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Doosan Bears

The Doosan Bears are a South Korean professional baseball team based in Seoul. Founded in 1982, they are a member of the KBO League. The Bears have won six Korean Series titles (1982, 1995, 2001, 2015, 2016, and 2019) and play their home games at Seoul's Jamsil Baseball Stadium.

History

The club was founded in Daejeon in 1982 as the OB Bears,[1] with the Oriental Brewery as their owners. OB Bears were the first team to be founded in the KBO League. The Doosan Group initially wanted a base in Seoul from 1982, as their company was founded in Seoul and had no connection to Chungcheong Province. But since there was no corporation that could establish a baseball team in Daejeon, Doosan agreed to play in Daejeon for three years before returning to Seoul.[2]

In 1985, the team moved to their current home in Seoul.[1] The OB Bears were officially renamed the Doosan Bears in 1999, after Oriental Brewery was sold to InBev and the Doosan Group assumed ownership.[3]

The Bears won the inaugural Korean Series in 1982 by defeating the Samsung Lions to become the first KBO League champion.[4] Between 2015 and 2021, the Bears appeared in seven consecutive Korean Series championships, winning three of the series in 2015, 2016 and 2019.[5]

Team colors

The main colors of the team are navy blue and white, with red as the secondary color. From 1999 to 2009, yellow was used instead as the secondary color, before the team returned in 2010 to the iconic dark blue and red combination of the original OB Bears.[6]

Mascot

The Doosan Bears mascot is a bear named Cheolwoong (철웅).[7] Its biggest feature is that it embodies the bear, the symbolic animal of Doosan Bears, as a dynamic robot character. It emphasized strength and a future-oriented image.[8]

Season-by-season records

Team

Current roster

Retired numbers

The Bears have retired numbers 21 and 54. The number 21 is retired in honour of pitcher Park Chul-soon,[9] who won the KBO League Most Valuable Player Award, the Pitching Triple Crown, and the Korean Series Most Valuable Player Award in 1982. The number 54 is in memory of catcher Kim Young-shin, who committed suicide while still a young player.[10]

Managers

External links

References

  1. S. Korea's first baseball dome opens, tenant still needed Yonhap News Agency, 15 September 2015, retrieved 21 February 2022^
  2. Jae-kuk Lee. [이재국의 베팬알백] <1편> 서울? 대전? 인천? OB 베어스의 장엄한 첫발 doosanbears.com, Doosan Bears, 3 July 2018, retrieved 13 January 2025^
  3. Inside the KBO: From Superstars to Wiz in 39 years Korea JoongAng Daily, 30 January 2021, retrieved 21 February 2022^
  4. Samsung, Doosan eyeing history in Korean Series The Korea Herald, 23 October 2013, retrieved 21 February 2022^
  5. 'Miracle Doosan' reach record seventh straight Korean Series Korea JoongAng Daily, 11 November 2021, retrieved 21 February 2022^
  6. BI – 두산베어스 doosanbears.com, Doosan Bears, retrieved 11 December 2023^
  7. [이석우의 스포츠 톡톡]두산 마스코트 철웅이의 외로운 응원 Kyunghyang Shinmun, 14 July 2020, retrieved 21 February 2022^
  8. 두산, 11일 2010 새 마스코트 발표 The Chosun Ilbo, 11 February 2010, retrieved 1 April 2024^
  9. Sports in Korea Korean Pro Baseball english.visitkorea.or.kr, 4 March 2014, retrieved 29 December 2016^
  10. Retired number The Dong-a Ilbo, 10 July 2017, retrieved 22 February 2022^
  11. Doosan Bears part ways with manager Kim Tae-hyoung Korea JoongAng Daily, 11 October 2022, retrieved 14 October 2022^
  12. KBO's all-time home run king Lee Seung-yuop named Doosan Bears manager The Korea Herald, 14 October 2022, retrieved 14 October 2022^
  13. Doosan's Kim Won-hyong Urges Re-signing Five Key Free Agents The Chosun Daily, 23 October 2025, retrieved 2 November 2025^