KIA to open first spring camp on Amami Island

The KIA Tigers, looking to rebound after a disappointing season, will hold their winter training on a remote Japanese island that remains unfamiliar even to many people in Japan.

The KBO League team will open its first spring training camp from Jan. 25 to Feb. 21 on Amami Island in Kagoshima Prefecture. A team official said the club devoted significant effort to selecting a location that would allow players to concentrate fully on training. Among the league’s 10 teams, KIA is the only one conducting its first spring camp in Japan.

This marks the first time Amami Island, located in the southwestern part of the Japanese archipelago, has hosted a South Korean professional baseball team for training. There are no direct flights from South Korea, requiring players to travel via Tokyo. The island’s climate is similar to that of nearby Okinawa. From 2023 through last year, the site was used by the second team of Japan’s DeNA baseball club.

A KIA official acknowledged that transferring flights makes access somewhat inconvenient but said the facilities, including the stadium and indoor training areas, are fully comparable to those at the team’s previous camp sites.

KIA, which won both the KBO regular season and the Korean Series in 2024, entered last season as a strong contender to defend its titles. The team held its first spring camp in California, but frequent rain disrupted training and prevented players from completing the planned workload before the season began.

Problems surfaced from the opening game. Former league MVP Kim Do-young, 23, suffered a hamstring injury, followed by a series of injuries to key players including Kim Sun-bin, 37, and Na Sung-bum, 37. KIA finished the season in eighth place. It marked only the second time a Korean Series champion finished outside the top seven the following year, after OB, now Doosan, in 1995. The selection of the training site underscores KIA’s determination to restore its standing.

Other reigning champions, including LG, along with SSG and NC, will hold their first training camps in the United States. LG departed for Scottsdale, Arizona, on Jan. 22, while NC is heading to Tucson, Arizona, as it did last year. SSG is set to open its camp in Vero Beach, Florida.

Several teams have chosen Australia for their initial training sites. Hanwha will train in Melbourne, KT in Geelong, and Doosan in Sydney. Lotte and Kiwoom will hold their camps in Taiwan, in Tainan and Kaohsiung, respectively, while Samsung will conduct training in Guam.


조영우 기자 jero@donga.com