President Lee Mourns Passing of Former Manager Baek Incheon: "A Legend of Korean Professional Baseball"

"A historic .412 batting average in the inaugural season of professional baseball... still unbroken"

Contributed to the development of Korean baseball as both player and manager

"His passionate spirit will be remembered for a long time"

President Lee Jaemyung expressed his condolences for the late former manager Baek Incheon, who passed away on the 15th, and mourned, calling him "a legend of Korean professional baseball."

Yonhap News Agency

On this day, President Lee stated on X (formerly Twitter), "I express my respect and gratitude to the manager who illuminated an era by being with Korean professional baseball from its beginning," and added, "I pray for the repose of his soul."

He also mentioned that former manager Baek achieved a batting average of .412 in the inaugural year of professional baseball in 1982, and evaluated, "This record, which has yet to be broken, demonstrates how outstanding a player he was."

He further said, "Not only as a player but also as a manager, he led his juniors for many years and contributed to the development of Korean professional baseball. The manager’s passion for baseball will long remain in our memories."

Former manager Baek passed away during treatment for cerebral hemorrhage at 6:41 a.m. at Dankook University Hospital in Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do, on this day.

In 1982, he played both as a player and manager for the MBC Blue Dragons and, with a batting average of .412, remains the only player in Korean professional baseball history to achieve a .400 average. He played as a player for 23 years in both Korean and Japanese professional baseball.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.