Lions suffer fallout of Choi scandal

Talent drain leads to downfall of baseball club

By Kang Hyun-kyung

In the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) league, Samsung Lions were once considered unbeatable. Until last year, that is. The Lions had five straight wins in the regular season since 2011, four of which came along with their victories in the best-of-seven Korean Series.

But the unrivaled Lions were dismal this year throughout the regular season. The team had 65 wins, 78 losses and one draw, placing ninth among 10 professional baseball teams. Why did the Lions suddenly fall?

Baseball analyst Min Hoon-ki said among others factors, a shift in investment policy of the baseball club is one of the major reasons behind the downfall of the Lions.

“There are several factors that had weakened the competitiveness of the Lions in recent years,” he said. “The management of the club scaled back investment in the baseball team which is the key driver behind their decline. As you can see, there were no free agents that signed contracts with the Lions. Several hitters and pitchers left the team but there were no replacements. It was natural for the Lions to suffer the consequences.”

Slugger Park Suk-min left Samsung for the NC Dinos last year. Yamaico Navaro Perez from the Dominican Republic bade farewell to his teammates to join the Lotte Marines in the Japanese baseball league. Pitchers Alfredo Figaro and Tyler Cloyd are now playing for the LA Dodgers and New York Yankees, respectively, in the Major League Baseball (MLB). The two starters together achieved 24 wins during the regular season last year and their absence dealt a blow to the Lions. Several hitters and pitchers missed the games due to injuries, making it difficult for then manager Ryu Joong-il to produce a winning roster.

The Lions replaced manager Ryu with Kim Han-soo in response to their dismal record in the regular season.

Samsung was well known for its generous support of the team’s baseball players. The average annual income of the Lions players topped the list in the KBO league at nearly 300 million won. The team provides state-of-the-art rehabilitation facilities for its players who are injured. It also runs a ballpark for minor league players.

Although baseball is very popular and the KBO league draws millions of spectators annually, running a baseball team is not a profitable business. Almost all Korean baseball teams post deficits every year. Samsung’s generous investment in the Lions reflects the management’s philosophy that a high-achieving baseball team is the most effective advertising instrument in branding the group. Samsung pursues leadership in any business areas in which it operates. The unbeatable Lions were considered the icon of “Samsung, the unrivaled.”

In recent years, however, there has been a shift in Samsung’s financial support for the Lions. This year, management was reshuffled after the Lions were sold to Samsung’s advertising arm, Cheil Worldwide, from Samsung Life Insurance. The new management called for the Lions to be self-reliant, indicating that the era of “blind investment” in its sports teams was over. Even before the reshuffle, there were signs that Samsung management’s perception of its sports teams had been changing. The company’s tennis and rugby teams were dismissed. Management also scaled back its investment in its sports teams, including the Lions, leading to a “talent drain.”

Interestingly, the reshuffle in Samsung’s sports teams coincided with the group’s suspicious investment in the controversial initiatives led by President Park Geun-hye’s longtime friend Choi Soon-sil. Samsung contributed 12.5 billion won and 7.9 billion to the establishment of the Mir and K-Sports foundations, respectively. The group also sent 2.8 million euros to Germany-based Widec Sports owned by Choi and her daughter Chung Yoo-ra. Part of the money was reportedly spent to purchase Chung’s Grand Prix horse Vitana V this year. Experts say the price tag for the premium horse would be about 1.4 million euros. Chung has stayed in Germany for training for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Samsung faces criticism that the group sacrificed its sports teams to sponsor Chung and the dubious initiatives sought by her trouble-hit mother to allegedly curry favor with the President.

On Friday, the Lions’ club said it hired Major League scout Mark Weidemaier as coordinator responsible for searching for overseas baseball talent. Weidemaier is a professional baseball scout and coach and a former member of the Washington Nationals coaching staff. He visited the landlocked southeastern city of Daegu late September to hear the club’s expectations for foreign players playing in the KBO league.

During his decades as a scout and coaching staff member in the Major League, Weidemaier has produced advanced scouting reports on opponent teams and their players, including each player’s strengths and weaknesses, the way a catcher calls a game and the types of pitches used in what situation. He also consulted with the baseball operations department on player tracks, acquisitions and roster moves.