The popular professional baseball team Doosan Bears, based in the capital city of Seoul, faces the risk of failing to produce an All-Star Best 12 for the first time in three years since 2022.

According to the second interim tally of fan voting for the 2025 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO All-Star Game Best 12 announced by the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) on the 16th, Doosan did not have a player ranked first by position in either the first or second voting.

In the Dream All-Star, where Doosan is located, Lotte Giants have six players (Jeong Cheol-won, Kim Won-jung, Jeon Min-jae, Víctor Reyes, Yoon Dong-hee, Jeon Jun-woo), Samsung Lions have five players (Won Tae-in, Kang Min-ho, Lewin Diaz, Ryu Ji-hyeok, Koo Ja-wook), and SSG Landers have one player (Choi Jeong) leading in first place.

Doosan has nominated Choi Seung-yong (starting pitcher), Lee Young-ha (middle reliever), Kim Taek-kyun (closer), Yang Eui-ji (catcher), Yang Seok-hwan (first baseman), Kang Seung-ho (second baseman), Lim Jong-seong (third baseman), Oh Myeong-jin (shortstop), Jeong Su-bin, Jake Cave, and Kim In-tae (all outfielders), as candidates; however, the second tally results show that there is not even a player ranked second.

The assessment that Doosan has been overwhelmed by the fierce voting power of Lotte and Samsung fans falls short of convincing. That’s because Doosan consistently produced Best 12 through fan voting over the past two years. In the 2023 All-Star Game, Yang Eui-ji secured first place in the catcher sector, boosting Doosan's pride, and in last year's All-Star Game, three Best All-Stars emerged, including Kim Taek-kyun (closer), Yang Eui-ji (catcher), and Jeong Su-bin (outfielder). Yang Eui-ji received the most votes in the Dream sector, and Kim Taek-kyun earned the honor of the most votes among players.

This year, the ninth-ranked Doosan has been able to rely only on Yang Eui-ji and Kim Taek-kyun. However, with 463,166 votes, Yang Eui-ji is trailing behind Kang Min-ho (1,176,829 votes) and Lotte's Yoo Kang-nam (481,485 votes), who was sent down to the second team due to poor performance on the 8th, and is holding onto third place. Kim Taek-kyun, who is also not showing the same impact as last year, is in fourth place (327,812 votes), following Kim Won-jung (1,087,266 votes), Samsung's Lee Ho-seong (60034 votes), and SSG Landers' Jo Byeong-hyeon (396,284 votes).

Doosan last suffered the humiliation of having zero players in the All-Star Best 12 in 2022. At that time, the ranking dropped to eighth at the voting reference point, resulting in failure to produce Best All-Stars alongside ninth-ranked NC Dinos and tenth-ranked Hanwha Eagles. The highest ranking was second place for relief pitcher Hong Geon-hee and catcher Yang Eui-ji, marking the second consecutive year Doosan received fans’ neglect. The 2022 season was also the year Doosan fell to ninth for the first time since its founding.

With manager Lee Seung-yup's voluntary resignation in early June and Doosan hovering around ninth place, the team finds itself in a position to suffer the humiliation of having 'zero players' in the Best All-Star for the first time in three years. This is the result of repeated losses and subsequent performance decline leading to a cooling of fan interest.

Meanwhile, the overall top vote-getter was Hanwha's closer Kim Seo-hyeon, who maintained the lead in both the first and second round. As of 5 p.m. on the 15th, Kim Seo-hyeon received a total of 1,304,258 votes across three channels (KBO website, KBO app, Shinhan SOL Bank app) combined for the first and second rounds. His voting rate stands at about 50.6% of the total 2,577,376 votes.

The second interim tally also saw Yoon Dong-hee of the Dream All-Star's outfielder sector securing the second-highest number of votes, following the first round tally. Yoon Dong-hee, who received 1,254,077 votes, trails first-place Kim Seo-hyeon by about 50,000 votes.

Samsung and Lotte demonstrated continued strength in the second round tally, following the first round. Lotte had the most candidates ranked first by sector, placing six players including Jeong Cheol-won in the middle reliever sector, Kim Won-jung in the closer sector, Jeon Min-jae in the shortstop sector, outfielder Yoon Dong-hee (first place for outfielders), Reyes (third place for outfielders), and Jeon Jun-woo in the designated hitter sector. Reyes surpassed Samsung’s Kim Ji-chan, who was ahead in the first round tally by about 30,000 votes, to rise to third place in the outfielder sector.

Samsung continues to hold the lead with five players, including Won Tae-in in the starting pitcher sector, Kang Min-ho in the catcher sector, Diaz in the first baseman sector, Ryu Ji-hyeok in the second baseman sector, and Koo Ja-wook (second place for outfielders). In the third baseman sector, SSG's Choi Jeong is leading with 950,601 votes.

The fan voting to select the Best 12 for the 2025 KBO All-Star Game will be conducted until 2 p.m. on the 22nd, and the final Best 12 list, which combines the fan voting (70%) and player voting (30%) results, will be announced on the 23rd.

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