Nostalgia for the Perpetual Loser

Imagine Superman, in his blue spandex briefs and red cape, holding a baseball bat at the ready…

Back then, the sight was the pinnacle of gaudiness. But almost 20 years after it has become a mere memory, people are once again looking back with longing on that garish Superman.

With the film “Superstar Mr. Gam” set to open on September 17, the perpetual underdog baseball team Sammi Superstars has come back into the spotlight.

Of late, popular internet search engines like Naver have been listing “Mr. Gam” among their top 10 most searched terms. “Sammi Superstars” is another favorite.

Nostalgia for the Sammi Superstars has been brewing since last year. The auspicious moment came when the popular success of a book entitled “The Last Fan Club of Sammi Superstars” coincided with the conclusion of a whirlwind season for the Incheon-based SK Wyverns, which came in second place in the Korean Series. The upcoming movie is, in a sense, the culmination of this newly-stoked public fervor for the Sammi Superstars.

One person wrote on the movie’s official website, “I was a fan of the Sammi Superstars too. To be honest, Sammi was rough and unsophisticated—even their souvenirs were gaudier than those of other teams—but I was a dedicated fan nonetheless. I still have vivid memories of players like Jeong Goo-seon and Chang Myeong-bu.”

During the inaugural year of Korean professional baseball, the Sammi Superstars played .125 baseball (five wins, 35 losses) during the second half of the pennant race. It’s still the unbroken record for the lowest winning percentage in the K-League. In 1985, the year the Superstars were sold off, they lost 18 straight games during the first half of the season. This is also the longest losing streak recorded in the history of Korean pro baseball.

So why are fans going wild over such an irredeemable underdog of a team? Former Superstars pitcher Gam Sa-yong (47) speculated, “Times are hard for everyone these days. Back in 1982, even though we lost every day, the Sammi Superstars played their very best each time they went out on the field. Maybe it’s because the times call for the same spirit of challenge.”

“I went to a screening of the film, and I couldn’t help crying when I saw ‘myself’ up on the screen working at my old company, Sammi Steel,” he added.

Gam laughed and said that he was worried about getting fired because he spends so much time doing interviews for newspapers and television shows these days.

Coach Keum Kwang-ok (47) of the Hyundai Unicorns, who used to catch for the Superstars in 1982, said, “Gam’s pitches didn’t have that much speed on them, but they had a good slow curve,” and recalled, “We were really feeble in terms of fighting power, but people called us the ‘goblin team’ because every now and then we’d beat a strong team.”

The Sammi Superstars were founded in 1982 and sold off to Chungbo in mid-1985. During that time, they played 335 games, recording 120 wins, four draws, and 211 losses (WP .363). Unlike other teams, who chose animals as their official mascots, the Superstars were represented by Superman. Their cheerleader was Wonder Woman.

They ended up with a truly horrifying record of 15 wins and 65 losses in their first season (.188), but the following year, with Korean-Japanese pitcher Chang Myeong-bu playing in a whopping 60 out of a total of 100 games and getting an unprecedented 30 wins (16 losses, 6 saves, ERA 2.34) under his belt, the Superstars catapulted to third place (52 wins, one draw, 47 losses) in the league.

The founding players of the Sammi Superstars include pitchers Gam So-yong and In Ho-bong, catcher Keum Kwang-ok, infielders Huh Un and Kim Mu-gwan, and outfielder Yang Seung-gwan.

Sang-Soo Kim ssoo@donga.com