End of the Road for Lee?
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The greatest shortstop in Korean baseball history believes that he earned the right to leave the game on his own terms, but his short-fused manager thinks otherwise.
In a move that would have been unthinkable just at the start of the season, the KIA Tigers demoted struggling franchise star Lee Jong-beom to its farm team on Tuesday and manager Seo Jung-hwan doesn't seem too enthusiastic about bringing him back.
The 37-year-old Lee, now converted to an outfielder, has been chalking up the worse numbers of his career, hitting just .183 with a homerun and 10 RBIs in 57 games this season.
``I have repeatedly told him (Lee) that he should leave the game when he is at his peak but he never listened,'' said Seo, admitting to the speculations that the team had recommended Lee to retire with his contract expiring at the end of the season.
``Lee has been among the biggest stars in the history of baseball but he will have to earn his job back. If he fails to find his normal playing form in the farm team, he would not be brought back to the Tigers' first team,'' said Seo, adding that he gave Lee a one-month deadline to figure things out.
Seo perhaps can't manage to be too patient about Lee when his own job is on the line. The Tigers, the franchise with the most championship victories in Korean baseball history, are now stuck at the bottom in league standings with their 24-36 record putting them 10 games behind the first-place Doosan Bears.
In a desperate move, Seo last week assigned his entire coaching staff to the farm team with the coaches of the secondary unit brought up to manage the Tigers' dugout. Lee's demotion came a day later as a finishing touch to the bizarre shock therapy.
Naturally, Lee isn't too happy about his situation, even going far as to say that he ``regrets'' staying with the Tigers franchise for most of his career.
``Why do so many people feel obligated to speak their minds about whether I should retire or not? That is my decision to make,'' said the 14-year veteran. However, Lee is the first one to admit that he would likely never become a better player than he was.
``I am turning over a new page. I don't know if it will take one month or two months, but I will get myself into better shape and adjust the problems in my form,'' said Lee.
``If things don't work out after that, I may have to make a decision concerning my future. However, should I be able to fix things up and play at a quality level, why couldn't I play one or two more seasons?''
It is just the third time in his career that Lee has been assigned to the farm team.
The Tigers sent him to the secondary unit twice after July last year to allow a worn-down Lee to recover from a grueling World Baseball Classic (WBC) tournament. He returned to the Tigers in September and played impressively to help his team make the playoffs.
Lee is considered the best all-around position player in Korean baseball history, a leadoff hitter combined with speed, hitting ability and cleanup-type power.
His career highlights include 73 stolen bases in his rookie season in 1993 and 84 steals the following year when he toyed with a .400 average throughout the season and ended up hitting .393.
In 1997, Lee became the only player in history to post a 30-60 (30 homeruns, 60 steals) in a single season, when he hit 30 homeruns and stole 64 bases while batting .324.
Lee won three championship titles with the Tigers in the 1993, 1996 and 1997 seasons.
However, Lee, whose game relied much on his athleticism, has seen his effectiveness diminish sharply in recent years.
Lee, never known for strike-zone discipline or patience, had been a typical bad-ball hitter throughout his career _ the Korean equivalent to Nomar Garciaparra _ with his quick hands allowing him to make contact with almost any pitch high or low, inside or outside.
However, as his fitness deteriorated in recent years with injuries accelerating the decline, Lee started paying the price for his poor form at the plate.
After hitting .260 with 17 homeruns in 2004, Lee's numbers started to slide rapidly the following season when he batted .312 but hit only 6 homeruns and drove in 36 RBIs in 118 games. Last year, he hit .242 with only one homerun and 21 RBIs in 93 games.