The Nexen Heroes in the country's top baseball league on Monday fired Kim Si-jin as their manager.
The Heroes have terminated their contract with Kim, who had signed a three-year extension last season, said officials of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) team. He is the second managerial casualty in the KBO this year, after the last-place Hanwha Eagles let go of their manager Han Dae-hwa in late August.
Bench coach Kim Sung-kap will be the interim manager for the rest of the season, officials added.
Kim Si-jin, 54, took over as the Heroes' manager in 2009, but the team has never reached the playoffs during his tenure. In the eight-team KBO, the top-four clubs reach the playoffs. Under Kim, the Heroes have finished sixth, seventh and eighth, and they were sitting in sixth place with 54 wins, 62 losses and two draws with 15 games left this season.
Kim had been the pitching coach and later the manager with the Hyundai Unicorns, which folded after the 2007 season under financial problems and became the Woori Heroes, under the new ownership of local company Woori Tobacco.
Naming rights were sold to Nexen Tire before the 2010 season. In the KBO, seven other teams are owned and operated by much larger conglomerates such as Samsung, SK, Doosan and LG.
The Heroes had a great start to the 2012 season, and reached first place on May 23 at 21-14-1, thanks to a franchise-record eight-game winning streak.
They were the first KBO team this season to reach 20 victories. But they have gone 23-48-1 since then and are seven games out of the fourth and the final playoff spot.
The Heroes are in danger of becoming only the third team in the KBO's 30-year history to finish outside the top four after getting to the 20-win plateau first in the league.
Kim was an All-Star right-handed starter during his playing career from 1983 to 1992, first pitching for the Samsung Lions and later the Lotte Giants. In 1987, he became the first KBO pitcher to reach 100 career victories. Slowed down by injuries in latter years, Kim ended his KBO career with 124-73 win-loss record with 16 saves and an earned run average (ERA) of 3.12 in 1,577 innings.
With Kim as the pitching coach, the Unicorns won four KBO championships and led the league in team ERA in three different seasons. In 2000, three Unicorns starters tied for the KBO lead with 18 wins apiece. From 2002 to 2004, the Unicorns produced three Rookie of the Year-winning pitchers. (Yonhap)