LG Twins manager Yim Kyung-yeop’s ’10 million won prize’ will be shared by catcher Park Dong-won (33) and bullpen Yoo Young-chan (26).
“I’m going to give 5 million won each to Park Dong-won and Yoo Young-chan,” Yeom said after entering the interview room at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on the 13th, the day the team won the title.
Before the start of the Korean Series (KS) against the KT Wiz, Yeom announced the ‘manager’s prize,’ saying, “I will select one of the players who did not win the KS Most Valuable Player (MVP) and give him 10 million won at his own expense.”
The KS MVP was Oh Ji-hwan, who hit three crucial home runs.
Coach Yoon chose Park Dong-won, who hit back-to-back two-run home runs in the second and third games and led the pitching staff well, as the “manager’s MVP candidate.
Throughout the KS, Yoo Young-chan kept catching Yoon’s eye.
Yoo appeared in three of the five KS games, pitching six innings with three hits and one run (1.50 ERA), and was voted Manager’s MVP alongside Park Dong-won.
LG finished the regular season in second place last year and lost in the playoffs.
After refusing to re-sign former manager Ryu Ji-hyun, LG handed the reins over to Yoon Kyung-yeop, a “coach with no championship experience.
At the helm of a must-win team, Yeom felt tremendous pressure.
“When the winning group collapsed in April and May, I couldn’t sleep well,” he said, adding, “There’s no such thing as a death sentence, and my players held up well.”
LG took the top spot on June 27 and never relinquished the lead to win the regular season.
In KS, they lost Game 1, but won Games 2 through 5 in straight sets to lift the trophy.
“It was really hard when Choi Won-tae, our starter in Game 2, couldn’t get out of the first inning, but the bullpen pitched the rest of the innings without giving up a run, and we came back to win,” Yeom said. “After winning Game 2, I thought we could win the championship. After winning Game 3, I saw the players gain confidence, and I was convinced that we could win the championship even if the series was long,” he said.
Yeom worked as LG’s frontline coach in 2008 and 2009 and as LG’s defense coach in 2010-2011.
It was a dark time for LG.
After the 2011 season, Yeom left the organization.
“At that time, someone had to take the blame for the poor performance,” he says. When I left the team, I told the club, ‘I’ll come back with success,'” he recalls, adding, “I thought I was lucky to be asked to coach LG. It was the strongest team I’ve ever coached. I prepared hard to turn my luck into results, and I got those results.”
Yeom, who coached the Nexen Heroes in 2014, tasted the bitter taste of runner-up in KS, losing to the Samsung Lions. Jamsil was the venue where the winner was decided.
On November 13, 2023, Yeom, who had shed tears of disappointment during the KS captain’s interview nine years earlier, held a press conference with the championship medal around his neck.
He ended the interview by innocently shouting, “I’m the winning coach.” 파워볼사이트
