This year marks the final year of the contract for Doosan Bears manager Lee Seung-yeop. He has abandoned his desire for a contract renewal and expressed his determination to focus solely on Doosan Bears.

During his playing days, Manager Lee Seung-yeop, who was called the national hero, took office as the 11th head coach of Doosan Bears on Oct. 18, 2022, at the Doosan Bears' cafeteria in Seoul's Jamsil Stadium. After signing a contract with conditions stating an aggregate amount of 1.8 billion won (300 million won as a signing bonus and an annual salary of 500 million won), he donned a Doosan jersey emblazoned with the number '77' and began his first career as a coach.

After experiencing the embarrassment of finishing 9th in the inaugural season, Doosan, alongside Manager Lee Seung-yeop, rose to 5th place (74 wins, 2 ties, 68 losses) in the 2023 season, earning a postseason invitation for the first time in two years. By effectively utilizing the offseason, including the return of 'the biggest free agent' Yang Eui-ji and '20-game ace' Raul Alcantara, they succeeded in washing away the 9th place shock within a year. Manager Lee, who took the helm without prior coaching experience, achieved the significant result of reaching the postseason in his first year.

However, at that time, Doosan fought for a shared 3rd place until the end of the season but fell to 5th, failing to truly savor the joy of returning to fall baseball. Many believed a higher ranking than 5th was also possible. Moreover, the long-awaited fall baseball ended abruptly after just one game.

The 2024 season was a series of misfortunes. Foreign pitchers such as Alcantara, Brandon Waddell, and Keisho Shirakawa suffered injuries in succession, derailing the mound plan devised during spring training. Injuries to Choi Seung-yong and Choi Won-jun also proved to be unexpected variables. This naturally led to controversies regarding the overuse of young bullpen players, including Choi Ji-gang, Lee Byeong-heon, and Kim Taek-yeon.

Despite the collapse of the starting rotation, Manager Lee led the team to 4th place in the regular season (74 wins, 2 ties, 68 losses), achieving postseason qualification for the second consecutive year. However, this time, the autumn spirit also turned its back on Doosan. Facing a postseason that was held at home for the first time, they faced the ordeal of losing both games to the 5th place team in the wildcard playoff. Although there have been two instances of the 5th place team winning the first game, there has never been a case of them winning both games.

As he reached the final year of his contract, Manager Lee Seung-yeop discussed with reporters at the final exhibition game scheduled against the KT Wiz on the 18th at Suwon KT Wiz Park, declaring, "I have no personal aspirations this year."

With just four days until the regular season opener, Manager Lee emphasized the team-first mentality, saying, "I will just work with our Doosan Bears to restore our past glory. I naturally believe that we need to achieve higher results each year, and I will strive to win at least one more time."

He surprised reporters with somewhat shocking remarks regarding the contract renewal as Manager Lee stated, "My contract renewal has nothing to do with it. I don't think about the renewal even a little. I just hope that our Doosan Bears can become a team that receives a lot of applause and support this year."

The preparation to restore past glory through the exhibition games is complete. I witnessed the powerful pitching of the foreign pitcher duo known as Cole Irvin and Jack Logue, and I discovered new faces in the lineup, such as Kim Min-seok and Oh Myung-jin, bringing fresh winds to the team. If 'strong second batter' Kim Jae-hwan and new foreign hitter Jake Cave both perform well, Manager Lee's declaration that he would make it to the Korean Series within three years may become a reality, not just a dream.

Manager Lee remarked, "The biggest gain from this exhibition game is that we lost more than last year," adding, "We confirmed many players we wanted to evaluate, and we also checked the performance that could be displayed during the season. The growth of the young players was noticeable, and the new captain (Yang Eui-ji) led the atmosphere well. Everything feels much better than last year. We can enter the season with expectations."

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