NC’s first regular season championship … Investment · Analysis · Communication ‘The Power of the Dinosaur Corps’

The 2020 NC-LG Professional Baseball Expo held at Changwon NC Park in Gyeongnam on the 24th. When NC Moon pitcher Gyeong-chan struck out LG Hong Chang-gi and finished the innings against 3-3, the coaches, including the NC coach Dong-wook Lee, and local fans who sold out 5528 open seats cheered. NC’s attack at the end of the 12th inning still remains, but it’s because NC has already secured a draw and confirmed the regular league championship.

NC, who joined the KBO league as the ninth professional baseball team, won the regular season for the first time after 9 years of founding and 8 seasons of entering the first team. NC, who recorded 81 wins and 5 draws and 53 losses in a draw on this day, confirmed the championship regardless of the remaining results of the match and went straight to the Korean Series. Founded in 2011 and played in the Futures league (second team) in 2012, North Carolina, which started in 2013 in the first team stage, started in seventh place that year. In 2014, he first entered the postseason in third place in the regular season, followed by second in 2015, the first Korean series appearances in 2016, and fourth in 2017. NC, which had slipped to the bottom in 2018 and it stalled, bounced back to fifth last season and finally felt the thrill of reaching the top of the first regular season.

NC becoming an emerging powerhouse was the result of bold investment, leading data baseball, and three-way communication leadership. In particular, the generous investment was the most important. NC began recruiting free agent (FA) players like Lee Ho-jun and Lee Hyun-gon from their first-team debut season in 2013, bringing in Lee Jong-wook and Son Si-heon the following year. Before the 2016 season, he signed a contract with Park Seok-min for 9.6 billion won in 4 years, which shows that he is a great hand in the FA market.

And before the 2019 season, he led Yang Ui-ji to 12.5 billion won in 4 years and scored the Hwaryong point of recruiting free agents. Furthermore, even before this season, players with rich winning experience were caught re-signing with Park Seok-min for 3.4 billion won. They helped maximize their power by creating synergy effects with internal host members such as Na Sung-beom, Park Min-woo, Noh Jin-hyuk, Kang Jin-seong, Koo Chang-mo, Won Jong-hyun, Kim Jin-seong, and Lim Chang-min.

What supported the investment was “data baseball.” From the beginning NC recognized the importance of data analysis and since its inception has invested far more manpower in power analysis than other clubs, providing various data to the team to improve power. Besides this, the leadership of director Lee Dong-wook is also indispensable. Not only did he have an eye for properly utilizing the data provided by the club, but he also created a team by communicating with the players with the kindness of his brother.

The one who was most impressed with this achievement was Kim Taek-jin, owner of NC (NCSoft CEO). Dan-ju Kim, who is called ‘Taek-Jin-i’ among fans, ‘NC reduced the winning magic number to 1, and went from KIA in Gwangju on the 21st to Hanwha in Daejeon on the 23rd. However, on the 24th at the local Changwon stadium, Kim was able to finish the ‘winning tour’. “I am happy to be able to win the regular season within 10 years of founding,” he said. “I have achieved a dream now. I will walk towards my next dream,” said Dan-ju Kim, with tearful tears, and smiled happily after receiving a team rinse. Yang Eui-ji, the captain and champion of the championship, said : “There are still the finals,” and he is determined not to let go of the tension until he wins the Korean Series.

Reporter Song Yong-joon [email protected]