2024-04-22 03:57:38
There was a time when the Haitai Tigers’ ‘black and red uniform (black bottoms + red top)’ was an object of fear for opposing team players. In particular, Haitai from 1985 to 1995, when Dong-yeol Sun, the ‘Mudeungsan Bomber’, guarded the mound, was an even stronger team in big games such as the Korean Series.
Haitai, led by Sun Dong-yeol, achieved four consecutive Korean Series wins from 1986 to 1989. In 1990, they finished second in the regular season, advanced to the playoffs, and were aiming for their fifth straight loss. Speaking of Seon Dong-yeol that year, he appeared in 35 regular season games and recorded 22 wins, 6 losses, 4 saves, and an ERA of 1.13. He struck out 189 batters while pitching 190 1/3 innings. Most surprisingly, while facing 724 batters that year, he allowed only one home run.
![Kim Yong-guk, the ‘Dragon Coach’ who brought down the world’s seditionist zeal… Grab the mic and act 2 of your life[이헌재의 인생홈런]](https://dimg.donga.com/wps/NEWS/IMAGE/2024/04/22/124591599.1.jpg "Kim Yong-guk, the ‘Dragon Coach’ who brought down the world’s seditionist zeal… Grab the mic and act 2 of your life[이헌재의 인생홈런]")
However, in the first game of the playoffs against Samsung, a twist that no one expected occurs. In the top of the 5th inning, when the game was tied 0-0, Sun Dong-yeol came to the mound with no outs on second base. At the plate was Kim Yong-guk (62) with a batting average of 0.220 and 4 home runs. In a situation where the ball count was 1 ball and 2 strikes, the ball hit was an ordinary foul fly towards the first baseman. However, catcher Jang Chae-geun and first baseman Kim Seong-han gave the ball to each other and ended up dropping it.
Kim Yong-guk, who came back from the dead, suddenly swung his bat at the fifth pitch. However, the batted ball that hit the center of the bat went straight and became a home run that went slightly over the wall to his left. Kim Yong-guk hit a timely hit with 2 RBIs against Sun Dong-yeol in the 9th inning, scoring all 4 RBIs the team earned that day.
Sun Dong-yeol, who was shocked, collapsed in the second game by allowing another home run to Kim Yong-cheol, and Samsung defeated Haitai by winning all three games. Kim Yong-guk said, “Looking back, I think it was my best moment as a hitter. He scored 4 RBIs alone against Seon Dong-yeol of the world. “It was probably the first series in which we broke Haetae in the postseason.”
However, the joy of defeating Haitai was short-lived. ‘Shinbaram LG’ was standing in front of Samsung, which was aiming for its first Korean Series championship. In the Korean Series that year, Samsung was unable to use its strength properly and lost all four games to LG.
Here again are Kim Yong-guk’s words. “LG won the Korean Series in 1990 and 1994, and I had a stake in both times. In 1990, he lost all four games as a Samsung player, and in 1994, he lost all four games as a Pacific uniform. “When LG won 8 times, I lost 8 times.”
If you think about it, it is difficult to find a player who lost that many times in the Korean Series. At that time, before winning its first championship in 2002, Samsung’s games strangely did not go well in the Korean Series, and he was always there.
The dream I couldn’t achieve as a player was achieved by becoming a coach. Starting with its first win in 2002, Samsung also won the Korean Series in 2005 and 2006. He was serving as the coach of Samsung’s second team in 2006. Samsung finally achieved a ‘dynasty’ by winning four consecutive Korean Series from 2011 to 2014. He shared a moment of glory as the first team defensive coach.
During his time as a player, he was called a great third baseman, but he had nothing to do with the Golden Glove. This is because his batting was weak compared to his excellent defensive skills, and the third base position was filled with heavy hitters, including Han Dae-hwa.
However, when Navarro, a Samsung foreign player at the time, received the Golden Glove in the second base category in 2015, he received the award on behalf of Navarro, who returned to his home country. Standing on the podium, he said, “I was a player for 11 years, but I ended up winning a substitute award (after not receiving any awards),” and “Navarro appeared in my dream.” Navarro can’t speak Korean and I can’t speak Spanish, but since we’ve been together for two years, I can understand the basics. First, he said, ‘I’m grateful to the reporters, and I’m grateful to coach Ryu Joong-il who kept hiring me despite my bad grades,’” he said, causing laughter.
Whether baseball was going well or not, he was always a cheerful person. Based on his unique positive attitude, he became the first Korean coach to receive a salary in American professional baseball.
After retiring as a player, he briefly worked as an unemployed baseball coach for Hyundai Phoenix, and in 1997, he took his entire family to the United States to train as a coach. The first year, he coached in the Rookie League under Milwaukee. The following year, 1998, he coached defense and base running in Single A under Milwaukee.
Because I was a training coach, I was not treated properly. In the first year, the only money received was meal money (meal expenses) during away games. In the second year, all the club supported was six months’ worth of apartment rent.
However, for the third year, he officially signed a coaching contract with the club. He received an annual salary of $30,000, which fully covered his apartment rent. Although $30,000 is not a lot of money now, it was quite a good deal for a minor league coach at the time. He said, “I felt like if he had stayed in the U.S. for just one or two more years, he could have managed a minor league team.”
During his time as an American coach, he was called “Yong” after his middle name. ‘Coach Yong’, with his sincerity, optimism, friendliness, and sense of humor, was popular among the players. He didn’t speak English very well, but his sincerity made up for it.
When I went to away games, I went to nightclubs and restaurants with younger players. He tried to communicate with hungry minor leaguers by giving them a bottle of beer. On the field, he batted and threw the ball until he was told to stop. It was difficult for the club to find someone like ‘Coach Yong’.
After the 1999 season, his salary jumped to $35,000. He also agreed to get me a plane ticket to travel to and from Korea twice a year. He said he would even promote him to the major leagues at the end of the season if he wanted.
However, he came to Korea as a scout after the 1999 season and signed a contract with the LG Twins. He said, “Life in America was so much fun. However, unlike his good relationship with his players, he was secretly jealous of the coaches around him,” he said. “At the time, the LG club reached out to me and I came back to Korea.”
He has been in the field for 30 years, including 11 years as a professional baseball player and 19 years as a coach, and these days, he is working as a baseball commentator at TBC, a private broadcaster in the Daegu and Gyeongbuk region. He likes to talk, and as he is good at speaking, it is like a ‘vocation’ for him.
He is working with caster Kim Dae-jin, who has broadcasted over 2,200 games for a single team on radio since the second half of last year. He follows and broadcasts on the radio all 144 regular season games of Samsung, a team based in Daegu and where he has played for a long time.
Many fans consider his commentary, which he uses in a thick Daegu dialect, to be ‘legendary’. Here, legend is an abbreviation for ‘unprecedented commentary’ rather than ‘legend’. Even if you are not in Daegu or Gyeongbuk, you can listen to the legend’s commentary anywhere by downloading the application ‘Teapot’ or watching it live on YouTube. Commentator Kim Yong-guk said, “It is not a biased broadcast. However, it is true that it is a ‘biased broadcast’ centered on Samsung,” he said. “You can listen as if you are drinking a beer with a guy who knows a little about baseball.” “I was surprised by the number of foreign listeners, such as Brazil and Hawaii, USA,” he said with a laugh.
He was originally offered to be a commentator after finishing his job as KT’s head coach, but his debut as a commentator was delayed due to a problem with his vocal cords and undergoing surgery. Instead, he coached juniors for two years as the coach of Gyeongju High School, and from 2021, he served as a supervisor of the Gyeonggi Provincial Baseball Association and traveled through elementary, middle, high school, college baseball, and independent league fields. Last year, he also traveled to Japan as a coach for the independent league national team, which is made up of players from the Gyeonggi Provincial League (7 teams), an independent baseball team.
He is naturally healthy and has an optimistic personality, but after vocal cord surgery, he pays more attention to his health. Above all, he quit smoking cigarettes, which he had been smoking for decades. He said, “Once I made up my mind, quitting smoking wasn’t that difficult. “He now feels good about having saved more than 2 million won a year.”
I also exercise from time to time. Rather than taking the time to go to a fitness center, do squats while brushing your teeth or do lunges while watching TV.
The exercise he most recommends is push-ups, one of the representative bodyweight exercises. He does push-ups whenever he has time, regardless of time or place. He does 20 at a time, about 100 per day.
However, the way they count the number of push-ups is different from that of ordinary people. Most people count as they bend their arms and then raise them, but he counts them as they go down. He said, “Holding on with your arms outstretched is actually not much exercise. However, holding on with your arms bent is a good exercise,” he said. “After doing push-ups in this way my whole life, my shoulders don’t hurt at all. “I still have the shoulder strength to throw a batting ball,” he said.
In between commentary sessions, he visits his alma mater in Daegu and donates his talents. His two sons (Dongyoung and Dongbin), who played professional baseball, sometimes throw batting balls at a baseball lesson center in Bangi-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul. He said, “It is a very happy life because I started playing baseball, which I like, from a young age, and have been able to play baseball ever since.” He added, “I want to experience the fun of baseball with more people through the commentary I am doing now.” “I don’t know how long it will last, but I think my future self will always be involved with baseball,” he said.
Reporter Lee Heon-jae [email protected]
2024-04-22 03:57:38