Korean professional baseball legend ‘batting master’ Lee Byung-gyu, coach, returned with the Geelong Korea team. The players gained invaluable experience, and Lee also spent time caring for various juniors before starting out as head coach of the Samsung Lions.

The Geelong Korea team returned home through Incheon International Airport on the 23rd. Geelong Korea, led by coach Lee Byeong-kyu, returned with a record of 13 wins and 27 losses this season. It is the club’s best record ever. Director Lee looked back on his time in Australia after his return. 

After returning to Korea, he met with reporters and said, “The players didn’t play much in Korea. So (in Australia) I tried to give them a chance to play what they wanted to do,” he said. “It seems that they played a lot of baseball they wanted. It seemed like he was looking for something of his own inside it.”

Manager Lee Byeong-gyu said, “Now that I’m moving teams, I have to adapt, I want to go and say hello and see the players. I got to know more about it little by little, and I think it was good.” He looked back and said

, “I thought, ‘Shouldn’t I take responsibility for everything? transfer the team to the coach

Compared to the KBO league season, it wasn’t a long time, but I spent a good amount of time while in Australia. In particular, he, who was called a ‘batting master’ during his active career, spent time for his juniors with ‘one point lessons’. Song Chan-eui (LG Twins) thanked him, saying, “Coach Lee gave me a one-point lesson saying, ‘You have to come out on time.’” 메이저놀이터

Director Lee felt rewarded seeing these juniors. He said, “I taught young players about baseball. I think it was good to get to know each other little by little.” Coach Lee did not spend a lot of time with several players, but the players became a valuable experience just for that. In particular, Song Chan-eui, who showed a good batting average with a batting average of 3.24 and Ha Jae-hoon (SSG Landers), who hit 11 home runs, predicted fierce first-team competition in the new season of 2023. 

Manager Lee said, “Song Chan-eui and Ha Jae-hoon are players with some experience in the first team. They are players who do well on their own. But through one-point lessons for a while, they explained why they didn’t hit well. Try that once and feel it. If you have something, you can do it,” he said. 

Under Lee’s guidance, Geelong Korea recorded 7 wins and 33 losses in the 2018-2019 season, when it first entered the Australian Professional League, and 11 wins and 29 losses in the 2019-2020 season. In the third season, although they failed to advance to the postseason, they broke the club’s best record in the regular season and the team’s most 4 consecutive wins.

The Geelong Korea team performed with the most wins and the highest winning percentage (.325) in the third season after skipping the last two seasons due to the corona pandemic. A total of 50 players, 25 pitchers and 25 batters, played in 40 games and accumulated valuable experience during the off-season. 

Coach Lee leaves the LG Twins, where he has been with for 22 years, and starts anew with the Samsung Lions. As head coach, he assists acting manager Park Jin-man and prepares for a new baseball game.