The Kiwoom Heroes () are a South Korean professional baseball team based in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

. They are a member of the

KBO League The KBO League () is a professional baseball league in South Korea. The league comprises ten teams. The KBO League was founded with six franchises in 1982 and is the most popular sports league in South Korea. The Kia Tigers are the most success ...

. The Heroes play their home games at Gocheok Sky Dome in

Gocheok-dong Gocheok-dong () is a '' dong'' (neighborhood) of Guro District, Seoul, South Korea. See also *Administrative divisions of South Korea South Korea is made up of 22 first-tier administrative divisions: 6 List of special cities of South Korea ...

, a neighborhood located in the southwestern part of Seoul. The Heroes mascot is ''Teokdori'' (; Mr. Jaw). In 2014, the Futures League squad changed its name to Hwaseong Heroes (), differentiating from the first string. In 2019, Hwaseong Heroes renamed as Goyang Heroes ().

History

The franchise was originally known as the Sammi SuperStars and had subsequent incarnations as the Chungbo Pintos and Pacific Dolphins. The team was renamed the

Hyundai Unicorns The Hyundai Unicorns () were a South Korean professional baseball team based in Suwon. They were a member of the KBO League. The Unicorns won the KBO championship four times (1998, 2000, 2003 and 2004). The Unicorns were dissolved after the 20 ...

after being sold to

Hyundai Hyundai is a former South Korean industrial conglomerate ("''chaebol''"), which was restructured into the following groups: * Hyundai Group, parts of the former conglomerate which have not been divested ** Hyundai Asan, a real estate construction ...

in 1996, and was relocated from

Incheon Incheon is a city located in northwestern South Korea, bordering Seoul and Gyeonggi Province to the east. Inhabited since the Neolithic, Incheon was home to just 4,700 people when it became an international port in 1883. As of February 2020, ...

Suwon Suwon (; ) is the largest city and capital of Gyeonggi Province, South Korea's most populous province. The city lies approximately south of the national capital, Seoul. With a population of 1.2 million, Suwon has more inhabitants than Ulsan, tho ...

. The Unicorns won the KBO championship four times (1998, 2000, 2003 and 2004). In January 2008, the team was disbanded. After that, Centennial Investments formed a new team called Woori Heroes. Unlike other clubs in the KBO League, which are controlled by chaebol companies, the Heroes are owned by a group of individuals led by Lee Chang-suk, rather than being owned by their title sponsor. During the 2008 season, Woori Tobacco Company terminated their naming sponsor agreement, citing that the Heroes had not yet paid the full KBO founding fee, forcing the team to trade most of its star players for money. For the remainder of the 2008 season and into the 2009 season, the team used only "Heroes" as their name. On 8 February 2010, naming rights were sold to

Nexen Tire Nexen Tire Corporation ( Korean: ) is a tire manufacturer headquartered in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province and Seoul in South Korea. It was established in 1942 under the name Heung-A Tire Company. In 1985, Nexen dedicated a facility in Yangsa ...

. On 6 November 2018, naming rights were sold to Kiwoom Securities. The Kiwoom Heroes made it to the

Korean Series The Korean Series () is the final championship series of the KBO League. It has been held since the KBO League's first season in and is the final series of the post-season play-offs. From to 2013, the winner of the Korean Series went on to play ...

in their first year, but lost to the

Doosan Bears The Doosan Bears () are a South Korean professional baseball team based in Seoul. Founded in 1982, they are a member of the KBO League. The Bears have won six Korean Series titles (1982, 1995, 2001, 2015, 2016, and 2019) and play their home game ...

to finish second.

Season-by-season records

Current roster

Managers

* Lee Kwang-hwan (2008) * Kim Si-jin (2009–2012) * Kim Sung-gap (2012) ''(caretaker)'' * Youm Kyoung-youb (2013–2016) * Jang Jeong-seok (2017–2019) * Son Heuk (2020) * Kim Chang-hyun (2020–2021) ''(caretaker)'' * Hong Won-ki (2021–present)

Notes

References

;General * ;Specific

External links

* {{KBO League KBO League teams Baseball teams established in 2008 Baseball teams in Seoul 2008 establishments in South Korea