User:Anyoungkil/sandbox

Title: Hyundai Unicorns – Former Korean Baseball League Team

The Huyndai Unicorns (Korean: 현대 유니콘스) were a former Korean professional Baseball team based in Incheon (1996-1999), Suwon (2000-1007), Gyeonggi Province. They competed in KBO league (Korea Baseball Organization league) as a member club. The Unicorns' home venue was Suwon Baseball Stadium, located in Suwon of Gyeonggi Province. The team was owned by Hyundai Group.

The Hyundai Unicorns was founded in 1982 under the name of Sammi Superstars. Chongbo Pintos (1985-1987) took over the previous team of Sammi Superstars, and Taepyoungyang Dolphins (1988-1995) replaced after Chongbo Pintos. Hyundai Unicorns took over the previous team of Taepyoungyang Dolphins to play as a newly named team since the 1996 season. In the same year, the Unicorns have qualified for the Korean Series, which is the final championship series of the KBO league, defeated by Haitai Tigers by 4-2. However, Unicorns won the Korean Series champions in 1998, 2000, 2003 and 2004. The Unicorns’ performance was impressive that they still hold the fourth-highest number of championships in KBO history.

The Unicorns disbanded in 2008 due to the financial crisis of their sponsor; Hynix of Hyundai Group.

Joining the KBO League
The Hyundai Group tried to participate the KBO league by launching the unemployment team named under Hyundai Phoenix, but the KBO and other existing teams were strongly opposed, and the group changed in planning to attract other companies that did not participate in the KOB league. However, when it did not succeed, it turned to acquiring the Pacific Dolphins and reinventing the Hyundai Unicorns. Therefore, the Hyundai Unicorns officially inherited former clubs’ histories and traditions.

Hyundai’s former teams such as Sammi Superst and Taepyoungyang Dolphins were relatively poor to buy famous and elite players, compared to other teams, but Hyundai was one of the major companies in Korea, so their fans were happy that Hyundai took over the Dolphins.

Championships History
Hyundai Unicorns won the Korean series title four times in 1998, 2000, 2003, and 2004 within 12 years between 1996 and 2007.

In 1996, As a budding team of KBO league, Hyundai Unicorns proceeded to the Korean series, but they were defeated by Haitai Tigers by 4-2, who were the best team in that era in Korean Baseball league. In that year, they had top pitching staff, although their hitting staff was below average according to the KBO’s analysis.

In 1998, Hyundai Unicorns defeated LG Twins by 4-2 in the Korean Series. Unicorns' Ace Min-tae Jeong earned the MVP of the Korean Series. It was their first championship in the history of Unicorns including their former teams. In the regular season, they took the first place with 81 wins and 45 loses.

The 2000 Korean Series was the 18th Korean Series, but just the 3rd to go a full seven games by 4-3. The Series was played between Hyundai Unicorns and the Doosan Bears. Unicorns won the first three games, but the Bears won the next three games to tie the series. However, Unicorns did not allow Bears to do the reverse sweep by winning the 7th game to win the series. In the regular season, Unicorns had the best regular season record of KBO with 91-40, 0.695 of win/lose rate.

In 2003, the Hyundai Unicorns edging the underdog SK Wyverns in full seven games in the Korean Series by 4-3. Min-tae Jeong made his third win of the Series to pick up the Korean Series MVP again. In the regular season, they took the first place with 81-50.

The 2004 Korean Series was the 22nd Korean Series, and the Hyundai Unicorns won their 4th Series in 7 years, though it was their final title of the KBO league. They defeated the Samsung Lions by 4-2, with 3 ties. Unicorns had the best regular season record with 75-53.

In 2006, Unicorns took the 2nd place of the regular season with 70-50, but they were defeated by Hanhwa Eagles by 3-1 in the semi finals. It was their last time played in the playoff in KBO league before they were disbanded.

Disband of the Unicorns
Since 2001, the Unicorns have had relying on support from a number of Hyundai affiliates. Unlike other teams, who receive funding from their ownership at the beginning of the season, the Unicorns had to ask Hyundai affiliates for support every quarter.

Another blow to the team was the suicide of their founding owner, Chung Mong-hun, in 2003, while he was being investigated by prosecutors for creating slush funds. Beginning of 2004, Hyundai Group cut its annual, four billion won (US $4.3 millon) inflow into the team.

Hyundai had tried to sell the Unicorns after finishing the previous season to the National Agriculture Cooperative Foundation aka Nonghyup, but the deal fell through after the labour union of the agriculture body against it. As an effort to survive the franchise of Unicorns, the KBO agreed to finance the Unicorns for the 2007 season.

Poor attendance of their fans has not helped either. The Unicorns has not cracked the top five in attendance in the eight-team league since 1999 due to the small population of the hometown, Suwon with a short history of the team.

Despite the short history of 12 years, they established themselves as Korean baseball's second-most winning the championships team after nine-time champions KIA Tigers. The Unicorns proceeded to the championship series in their first season in 1996 and clinched the crown two seasons later in 1998.

In 2000, the Unicorns made the winning record of KBO with winning 91 games in the regular season with 69.5% of winning rate, and having three starters as trio in their rotation who won over 18 games (Chung Min-tae, Lim Sun-dong, and Kim Soo-kyung).

Under the turmoil, the Unicorns showed resilience as they won two championships in a row in 2003 and 2004. However, after failing to retain their elite players from free agency in the past years, such as slugger Shim Chong-soo who had a 140-RBI for the Unicorns in 2003, they did not make to win another champion again.

Legendary Player
Jung-Ho Kang: Jung-Ho Kang was the most recent Korean Baseball player to enter the MLB (Major League Baseball), the Pittsburgh Pirates, as of 2015. Kang debut in 2006 with the Hyundai Unicorns as a professional player, and he became a regular 3rd baseman player in 2015 and 2016 in the Pittsburgh Pirates of MLB.

Min-tae Jeong: He was an ace pitcher of the Hyundai Unicorns for eight seasons from 1996 to 2003. He was treated as an ace, and the highest rank among pitchers in the Unicorns. Among all-time Unicorns pitchers, he was the best in the KBO league, with most wins (124 wins), 20 wins in a single season (1999) etc.

Myung-won Jeong: He recorded the first and only Korean Series no-hitter in Game 4 of the 1996 Korean Series. In 1998, he won the ERA title with 14 wins, eight losses with 1.86 ERA, and won the team's first Korean Series as a captain of the team.

Kyung-wan Park: On 19, May 2000, at Hanbat Baseball Stadium in Daejeon, he hit the four consecutive home runs for the first time in the KBO league against the Hanwha Eagles. In that year, he won the MVP award and home run title with 40 home runs and 95 RBIs.

Managers
Kim Jae-bak (1996~2006): After the Hyundai Unicorns were founded, he was considered as one of the best managers in KBO league, breaking the record for the shortest-term wins in eleven seasons with outstanding performances of four wins of Korean Series. In fact, the heyday of Unicorns was the heyday of Kim Jae-Park's career as a manager.

Kim Si-jin (2007~2008) : He succeeded Kim Jae-bak after the end of the season in 2006, becoming the first manager of his career and the second-generation coach of Unicorns. As a pitching coach in previous years, he helped lead the team as top pitching staff, which gave him a fame as a pitching expert.

Uniform
The team's symbol animal was Unicorn, a legendary creature, and the main colour of the uniform was green. The prototype uniform also had a yellow version of the HD logo in the hat, the groove in the box, and the original has a green logo called HYUNDAI in the chest. The uniform, which started in 1996 and was worn until its disbandment in 2007, is a mix of black, yellow and green.