Hanwha Eagles


The Hanwha Eagles is a South Korean professional baseball club based in the city of Daejeon. They are a member of the KBO League. The Eagles' home ballpark is Daejeon Hanbat Baseball Stadium. The Eagles have won the Korean Series once, in 1999, and the league pennant twice. As of 2020, the Eagles have played in the postseason 13 times, being the runner-up in the Korean Series five times.

History

Founded in 1985 as the "Binggrae Eagles", they debuted in 1986 as the seventh franchise of the league.
The Eagles made it to the Korean Series three times in their first seven years of existence, losing each time.
The club changed their name to "Hanwha Eagles" after Binggrae's separation from Hanwha conglomerate in 1993. Hanwha, the owner of the club, is one of the largest business conglomerates, or chaebol, in South Korea.
The club was renowned for its slugging percentage from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, nicknamed the "Dynamite Bats" in reference to explosive products under one of Hanwha's main business lines. Led by American imports Dan Rohrmeier and Jay Davis, as well as Koreans Song Ji-man and Chang Jong-hoon, the 1999 championship team had a slugging percentage of.487, the highest team total in KBO League history.
The Eagles made it back to the Korean Series in 2006, again falling short. The Eagles did not make the KBO playoffs for 11 years, from 2008 through 2017, despite going through five managers during that time, including the KBO's two winningest managers, Kim Eung-ryong and Kim Sung-keun.
Han Yong-duk was hired as Eagles' manager in 2018, and in his first full season he succeeded in bringing the team to the postseason for the first time since 2007. On June 7, 2020, however, Han resigned as manager after a 14th straight loss, and was replaced by the team's minor league manager, Choi Won-ho. The team also revamped its roster, sending ten players to the minor-league KBO Futures League team — including veterans Song Kwang-min, Lee Sung-yul, An Young-myung, Jang Si-hwan, and Lee Tae-yang — and bringing up nine players to the KBO League team. After tying the record for the KBO's longest losing streak at 18, on June 14, 2020, the Eagles escaped a 19th-straight defeat after a long struggle: Hanwha won a suspended game against Doosan thanks to Roh Tae-hyung's walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Season-by-season records

Personnel

Current lineup

Managers

The Eagles have three retired numbers on their roster, more than any other team in the league. Those are for the slugger Jang Jong-hoon, and the pitchers Jung Min-cheul and Song Jin-woo.


Chang
Jong-hoon
SS, 1B, DH
Retired since September 16, 2005
Jung
Min-cheul
P
Retired since September 11, 2009
Song
Jin-woo
P
Retired since September 23, 2009