1982 Amateur World Series

The 1982 Amateur World Series was the 27th Amateur World Series and was different from all the others from 1976 through 2006 in that the Cuban national team did not win Gold. That is because Cuba sat out the competition. Held in Seoul, South Korea from September 4 through September 14, 1982, this Series was the first held in South Korea and the second ever held in Asia. The South Korean national team won Gold. The MVP was Dong-yeol Sun.

Team Summaries[edit]

Australia tied for 9th of the 10 teams with a 2-7 record but put up one of the best games against the Gold Medal winners, losing by one run (7-6). Notable names include Phil Dale and Adrian Meagher, two of the top Australian pitchers of the 20th Century.
Canada finished 5th at 5-4. One problem was pitching depth - they hurled two shutouts, but allowed 17 or 18 runs three times. They had several All-Stars in C Larry Downes, OF Doug McPhail and LHP Rod Heisler.
Dominican Republic tied for 6th at 3-6.
Italy tied for last with Australia at 2-7 but they did it in very odd form. They beat both the Gold Medal winner (2-1, David Farina topping Si-jin Kim, with a 2-run double by Giuseppe Carelli being the offense) and Silver Medal winner (3-2) but lost to every other team. Eddy Orrizzi was the All-Star 1B.
Japan won Silver with a 7-2 record. They lost to the tourney winner (South Korea) and last-place Italy while winning all their other games. Japan was led by All-Star DH Kunio Takesue (the leader with 4 home runs and 18 RBI) and Mitsugu Kobayashi (the leader with 7 stolen bases).
South Korea won their Gold thanks to a 8-1 record, their only loss coming by one run to Italy. They allowed more than two runs in only one game, against Australia, as their pitching led the way. Dong-yeol Sun did not allow an earned run while winning the MVP award. Other players included Dong-won Choi, Dae-hwa Han, All-Star SS Jae-bak Kim, Si-jin Kim, Hyo-jo Jang, Koo-seon Jeong, Hae-chang Lee, Ho-kyun Lim (also a 0 ERA) and Noh-jun Park.
Netherlands tied for 6th with a 3-6 record. Notable names include the all-time Hoofdklasse win leader, Bart Volkerijk, All-Star 2B Charles Urbanus Jr. and arguably the best Dutch hitter of the century, 22-year-old Marcel Joost.
Panama tied for 6th at 3-6. They were in almost all their games, with only their loss to Japan (by 5 runs) being more than a 2-run difference.
Chinese Taipei was 4th with a 6-3 record. They had the tourney leader in average (.531), doubles (7) and hits (17), All-Star OF Shih-Chiang Chao. Their losses to the Japan and USA were by one run each as they just missed a Medal. 3B Hua-Wei Lin also was an All-Star.
United States won Bronze at 6-3. They included several future major leaguers, most notably Chris Sabo and Bill Swift. Rob Cobb led the event with 10 runs scored. Jordan Berge was an All-Star outfielder.