The new commissioner of the South Korean professional baseball league said Tuesday he remained undecided on how to handle the fate of erstwhile big leaguer Kang Jung-ho, a disgraced former star eyeing a return home under the cloud of multiple drunk driving arrests.
Former broadcaster Heo Koo-youn was inaugurated as the commissioner of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) on Tuesday. He is taking over from Chung Ji-taik, who resigned abruptly in February after a little over a year into his three-year term because of health issues.
Heo reeled off a few major tasks he plans to tackle over the next year or so — he will only serve the remainder of Chung’s term, which ends in December 2023 — but Heo sidestepped perhaps the most pressing question in the early days of his tenure.
On March 18, the Kiwoom Heroes announced they had signed Kang to a new contract, extending a lifeline to the embattled player who had been caught driving under the influence of alcohol three times, most recently in December 2016 in Seoul.
Kang had played for the Heroes franchise from 2006 to 2014, before joining the Pittsburgh Pirates. The 2016 case forced Kang to miss the entire 2017 season for the Pirates, as he received a suspended jail term and was unable to obtain his U.S. work permit. Kang appeared in just three games in 2018, and his full comeback bid in 2019 went awry. He hasn’t played competitive baseball since the Pirates released him in August 2019.
Kang also attempted to rejoin the Heroes in 2020 but ultimately decided against the move in the face of mounting criticism from fans who didn’t think Kang deserved a second chance.
The Heroes then came out of blue to give Kang that second opportunity. They have also been defiant, saying they couldn’t suddenly void the contract because it has already been signed and they still want to see Kang get a proper finish to his career on the field.
One administrative hurdle remains. When Kang left for the Pirates in 2015, he was placed on the “voluntarily retired” list. It’s a typical procedure for players who leave the KBO before hitting free agency, and it allowed the Heroes to retain their rights to Kang in case he wanted to return to the KBO.
The KBO has to first activate Kang from that list, and Heo said the decision hadn’t been made yet.
“We have to look at this from many different angles and analyze many different factors,” said Heo, adding that he’d only begun receiving reports on the situation Monday. “I’ll have to think long and hard about it before making the decision.”
In 2020, the KBO suspended Kang for one year, and the clock will start once Kang is formally registered as a Kiwoom player.
Heo touched upon the league’s disciplinary action on off-field issues such as Kang’s, and insisted the KBO should come down harder on future offenses than it has been so far.
“Professional baseball still wields a great deal of influence in our society, and it’s important to send the right message when it comes to punishing offenders,” Heo said. “If we have clear guidelines, we won’t even have to start disciplinary proceedings and just mete out penalties based on the rule book. If you get behind the wheel while drunk, then you’ll be punished. It should be as simple as that.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency