LX chairman plants hope in women's baseball wasteland

2026 LX Cup Korea Women's Baseball Tournament opens Saturday

Fifth edition draws 43 teams and more than 1,000 players

Event carries on legacy of LG Cup tournament Koo launched in 2012

Players backed by Koo have gone on to shine at world competitions

Koo Bon-joon, chairman of LX Group. [LX Holdings provided]

The 2026 LX Cup Korea Women's Baseball Tournament opens this weekend, backed by Koo Bon-joon, chairman of LX Group and a well-known women's baseball enthusiast.

According to LX Holdings, the fifth edition of the tournament will run from Saturday through Nov. 1 at LG Champions Park Dream Field in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. LX Group and the Women's Baseball Association of Korea co-host the event, which was established in 2022 and has been held annually since.

This year's tournament features 43 teams — 16 in the top-tier Champ League and 27 in the second-tier Future League — with more than 1,000 players taking part. More than half of the 20 players on the women's national team belong to Champ League clubs competing in the event.

Thanks to Koo's sustained support for women's baseball, South Korea — once dismissed as a wasteland for the sport, lacking even a semiprofessional team let alone a professional league — has begun making its mark at international competitions. Koo launched the LG Cup Korea Women's Baseball Tournament in 2012 while serving as chief executive of LG Electronics, and the event has continued under the LX Cup banner.

Players pose for a photo at the opening ceremony of the 2025 LX Cup Korea Women's Baseball Tournament. [LX Holdings provided]

Kim Ra-kyung (New York Heights), who has starred in the Women's Professional Baseball League — revived in the United States this year for the first time in 72 years — first made her name at the 2015 LG Cup International Women's Baseball Tournament, where she represented the national team and threw pitches clocked at 105 kilometers per hour. Park Ju-a (San Francisco Firebelles) is a member of the Changwon women's baseball club Changmiya and finished as runner-up at last year's LX Women's Baseball Tournament. Koo has also actively supported programs to identify and develop young women's baseball talent.

On opening day Saturday, three-time defending champion Hura will face traditional powerhouse Nine Box in the first game. Finals and award ceremonies for each league are scheduled for Nov. 1. All games will be streamed live for free on the YouTube channel Choe Banjang TV.

"Chairman Koo's love of baseball is becoming a seed of hope in what was once a wasteland for women's baseball," an LX Holdings official said. "We hope this year's tournament will serve as a stage where players can showcase their best, and a festival where fans can experience the appeal of women's baseball up close."

The official added that LX would "continue to provide sustained support so that Korean women's baseball can take another step forward."

klee@heraldcorp.com