SEOUL– Former major leaguer Kang Jung-ho, whose career had been derailed by off-field problems, has given up on an attempt to return to the South Korean league for the second time.
The decision, confirmed by his former Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) club Kiwoom Heroes on Thursday, likely means the end of career for the 35-year-old.
In March, the Heroes had announced they had signed Kang to a one-year deal at a league minimum 30 million won (US$23,950), a shocking move that extended a lifeline to a player who had abandoned a comeback bid in 2020.
But at the end of April, the KBO declined to authorize Kang’s contract, citing Kang’s checkered past of off-field issues, including three separate drunk driving incidents.
Kang made his pro debut with the Hyundai Unicorns, the previous incarnation of the Heroes franchise, in 2006. After the 2014 season, Kang signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates through posting.
Kang finished third in the National League Rookie of the Year voting in 2015 and had a career-high 21 home runs in 2016. But his major league career went into a tailspin in December 2016, when he rammed his car into a guardrail in Seoul while driving under the influence of alcohol, and later fled the scene. It turned out to be his third drunk driving case.
Kang missed the entire 2017 season because he failed to obtain his U.S. work permit and later received a suspended jail term. Then he appeared in only three games at the end of the 2018 season.
The Pirates gave him a second chance with a new one-year deal for 2019 but released the underperforming player in August that year.
Because Kang wasn’t yet a free agent and he went through the posting process to sign with the Pirates, Kang was placed on the “voluntarily retired” list in 2015 and the Heroes retained rights to the player.
Kang had to be removed from that list in order to play in the KBO again. The KBO said in April that there are no legal grounds to reject Kang’s request to be taken off the list, but it still decided to keep him out of the league by not approving the contract.
Kang first sought to rejoin the Heroes in 2020 and held a press conference in June that year to apologize for his past misdeeds. Kang still faced heavy criticism from angry KBO fans, who accused him of apologizing just so that he could play again.
Nearly two years later, the public hadn’t yet changed its mind about Kang, who, in many fans’ minds, hasn’t been sufficiently repentant and doesn’t deserve a second chance.
Source: Yonhap News Agency