1998 Korea Baseball Organization

The 1998 Korea Baseball Organization was the 17th Korea Baseball Organization season. It was the first season to feature foreign players (in the past, Japanese players of Korean descent had been permitted, as well as at least one Korean-American, Daniel Choi). One player immediately made an impact, OB Bears batter Tyrone Woods. Woods went deep 42 times to set a new KBO home run record (Jong-hun Jang had the old mark of 41, set in 1992). Woods also led the league in RBI (103) and was named MVP. It would be 9 years until another foreign player, Danny Rios, would claim a MVP.

The Hyundai Unicorns won the first of four KBO titles.

Standings

1. Hyundai Unicorns, 81-45
2. Samsung Lions, 66-58-2
3. LG Twins, 63-62-1
4. OB Bears, 61-62-3
5. Haitai Tigers, 61-64-1
6. Ssangbangwool Raiders, 58-66-2
7. Hanwha Eagles, 55-66-5
8. Lotte Giants, 50-72-4

Playoffs: LG def. OB, 2 games to 0; LG def. Samsung, 3 games to 1

1998 Korean Series: Hyundai def. LG, 4 games to 2

Leaders

Italics indicate all-time record

Batting

Statistic	Leader	Team	Number
Batting Average	Joon-hyuk Yang	Samsung Lions	.342
Runs	Seung-yeop Lee	Samsung Lions	100
Hits	Joon-hyuk Yang	Samsung Lions	156
Doubles	Ji-hyun Yoo	LG Twins	36
Triples	Soo-keun Jung	OB Bears	11
Home Runs	Tyrone Woods	OB Bears	42
Runs Batted In	Tyrone Woods	OB Bears	103
Stolen Bases	Soo-keun Jung	OB Bears	44
Walks	Gi-tae Kim	Ssangbangwool Raiders	104

Pitching

Statistic	Leader	Team	Number
ERA	Myung-won Jeong	Hyundai Unicorns	1.86
Wins	Yong-soo Kim	LG Twins	18
Losses	Sang-mok Lee	Hanwha Eagles	17
Saves	Chang-yong Lim	Haitai Tigers	34
Innings Pitched	Min-tae Chung	Hyundai Unicorns	200 2/3
Appearances	Ki-bum Kim Sang-min Oh	LG Twins Ssangbangwool Raiders	76
Hits Allowed	Sang-mok Lee	Hanwha Eagles	198
Home Runs Allowed	Sang-mok Lee	Hanwha Eagles	23
Strikeouts	Dae-jin Lee	Haitai Tigers	183
Base-on-Balls	Myung-hwan Park	OB Bears	112

Award Winners

Award	Player	Team	Position	AB	R	H	HR	RBI	SB	AVG	OBP	SLG	W - L	SV	IP	HA	HRA	BB	SO	ERA
Most Valuable Player	Tyrone Woods	OB Bears	Infielder	452	77	138	42	103	1	.305	.394	.619	Did not pitch
Rookie of the Year	Soo-kyung Kim	Hyundai Unicorns	Pitcher	Did not bat									12 - 4	2	160.0	112	6	68	168	2.76

Gold Glove

The following players were the recipients of the Gold Glove Award in 1998.

Position	Player	Team
P	Min-tae Chung	Hyundai Unicorns
C	Gyeong-wan Pak	Hyundai Unicorns
1B	Seung-yeop Lee	Samsung Lions
2B	Jeong-tae Pak	Lotte Giants
3B	Han-su Kim	Samsung Lions
SS	Ji-hyeon Yu	LG Twins
OF	Jun-ho Jeon	Hyundai Unicorns
OF	Jae-hyun Kim	LG Twins
OF	Jae-hong Pak	Hyundai Unicorns
DH	Jun-hyeok Yang	Samsung Lions