MVP Lee Seung-Yeop, Rookie of Year Kim Tae-Kyun

Just as the Korean Series turned out to be rebellious, so was the decision-making process of the pennant race MVP and the rookie of the year.

Like the memorable game six of the Korean Series between the Doosan and the Samsung, the pennant race MVP and the rookie of the year were determined by the close contest in the vote by the professional baseball reporters. `National Hitter` Samsung`s Lee Seung-Yeop won the honorary MVP, and the next-generation slugger Hanwha`s Kim Tae-Kyun (19) earned the rookie of the year.

In this vote, both MVP and rookie of the year candidates failed to hold a majority vote, so that the reporters had to take a vote again to decide them.

In the first vote for the rookie of the year, Kim Tae-Kyun earned 41 votes, just a half of 82 valid votes, followed Park Han-Yi (39 votes). The candidate selection committee announced Kim Tae-Kyun to be a rookie of the year. However, the reporters meeting decided to hold a revote, since the exact 50 percent was not applicable to the majority vote (even in the National Assembly). The Hanwah officials turned deadly pale worrying about the turnover of the result.

In the first vote for the MVP, both home run king Lee Seung-Yeop (33 votes) and pitcher`s triple crown winner Shin Yoon-Ho (35 votes) also failed to earn a majority vote to enter the second vote.

In the final vote for the rookie of the year which was expected to be a close contest, Kim Tae-Kyun won easily by 10 votes over Park Han-Yi. And in the MVP final vote, Lee Seung-Yeop turned over the result of the first vote to be a pennant race MVP. Both results upset the prevailing forecast that this season`s best player Shin Yoon-Ho and Park Han-Yi who played in 130 games would be a MVP and a rookie of the year respectively.

Lee Seung-Yeop became his career third MVP following 1997 and 1999, in which he had also won the home run title. Kim Tae-Kyun could not participate in the award ceremony due to the 4 countries goodwill tournament to be held at Kobe, Japan, and said through a telephone interview that winning title was a great encouragement for him and he would play more eagerly not to disappoint the fans.

ssoo@donga.com