KIA General Manager Jang Jung-seok, Park Dong-won’s request for back money at the time of his contract…KIA decides to dismiss
Another unprecedented situation in the history of Korean professional baseball broke out even before the aftermath of Lotte’s former pitcher Seo Joon-won’s case, which committed sex crimes related to minors, subsided. This is a scandal in which the head of a professional baseball team demands money.
Jang Jung-seok (50), head of the KIA Tigers in professional baseball, was belatedly dismissed after he was found to have demanded “back money” in the process of coordinating his contract with catcher Park Dong-won (LG Twins) last year.
After holding a disciplinary committee on the 29th, the KIA club announced, “We dismissed Jang Jung-seok, the general manager of the team, who committed acts of dignity damage.” The KIA club said, “We received a tip last week that Jang made a demand for money and valuables during negotiations with the player last year,” adding, “We referred Jang to the disciplinary committee and finally dismissed him because we judged that the wrong behavior of asking for money and valuables was unacceptable.”
The KIA club said in an apology, “I bow my head to all the members and fans of the league and apologize,” adding, “I feel a heavy responsibility for this issue.” “We will make efforts to ensure compliance education so that this does not happen again,”
According to the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) and the KIA club, Jang’s misconduct was revealed when Park Dong-won recently reported it to the KIA club. Park Dong-won claimed that Jang asked for back money during the contract negotiations. The KIA club reportedly asked General Manager Jang for an explanation, and General Manager Jang reportedly said, “It was a joke.”
After the investigation process, KIA reported the related information to the KBO Clean Baseball Center on the morning of the 29th and decided to dismiss it through the disciplinary committee.
Jang, a former player, served as a Hyundai Unicorns recorder, Heroes manager, and operation team leader after retirement. From 2017 to 2019, he also coached the Kiwoom Heroes. Since then, Jang has moved to the head of KIA in November 2021. In April last year, he traded Park Dong-won, who played as a starting catcher under Kiwoom, to KIA.
Jang negotiated a multi-year contract extension with Park Dong-won, who is about to qualify as a free agent (FA), but failed to reach a contract. Park Dong-won qualified for the FA after the end of last season and signed with the LG Twins.
The KBO League is about to open, and baseball fans are complaining about the unprecedented incident and accident. Lotte’s former pitcher Seo Joon-won was indicted without detention on the 23rd on charges of producing sexual exploitation of children and adolescents by having a minor victim who he learned online in August last year take a picture of his body and send it to his mobile phone. Just six days after Seo Joon-won’s incident was revealed, the professional baseball leader’s demand for back money shocked KBO league fans once again.