“Has it been 30 years already?”
Lee Jong-woon, the head coach of Lotte, came to the resignation ballpark on the 27th. On the morning of the 27th, Lotte fired pitching coach Bae Young-soo in an effort to shake things up and appointed Futures coach Lee Jong-woon as head coach. Park Heung-sik, the previous head coach, will focus on hitting. Training coach Kim Hyun-wook took over the position of pitching coach Bae Young-soo.메이저사이트
Lee Jong-woon is no stranger to the Lotte bench. He spent most of his playing career with Lotte. He also started his coaching career with Lotte. He was the first base coach from 2000 to 2002 and 2014. In 2015, he became the manager of the Lotte first team. He then became the head coach of the SK (now SSG) Rookie Team and the second team manager before returning to Lotte in late 2022 as the second team manager.
On the 28th, when we met at the Busan Sajik Stadium, Lee Jong-woon said, “I was suddenly notified. It’s a lot of pressure, but I’m a professional coach. If the team needs something, I have to do it. I’m trying to make it easy.”
He continued, “The coach talked about various situations in a relaxed manner and explained my role. I’m supposed to be in the middle,” he said. “I’ve been a first-team coach before, so I’m trying to figure out how I can help him with what he’s thinking,” he added.
“I’m sure the players are feeling it, too, because there’s been a lot of coaching changes. I told the players, ‘I’m going to do whatever it takes, you just have to do your part. Let’s cooperate and communicate with each other so that the team can do well.”
Lee Jong-woon is the head coach of Busan Sana. He attended Gamcheoncho, Busan National University, Pusan National University, Gyeongnam High School, and Dong-A University before being drafted by Lotte with the 14th overall pick in the 1989 second round. He played for Lotte from 1989 to 1997, and only played for the Hanwha Eagles in 1998, his final professional season. Lee Jong-woon retired with a career batting average of .272 with 580 hits, nine home runs, 213 RBIs and 258 runs scored in 738 games. Notably, he was a member of Lotte’s last championship team in 1992.
Coach Lee Jong-woon said, “I was surprised and thought, ‘It’s been 30 years. I hope he had good results as a coach as well as a player, and that would be the best story,” he laughed.
Lotte has not been in a good mood lately. They led the league in April with a monthly winning percentage of 0.636 (14 wins, 8 losses) and cruised through May with a 0.591 (13 wins, 9 losses). However, they lost more games than they won in June. This is where the experienced coach’s know-how comes in.
“There are definitely ups and downs in the game. You can’t be good all the time. We can bring back the momentum,” he said, adding, “Our players are just starting. The atmosphere is not bad. I want the team to do well. I will do my best to help the team.”
In conclusion, Coach Lee Jong-woon said, “We won the first game on the day we came up with a walk-off home run by Kang Nam-i. It was so good. It was exhilarating. I feel better when my team wins,” he said, adding, “I hope to work well with my players and play fall baseball.”