Legend, Legend. We call a person who has left a lasting record in a certain field.

Lee Seung-yeop, the ‘8th inning man’ who always saved his team, was the main character. It’s been five years since I finished the life of a ‘player’ that I’m still so used to. After commentating on baseball and appearing on a golf entertainment program, I was wondering if he would continue a new act as ‘Broadcaster Lee Seung-yeop’, who recently became popular (?) in <Strongest Baseball>, but he returned to the real world of baseball. It was his first managerial job. There were many questions about him as he entered a new path.

When I visited the Blacktown Baseball Center, west of Sydney, where the Doosan Bears were training, the team was in full swing even though it was a weekend. 

This is the third visit to Australia, so it is not the first time they have met. In December 1996, he came to Brisbane for field training while he was a member of the Samsung Lions team, and participated in the 2000 Sydney Olympics as a national team member. And this time, as a ‘director who just debuted’, he is leading the Doosan Bears for field training. I met director Lee Seung-yeop in Sydney.

“I arrived on January 29th and started training the next day. I’m returning home on March 7th, but I’m getting nervous all over again.”

At the same time, coach Lee Seung-yeop explains that this is the difference between playing as a player and becoming a manager. He said that from the first day of training, which lasted more than a month as a player, he felt at a loss, saying, “When time goes by”, and the time went very slowly. However, after becoming a leader, he feels that time is absolutely running out, and his mind is busy checking whether he has made as much progress as he wants in a given period.

Why was it the Doosan Bears and not the Samsung Lions, who had a very long relationship, to start living in such a completely different time?

“I thought that I would return to baseball life after taking a break for about 5 years after I retired from playing. I could have chosen, but as a manager, the place I wanted to be first puts first, and the fact that we have a lot in common in baseball philosophy made me make a decision without hesitation. I am training with them.”토토사이트

I couldn’t leave out the story of <Strongest Baseball>, which played a big role in bringing back many baseball fans who had been very popular last year.

“At first he was offered to appear as a player, but he didn’t stand up.

On the outside, it seems that he still manages and maintains the same ‘Lee Seung-yeop’ well, but since he has a firm philosophy that “even though it is an entertainment program, baseball itself should not be played as a joke”, he was not allowed to appear as a player. The production team recommended a director position for his appearance, and the appearance was concluded because he thought it was worth doing. And <Strongest Baseball> shows that even if you are in your 40s, you can do it if you are “serious about baseball”, and how much laughter and humor the ‘quotes’ pouring out of the dugout, which are impossible to understand in general broadcasting, can give us laughter and humor. It was able to become a program that captured both ‘impression’ and ‘fun’ by answering the curiosity of baseball fans, such as whether there is a baseball field, what kind of story the coach talks about when he goes up to the mound. 

What are your thoughts on the development of Korean professional baseball? 

“Recent developments in various technologies and personal broadcasting have made it possible to watch games on the screen of a mobile phone in the palm of your hand without having to visit the baseball field, right? Of course, you have to think about it. It is necessary to create a topic by improving the level of performance, and it is correct to play up to the expectations of the audience who have improved in level. However, breathing the heat at the baseball field together definitely still provides a different form of fun. If we show a good game there, we will be able to continue the fever of the baseball festival again.”

When he was a player, coach Lee Seung-yeop said, “Everyone does the best,” and “To become the best, you have to do ‘death’.” Does that philosophy still carry over to you now and to the players who believe in you and follow you?

“In a way, it’s my philosophy of life. Let’s finish what we have to do today within today. Then, we go a little further than what we’ve already done and pull out some of the things we have to do tomorrow. For example, if you set a goal of hitting 500 balls today, of course that’s all. Then, out of the 500 to be hit tomorrow, I pull out about 200 and hit it today. Then, can I just hit 300 tomorrow? No. I hit another 500 tomorrow, and I pull out some more the next day. I spend every day like this and a month If you do, it will be a big difference from those who just feed the sheep every day, right? That’s doing your best to death.”

At the same time, coach Lee Seung-yeop added that the most important part of such training and such best is to make one have ‘confidence’. I nodded my head automatically. With this kind of persuasion, I think all the players will ‘do their best to the point of dying’.

“I was very satisfied with this Sydney training camp. The weather was good, and it brought back memories of the training camp I came as a former player and the victory after that, as well as the feeling of the Sydney Olympics, where I won the bronze medal in third place in the final rankings. It was very good. It seems that I am getting energy. With this energy, I will build my career as a manager by achieving good results in the Korean series. becomes.”

Looking at coach Lee Seung-yeop’s brightly smiling face, he was confirming that he would become a fan of him as a manager as well as a player.

“During the training period, we held a signing event for Korean residents, and they were really happy to see us. It seems to have relieved some of the regrets of Koreans living in Australia, where baseball is still an unpopular sport, and it became a good memory. Thank you for that and I will repay you with a good game and a good Korean professional baseball culture.”

“Saturday, February 25, 2023. I met my favorite baseball legend. It wasn’t because of the clear weather that the day looked brilliant. He closed his interview notebook and turned around, thinking about what to write in his diary. Cheers!