Kiwoom Heroes


Kiwoom Heroes is a South Korean professional baseball team based in Seoul. They are a member of the KBO League. The Heroes mascot is Teokdori. Like other baseball teams in South Korea, the team is known primarily by the name of the sponsor, occasionally as their nickname, and never as the city in which they are based. The Heroes play their home games at Gocheok Sky Dome in Gocheok-dong, a neighborhood located in the southwestern part of Seoul.
In 2014, the Futures League squad changed its name to Hwaseong Heroes, differentiating from the first string.
In 2019, Hwaseong Heroes changed to Goyang Heroes.

History

The franchise was originally known as the Sammi SuperStars and had subsequent incarnations as the Chungbo Pintos and Taepyungyang Dolphins. The team was renamed the Hyundai Unicorns after being sold to Hyundai in 1996, and was relocated from Incheon to Suwon. The Unicorns won the KBO championship four times, with only the Kia Tigers, Samsung Lions, and Doosan Bears having a better record of championship victories.
In January 2008, the team was dissolved. After that, Centennial Investments founded a new team called the Woori Heroes. Unlike the other KBO League ballclubs, the Heroes are owned by a collection of individuals headed by Lee Chang-suk, instead of being owned by its naming sponsor. During the 2008 season, Woori Tobacco Company broke the naming sponsor deal, citing that the Heroes has not paid the full founding fee to the KBO yet, forcing the team to trade most of its star players for cash. For the rest of the 2008 season and the 2009 season, the team used only "Heroes" for its name.
On February 8, 2010, naming rights were sold to Nexen Tire.
On November 6, 2018, naming rights were sold to Kiwoom Securities.. The Kiwoom Heroes made it to the Korean Series in their first year, but lost to the Doosan Bears to finish second.

Season-by-season records

Current lineup

Managers