It is Korean professional baseball with no windy days. The disappointment of the fans who are still sending unchanging love goes deeper. only sighs come out In 2023, this year is now April, but disappointing events and bad news continue to erupt in Korean baseball. The early elimination of the World Baseball Classic (WBC), Lotte Giants Seo Jun-won’s crimes involving minors, and former KIA Tigers general manager Jang Jeong-seok’s ‘backward money’ scandal. With no time to catch his breath, the allegations of illegal internet gambling by outfielder Lee Chun-woong (34) of the LG Twins have now been proven true. Korean baseball is having its worst spring ever.
On the 14th, the LG club said,메이저놀이터 “We found out that Lee Cheon-woong was involved in an illegal gambling case recently requested by the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) to investigate, and conducted several interviews and self-investigation. Lee Cheon-woong admitted the charges on the 12th.”
Lee Chun-woong illegal gambling… LG Insufficient Response
Suspicion of Lee Chun-woong’s online gambling became known when a report came in to the Clean Baseball Center at the end of last month. Lee Chun-woong, who was mentioned as a potential player at the time, strongly denied, saying, “I just lent money.” However, after an investigation and repeated interviews, Lee Chun-woong admitted to illegal gambling. Following pitcher Park Hyeon-joon, who participated in game manipulation 11 years ago, LG was once again put into a difficult position due to the deviant behavior of its players.
Cheonwoong Lee is a veteran player who debuted on the professional stage at LG in 2012. He appeared in 622 games and had a career batting average of .289 with 18 homers, 291 runs scored and 211 RBI. He played 4 games this year, primarily as a pinch hitter, going 3-for-3. After observing the investigation process, the KBO plans to open a reward and punishment committee to determine the level of disciplinary action.
LG’s insufficient response is also a problem. Suspicions about Lee Cheon-woong spread quickly, but LG only believed the player’s words. Rather than meticulous self-investigation, LG only believed in the words of players who falsely denied it, and did not even remove Lee Chun-woong from the first-team roster. It was excluded from the entry only after it was subject to investigation by the prosecution. It is LG that already has a case of Park Hyeon-joon in the past. A similar incident occurred after 11 years, but it was revealed that the situation was lukewarm in handling the situation early. It only exposed that there was a big problem with the club’s crisis response system.
◆Elimination of competitions, crimes by minors, back-money… The gloomy ‘Spring’
The 2023 KBO League opened with the arrival of spring. However, it is devastated by all sorts of controversies and gossip. Players, general managers, and even officials from the KBO secretariat are under investigation by the judicial authorities. Even before the start of the season, baseball fans are disappointed.
It starts with the ‘Tokyo Disaster’. The 2023 WBC Korean team, which set sail with the goal of reaching the semifinals, returned with a shocking report card of being eliminated in the first round ten days after it moved to Japan, where the tournament was held. They also went through the humiliation of almost losing to Japan at the Tokyo Dome. Criticism poured out that Korean baseball, which runs on the box office road every year, has not been able to solidify its substance.
But grades weren’t the only problem. The unforgivable insults continued as if they were competing. Last month, former Lotte Giants pitcher Seo Jun-won was known to have been investigated by the police and prosecutors for criminal activities involving minors. The Lotte team released Seo Jun-won right away.
There was also a stir over ‘back money’. The leader of a club is the main character. Jang Jeong-seok, former general manager of the KIA Tigers, asked the player for back money, saying, “I will increase the free agent (FA) contract amount, so please return a certain amount.” His explanation that he did it as a joke only revealed low morality. Jang is currently under investigation by the prosecution.
On the 31st of last month, the day before the opening, prosecutors seized and searched the KBO office in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. An executive of KBOP, a marketing subsidiary in charge of KBO’s profits, was the target of the search and seizure. The executive is accused of accepting improper solicitations in relation to relaying rights and taking hundreds of millions of won worth of money and valuables in return.
Even in this situation, fans who have been waiting for baseball are sending their faith. All five matches of the opening day on the 1st were sold out. However, about 15 days after the opening, Lee Cheon-woong’s illegal gambling broke out. He repeats disappointment after disappointment. If this happens again, it will only take a moment for the fans to stop walking.