“I’m sorry.”
Game 1 of the Korean Series of the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League postseason will take place on April 7 at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul. The LG Twins, looking to win their first title in 29 years, and the KT Wiz, returning to the Korean Series two years after completing a reverse sweep of the NC Dinos in the playoffs.
However, there’s one team that’s garnering just as much attention as the teams playing during the playoffs. SSG Landers.
On October 31, SSG announced the termination of their head coach Kim Won-hyung. This was the same day as the second round of the playoffs between KT and NC. The team then announced the appointment of Son Si-heon as head coach of the Futures on the third day of the playoffs.
Then, on the 5th, after the Korean Series bracket was completed with the end of the fifth game of the playoffs between KT and NC, a media outlet reported that “LG Twins hitting coach Lee Ho-joon has been selected as the next manager of SSG.”
When contacted by ‘My Daily’ after the report, SSG president Kim Sung-yong said, “We are in a difficult situation (regarding the team’s coach for the Korean Series). It’s true that Lee Ho-jun is on the shortlist of coaches. But we haven’t even made a final list yet. We will be interviewing candidates after the Korean Series,” he retorted.
“We apologize to LG and the KBO for this news coming out after Game 5 of the playoffs,” he added.
An SSG representative added, “We are also confused. We asked them to share the shortlist with us this morning (May 5). We told them that if there is a shortlist for the Korean Series team, they should decide when to interview them.” “We haven’t even selected a shortlist yet. It’s a process. Coach Lee is just one of those candidates.” 무지개토토
Lee had a long career with SSG’s predecessor organization, the SK Wyverns. He joined the Hattae Tigers (now KIA) in 1994 and played until the 1999 season before being traded to SK in 2000. He spent the next 12 seasons with SK. He then moved to NC, where he ended his playing career after the 2017 season.
He then went on to become a coach. In 2018, he underwent coaching training with the Yomiuri Giants of Nippon Professional Baseball. The following year, he returned to NC and served as hitting coach for three years. In the 2022 season, he moved on. He moved to LG and has been working on player development as the first team hitting coach ever since. The LG batting lineup has been feared since Lee donned the LG uniform.