South Korea’s Korea Baseball Organization, or KBO, met for the second time in their Seoul Headquarters. After the meeting, technical director Kim Si-jin has shared that the committee has come up with five names who will make up the short list as candidates for the head coach position.
According to Kim, he still cannot announce or reveal the names, but the committee has formed a consensus on the candidates for the post. All members of the committee agree that the track records of the candidates are a big part of the process.
National Baseball Team Coach Guesses
Kim also gave a hint, that there are two names in the list that have been talked about in baseball news recently. Korea sports betting fans have a few guesses as well. One of the names that come to mind is Cho Bum-hyun, who was skipper for the gold medal attempt of South Korea in the 2010 Asian Games. Another name, is Kim Hyung-moon, who brought his country the gold medal during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
These two names are familiar in the KBO as well. Cho has a Korean Series Title win in 2009 with the Kia Tigers. He was also the inaugural manager for the KT Wiz expansion back in 2015 and 2016. Cho and Kim are actually former teammates, where they are both catchers for the Doosan Bears back in the 80’s.
Meanwhile, Kim was manager of the Doosan Bears and led them to their Korean Series appearances in 2007 and 2008 seasons. He was also in charge during the NC DInos expansion in 4 back-to-back postseasons from 2014-2017 seasons. He has not won a Korean Series Ring, however. But the 2008 Olympics win is his to claim.
Whoever gets announced as the coach will have a lot to do, especially since he will be cleaning up after former leadership and controversies. And since Baseball will be coming back to the Olympics, Korean baseball will have a new challenge to win the gold medal again.
