Jong-seok Yeom and Hak-gil Yoon won Lotte in 1992… Lee Choong-soon, former pitching coach, dies
Reporter Lee Chung-won = “He is the one who introduced the concept of ‘pitcher rotation’ of start-middle-finish to Lotte. Until then, I tried to keep throwing good players… Lotte finished 3rd in the regular league in 1992. (Yoon
Hak-gil) Former Lotte Pitching Coach Lee Choong-soon, a “master of pitcher training,” who nurtured Kim Yong-soo as head coach at Chung-Ang University, and Yoon Hak-gil and Yeom Jong-seok during their professional baseball days as pitching coach for the Lotte Giants. passed away at 8:15 am on the 28th after a battle with Parkinson’s disease, the bereaved family said on the 29th. He is 76 years old.
Born in Myeongcheon, Hamgyeong-do, the deceased started playing baseball in middle school. He is the same age as former Lotte coach Kang Byeong-cheol, born in 1946, but the reason he graduated from school a year late is because he wanted to play baseball and moved to Daegwang Middle School, so he was suspended for a year. He played as a catcher until his first year at Kyungdong High School, but then coach Kim Il-bae (1909-1973) recommended that he try pitching because he is tall (185 cm), so he played an active role as a pitcher from his second year. After graduating from high school, from 1966 to 1975, he served as the main pitcher in the unemployment team KEPCO with former Lotte coach Kim Myeong-seong (1947-2001).
Korean baseball pitchers competed with power until the 1950s, but Kim Yeong-deok (1936-2023) of Hanil Bank (former OB/Binggrae coach), who had been active in Japanese professional baseball and came to Korea in the 1960s, began throwing breaking pitches such as sliders. The deceased learned how to play the slider and forkball by looking sideways at how players such as Kim Young-deok catch the ball. Koo Kyung-baek, secretary-general of Ilguhoe, a corporation, said, “He was a nice guy. He told me that he learned how to throw a breaking ball from coach Kim Young-deok, who was a player on another team, while running errands for the kettle.” He also worked in the audit department of KEPCO, the former secretary-general said.
He went through Masan Sanggo coach in 1976 and Chung-Ang University coach in 1982, and was selected as the OB Bears 2nd team coach in 1983. Lee Jun-seo, his son, said, “Director Kim Seong-geun picked me. After that, in professional baseball, I always worked with coach Kim Seong-geun or Kang Byeong-cheol.” After working as an MBC blue dragon coach in 1986, he worked with coach Kang Byeong-cheol during Lotte and Hanwha, Kim Seong-geun during Ssangbangwool, and Kang Byeong-cheol again during SK. 스포츠토토
It was during his time at Lotte that the deceased’s pitcher training skills shined the most. As soon as he took office as Lotte coach in 1990, he trained Yoon Hak-gil, who had not been active for a year due to an injury in the previous year, to be able to stand on the mound again, and in 1992, he discovered Yeom Jong-seok. After graduating from Busan High School, Yeom Jong-seok was originally going to go to Kyungsung University, but he was a rookie who suddenly joined Lotte due to family circumstances. Director Kang said in a retrospective published in the International Newspaper, “The scout said, ‘I think it will be okay if I use it as a batting ball pitcher for about a year.’ “I went to Japan for field training, and my skills really improved. At first, my ball speed was in the late 130km range, but later it went well over 140km. I was taught to throw a forkball, and I was surprised to throw it right away.”
Jong-seok Yeom joined from the opening game entry and took the mound in 35 games, recording 17 wins, 9 losses, 6 saves, an ERA of 2.33, and a WHIP (on-base percentage per inning) of 1.01, sweeping the rookie of the year and pitcher Golden Glove that year, and in the postseason 4 wins and 1 With a save and an ERA of 1.47, he became the main player in the championship. At that time, the WAR (contribution to victory over substitute players) of 8.40 remains the best rookie in KBO history. Equipped with a slider he learned from the deceased, he was compared to Seo Taiji, who gained sensational popularity with ‘Yeom Sla’ or ‘Yeom Rider’ and ‘I Know’ in the same year, and was called ‘Yeom Taiji’.
Former Hanwha coach Yoon Hak-gil said, “I learned from the coach about the ‘pitcher rotation.’ When I was about to throw it, he said, ‘It’s okay to be beaten,’ and demanded a match on the body side.” After his career as a professional baseball coach ended, he worked as an instructor at Jeonju High School and Yonsei University, and in 2007 taught baseball to children in Kazakhstan and Pakistan.
Koo Kyung-baek recalled, “He was picky with his seniors, but he was kind to his juniors. Even when the coach told him to practice more, he told the pitchers to take a break and take care of their bodies.” did.
His survivors include his son Lee Jun-seo and daughter-in-law Na Seung-mi. The mortuary was prepared in Room 5 of the funeral hall at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital. As promised in 2011, the body donation procedure (Hanyang University Hospital) is scheduled to proceed on the 30th. ☎ 031-787-1505
