“A ‘coach’ business card would not be full of surnames.”
Last year when the 2022 KBO League was in full swing. Coach B, who is working for club A, once said this about the moves of legends who are entering the broadcasting world instead of living as leaders after his retirement.
He said, “If you were called a KBO legend, you would have received hundreds of millions of won in annual salary at least until retirement.” “If you think realistically, most of them are the breadwinners, but from the point of view of income, such activities are more appealing than the difficult and stressful coaching job,” he said.
It has long been a thing of the past for a star player to blossom a ‘second baseball life’ as a leader. The appearance of being active as a commentator or entertainment star outside the field has increased dramatically in recent years. The experiences and insights accumulated as players, and the appearance of those who unravel various back stories have provided a different kind of fun. It cannot be denied that their ‘exuberant talent’ also played a part in the KBO League’s establishment as a popular sport.
However, there has been a steady voice of concern about the ‘star leader famine’ in the field. Coach B asked, “If you look around the field recently, how many so-called ‘legends’ are young coaches?” Then, after asking, “Coaches who have accumulated top-class results in the league can pass on experience and know-how that young players do not have. It can be a great help in this respect. It can create synergy with the players because there is little distance between them. However, at some point, the appearance of star players leading their lives after retirement suddenly stopped.” He said, “Nowadays, you can find another job without having to take a tough leadership class. You can set up a ‘baseball academy’ that is not affiliated with a professional club and instruct players,” he said. I can’t say anything about finding them. However, it’s a pity that the know-how of the seniors is not properly passed on to the younger players,” he sighed. “It’s easy to give ‘advice’ from the outside, but it’s a different matter from coaching players while working on a team throughout the season,” he said. We need to think about whether we are doing our part properly to break through.”안전놀이터
After the 2023 WBC defeat in Japan, the voices of disappointment and anger are seldom going away. A reduced talent pool and ignoring the basics of youth baseball,
Seniors who went through the KBO league are also voicing their voices here and there. Regarding coach Lee’s pitching management, there were also people who criticized the so-called ‘judgement’, such as “I didn’t score too well”, “It’s a pity that there was no countermeasure”, “If it’s this kind of game management, it’s right not to coach the national team.” However, among those who have such a ‘worrying voice’, only a handful of them have actual leadership experience in the KBO League. This is the current state of Korean baseball.