‘National treasure pitcher’ Seon Dong-yeol, former head coach of the Korean national baseball team, and Kim Tae-eop, who formed a rivalry in high school, have passed away.
On the 14th, the bereaved family said, “Former coach Kim passed away at 1:40 am on the 13th of last month at Chosun University Hospital in Gwangju while fighting a chronic illness.” At the age of 61, the ashes were enshrined in Youngnak Park in Gwangju.
Former coach Kim reigned as the best ace pitcher in high school baseball from 1978 to 1980. The deceased, who was born in Gangjin, South Jeolla Province, started playing baseball at Buk Elementary School in Gangjin and transferred to Seorim Elementary School in Gwangju in the 5th grade. He was active in former LG coach Lee Soon-cheol, Jeonnam Middle School, Gwangju Sang High School (Jeonnam High School in his freshman year), and Yonsei University.
The deceased played as an ace during his days at Jeonnam High School and Gwangju Commercial High School. On May 1, 1980, coach Kim, who was 185 cm tall and weighed 79 kg, led the team to runner-up in the Presidential Cup National High School Baseball Championship. At that time, in the final against Gwangju Ilgo, former coach Kim kept the mound alone, and his opponents, former coach Sun and Dong-cheol Cha, took the mound one after another. Former coach Kim completed three games until the final.
In August 1980, former coach Kim hit a home run in three consecutive games for the first time in high school baseball in Bonghwanggi. However, in the semifinals, they lost to Cheonan Bukil High School 4-5 after 11 extra innings. 안전놀이터
Afterwards, the deceased went to Yonsei University and had a rivalry with Seon Dong-yeol, who went to Korea University. In 1985, along with Seon Dong-yeol and Lee Sun-chul, he joined the professional baseball team Haitai (currently KIA) and played an active part mainly as a hitter. However, he went into private business after enlisting in 1986.
However, he did not give up on his baseball dream. In 2012, the deceased took the baton of the baseball team at Gangjin Buk Elementary School, his alma mater, and led the runner-up in the Jeonnam Governor’s Baseball Championship the following year and the 2014 Provincial Governor’s Championship.
However, at Gangjin Buk Elementary School, the baseball club was disbanded in 2018 due to a decrease in the number of students, and it entered a closed state from March 2020 to next year. In difficult circumstances, it is known that the deceased received kidney dialysis from the time he was a coach at Buk Elementary School.