‘Biggest dream. To coach…’ Lee Jong-beom, who also won as a coach, will follow his son to the United States for training. Dad, son, and dice going to the U.S. together?
“I have the biggest dream. It’s to be a manager.”
LG Twins coach Lee Jong-beom (53) has decided to leave the team and go for coaching training in the United States after breaking the 29-year winning streak of LG. He is embarking on a journey to fulfill his dream of becoming a manager. He decided to study in the United States to become a better coach.
On the 17th, Lee appeared on YTN Radio’s ‘News King Park Ji-hoon’ by phone and revealed the reason for his decision to leave LG. He said, “I’ve been thinking about it. I have the biggest dream. I thought about training to become a better leader because I had the intention of becoming a coach.” The coach plans to coach Lee once he reaches the major leagues. 캡틴토토 주소
“I’ve been thinking about what kind of coaching I can do to help him play better baseball. In baseball, the capabilities of the players are greater than the capabilities of the coach. It’s a manager’s role. I thought it was necessary to study, so I chose it.”
During his career, Lee was recognized as one of the best baseball players in the Korean Baseball Organization. Many baseball players still say, “Lee Jong-bum is better than Lee Jung-hoo.”
He joined the Hattae Tigers in 1993, leading them to the Korean Series title in his first year and winning the Korean Series MVP award. He went on to win the Korean Series in 1996 and 1997. In 1997, he won his second Korean Series MVP award. He won a championship in 2009, the last year of his career, in a KIA uniform. He also played for the Junichi Dragons of the Nippon Professional Baseball League for three years starting in 1998. In 1706 career games, he batted .299 with 1797 hits, 194 home runs, 730 RBIs, 1100 runs scored, and 510 stolen bases.
His 3-for-9 performance in 1994 remains the best seasonal average in more than 100 games. He won five awards that year and was named the regular season MVP. He won 12 trophies and six Golden Gloves, including one batting title (1994), one Most Valuable Player award (1994), five runs scored (1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 2004), one RBI award (1994), and four stolen bases (1994, 1996, 1997, 2003).
He retired from baseball in 2011 and began coaching the Hanwha Eagles in 2013. He also served as a commentator from 2015, but returned to coaching in 2018 as the head hitting coach of the LG Future team. Lee returned to LG in 2020 after training with the Junichi Dragons of Nippon Professional Baseball, where he stayed for three years. Last year, he was the Futures manager, and this year, he was the first-team infield and outfield defense coach, helping the team win its first championship in 29 years.
Now, with coaches like Lee Seung-yeop (47) of the Doosan Bears and Park Jin-man (47) of the Samsung Lions in their mid-40s, Lee is getting a bit old for the job. Lee is also a year younger than Lee, who was recently named head coach of the SSG Landers. Among the current KBO managers, only Lee Kang-chul of the KT Wiz (57), Kim Tae-hyung of the Lotte Giants (56), and Yeom Kyung-yup of the LG Twins (55) are older than Lee.
LG manager Yeom recommended Lee to train as a first-team coach in the major leagues. “I think it’s 50-50,” Yoon said when asked about Lee before Game 4 of the Korean Series on Nov. 11. There were rumors that Lee would go to the United States with his son, Lee Jung-hoo. Before the Korean Series, it was reported that Lee was not going, but Yeom said that Lee’s mind was slowly changing. “I told him that if he had the opportunity, he should try major league training instead of minor league training. When I did it, it was definitely different and helpful,” he said, adding, “If you follow them for a year, it will help a lot. The data is not comparable to what we have now, and we are fresh blood.”
We wonder if there will be a place for this coach who chose to learn in order to fulfill his dream of becoming a coach, and if training in the United States will be a new opportunity. Meanwhile, not only Lee Jung-hoo, but also LG’s Go Woo-seok has received a background check from Major League Baseball, and Go Woo-seok has requested to go overseas. If the LG team approves, he will try to make it to the U.S. by posting. Who knows, maybe next year, both Lee and Lee will be playing in the United States.