‘First-generation leader’ who raised weak Korean baseball to the ranks of strong teams
After taking office as OB for the first time, he went through Samsung and Binggrae
Leaving a career of professional coaches with a total of 707 wins
“The one who has both strength and softness”
Condolences to baseball players such as Kim Seong-geun and Kim Kwang-soo
Baseball fans are mourning the death of former manager Kim Young-deok, who is the first Korean professional baseball champion.
Former coach Kim Young-deok passed away on the 21st. He is 87 years old.
Born in Japan in 1936, former coach Kim came to Korea in 1964 after playing in Japanese professional baseball and conquered the unemployment league. In 1982, when professional baseball was launched, he rose to the first OB command tower. That year, he won the OB, and he was recorded as the first KBO winning coach.
The history of professional baseball, baseball players who have been together before that remember the passion and character of former coach Kim.
Kim Gwang-soo, the first-year member of OB, the head of Ilgu, said, “When I was playing for the Nonghyup baseball team, the coach called me directly. He thought about it when he was asked to join us because there was a professional baseball game, so he wore an OB uniform.” Chairman Kim, who joined as an OB second baseman and drank the champagne that won the championship in the first year, said, “The coach paid close attention to the harmony of old and new within the squad. He said, “It was the background that allowed OB to win.”
On the 22nd, which was Lunar New Year’s Day, Chairman Kim and former director Kim Seong-geun visited the mortuary prepared at the funeral hall of Seoul National University Bundang Hospital. Former coach Kim Seong-geun first met former coach Kim Young-deok in 1959, when he was a senior at Katsura High School in Kyoto, Japan. At the time, former manager Kim Young-deok, who played for the Nankai Hawks of the Japanese professional baseball team, provided a lot of help, including supplies, to former coach Kim Seong-geun, a Korean-Japanese player.
Former coach Kim Young-duk started his career in Korea when he joined Korea Shipping Corporation in 1964. Regarding the deceased, former manager Kim Seong-geun said, “At the time, he was an uncommon sidearm pitcher and was the first to throw a slider and sinker in Korea. He made a new path for pitchers,” he said. “It is time for our country to lag behind. He is the one who made it possible to fight on an equal footing with Japan.”
Former coach Kim Young-deok, who started his career as an acting supervisor at Hanil Bank in 1969, has served as director of OB (1982-1983), Samsung (1984-1986), and Binggrae (1988-1993) after the professional launch. Former manager Kim Seong-geun said, “When I was coaching Haitai 2nd Army (1995), I saw two styles: coach Kim Eung-yong (then Haitai) and coach Kim Young-deok, as the command tower. If director Kim Eung-yong had a strong feeling overall, director Kim Yeong-deok had a difference in that both strength and softness coexisted.”
Lee Sang-gun, director of Cheonan Bukil High School, experienced the leadership of the deceased firsthand. He rejected schools in the Seoul area and chose Cheonan Bukil High School in 1978 because of the recommendation of former coach Kim Young-deok, who was in charge of the Bukil High School baseball team that year. Lee, who later met former manager Kim while playing for professional baseball Binggrae, said, “He is like a father to me. He was very strict in training, but he had a lot of discipline.” Head coach Lee, Jung-hoon Lee, Jin-woo Song, Yong-deok Han, Sang-guk Kim, and Min-cheol Jeong, the main players of Binggrae at the time, sent gifts to former coach Kim on Teacher’s Day every year. Even so, he said, “I am always sorry.”
Former coach Kim left a brilliant career with a career win rate of 0.596 (707 wins, 20 draws, 480 losses) as a professional coach. Following his first professional championship, in 1985, he also wrote the history of winning both the former and latter seasons as the Samsung command tower. However, even after advancing to the Korean Series twice at Samsung and four times at Binggrae, they all remained runner-up. Coach Lee Sang-gun, who was a right-hander ace in the heyday of Binggrae, said, “I always think first of all how sorry I was for not being able to win the Korean Series.”
Memories of ‘baseball player Kim Yeong-deok’ lead to several branches. The footprints left by his deceased are so deep and wide.