned into merchandise.

Jamsil Stadium has been known as a “pitcher’s paradise” and a “home run hitter’s hell” because the distance from home plate to the outfield fence is the longest of any Korean ballpark. Doosan pitchers have won the league’s wins title seven times: Gary Rath, Daniel Rios, Michael Bowden, Seth Frankoff, Josh Lindblom, Raúl Alcántara and Gwak Been. LG pitchers have won it four times, with Lee Sang-hoon taking the title twice and Kim Yong-soo and Casey Kelly once each.

Home run champions, by contrast, have been rare. Only three Doosan players — Kim Sang-ho, Tyrone Woods and Kim Jae-hwan — have won the home run title, while no LG player has ever done so. Austin Dean is attempting to become the first home run champion in LG history this year, though overtaking leader Kim Do-yeong of the KIA Tigers will not be easy.

“There were good times, and there were difficult times,” LG manager Youm Kyoung-youb reflected on his memories of Jamsil before the game. “I always say that ‘baseball is life,’ and Jamsil is a deeply meaningful place in my baseball life. Both my professional debut and my first professional hit came at Jamsil. I also remember crying my eyes out for the first time in my baseball life after missing out on a Korean Series championship at Jamsil when I was manager of the Nexen Heroes [now the Kiwoom Heroes].”

But the present matters as much as the memories.

“I really want to win because we can only give the fans a happy final farewell if we win,” Youm said before the game.

He ultimately got his wish. No. 4 LG moved three games ahead of No. 5 Doosan, allowing the Twins to continue their fierce battle with KIA for No. 3 in the league.

“I really wanted to win our final home game at Jamsil and say goodbye to the fans,” Youm said after congratulating and praising his players following the game. “I’m grateful to our players for making that happen and to the fans for cheering us on.”

Doosan still has one regular-season home game remaining on Monday. The KBO initially scheduled the LG-Doosan game as Jamsil Stadium’s farewell game, but the game was postponed after a Doosan-Lotte Giants game was rained out.

“I was in fourth grade in elementary school when Jamsil Stadium opened,” Doosan manager Kim Won-hyong said. “I remember coming to Seoul holding my father’s hand because the Baseball World Cup was being held at Jamsil and watching Korea beat the United States 2-0.”