Personal Titles to Be Fiercely Contested

Just as the contest for the last spot of the playoffs has become hazy, so have the personal title contests. Among the 14 personal titles, the title winners were determined only in five hitting categories and two pitching categories as of 24th.

First of all, let us look at the categories whose title-winners were almost determined. All of sudden, the fierce home run race turned out to be a lonely race of Samsung`s Lee Seung-Yeop (39 home runs). It is because that Lotte`s Jose (36 home runs) were out of season being suspended by the ground violence on 18th, and Doosan`s Woods (34 home runs) have not blasted a homer recently.

But Jose grabbed the titles in the reaching base frequency (0.503) and the slugging percentage (0.695). Although he could not reach 0.700 slugging percentage, Jose recorded the best reaching base frequency in the professional baseball history over Baik In-Cheon`s 0.502 in 1982.

The stolen bases (SB) marked the fourth consecutive title of Doosan`s Jung Soo-Keun (50), and the RBI title was taken by 1998 RBI title winner Woods (113). Among pitching categories, SK`s Hernandez almost won the strikeout title with 204 strikeouts for the first time as an imported player, and Doosan`s Cha Myung-Joo is likely to capture the hold title (18).

However, the remaining 7 categories are still muddling. LG`s Lee Byung-Kyu (161 hits) is leading the hits category over Hanhwa`s Davis (158 hits), but the Hanhwa left two more games to play. LG`s Yang Joon-Hyuk (0.353) and Doosan`s Shim Jae-Hak (0.345) are contesting over the batting average (BA) title, and Lee Byung-Kyu and Woods are running a close race in the runs (H) category.

More thrilling contests are taking place over the pitching titles. Lotte`s Sohn Min-Han (15 wins) is leading the wins, chased by LG`s Shin Yoon-Ho, Samsung`s Lim Chang-Yong and Hyundai`s Lim Sun-Dong recording 14 wins this season. Sohn Min-Han and Samsung`s Galves are sharing the leader in the winning percentage with 0.714, but the third place Hyundai`s Jeon Jun-Ho (0.706) and the fourth place Shin Yoon-Ho and Lim Chang-Yong (0.700) can take the leader with only one victory. The three straight saves title seeker Doosan`s Jin Pil-Joong and Shin Yoon-Ho tied at 30 save points (SP) in saves. Although Shin Yoon-Ho (3.15) is leading the ERA category over Hanhwa`s Han Yong-Duk (3.53), Shin cannot take things easy, because he have to move up to the mound whenever the chance is given in the remaining games.

Zang Hwan-Soo zangpabo@donga.com