‘Tigers Man’ Kim Jong-guk (48), head coach, has risen to the top 10 head coach of the KIA Tigers in professional baseball.
On the 5th, KIA said, “We have appointed head coach Kim Jong-guk as the manager.
The contract period is three years, with a down payment of 300 million won and an annual salary of 250 million won.”
The KIA club said, “Manager Kim Jong-kook is a ‘one-club man’ who has only played with the Tigers since his professional debut.” He said, “I have received a lot of trust from the players and coaches, so I decided that he was the right person to quickly reorganize the team and take another leap forward.”
New coach Kim Jong-guk said, “It is true that it is burdensome to take on the heavy responsibility of rebuilding a famous family, but the expectations are much higher.
“I will do my best to create the KIA Tigers, which will be loved by fans by ordering the players to play hard and not giving up until the very end,” he said.
Director Kim Jong-guk is a ‘franchise star’ who started baseball in Gwangju and played the professional stage at KIA’s predecessor, Haitai.
He joined Haitai as the first pick in 1996 and only wore the Tigers jersey until his retirement in 2009.
His first team performance in the pro team was 1,359 games with a batting average of 0.247, 66 homers, 429 RBIs, and 254 stolen bases.
The Taegeuk mark was also worn at the 2002 Asian Games in Busan and the 2006 World Baseball Classic (WBC).
Director Kim Jong-guk also had a leadership career only at KIA.
From 2010 to 2021, he served as operations, base and head coach for 12 seasons.
KIA terminated the contract with former manager Matt Williams on November 1st.
Williams signed a three-year contract and led the team from 2020, but was unable to complete the contract period due to poor performance (6th in 2020, 9th in 2021).
Former CEO Lee Hwa-won and former general manager Jo Gye-hyun also took off their clothes.
KIA, which appointed Choi Jun-young as new CEO and Jang Jeong-seok as general manager, entrusted the on-site baton to Kim Jong-guk, who “knows the club well”.
KIA said, “We will finish the appointment of coaching staff together with coach Kim Jong-guk quickly.”
/yunhap news
