Kia Tigers

The Kia Tigers (Korean: KIA 타이거즈) are a South Korean professional baseball team founded in 1982 and based in the southwestern city of Gwangju. Until 2001, they were known as the Haitai Tigers. The Tigers are members of the KBO League and are the most successful team in Korean baseball, having won the Korean Series championship twelve times with a perfect 12–0 record. Their home stadium is Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju. After the success of the 1980s and 1990s, the fortunes of the team began to turn, resulting in them finishing bottom of the league for the first time in 2005, and again in 2007. In 2009, however, the Tigers won the 2009 KBO season and the 2009 Korean Series. During the 1980s and 1990s, the team was heavily associated with the Liberal pro-democracy politics of their home region of Honam. As a result, they developed a rivalry with the Samsung Lions of the conservative Yeongnam region.