'I've been a player → coach for 17 years...' Only Lee Ho-joon left, and Mo Chang-min remained. Will he succeed in the big ball task?
Oct 23, 2024
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As LG Twins head coach Lee Ho-joon was appointed as the new manager of the NC Dinos on the 22nd, hitting coach Mo Chang-min, who came to LG three years ago, received attention, but it was concluded that he will remain at LG.
In a phone call with Sports Chosun on the 22nd, NC's new coach Lee Ho-joon said, `Coach Mo Chang-min is doing well as the main hitting coach at LG. "I've already settled down, and I have good ties with the players, but I can't just think of myself and ask him to go with me, can I?" "I think it'll be okay because NC has all the good coaches that I've worked with before. "
LG's general manager Cha Myung-seok also received a phone call from head coach Lee Ho-joon saying he was going to NC"There was no word that I would go with coach Mo Chang-min." Coach Mo, of course, did not say that he wanted to take another coach from our team. Coach Mo confirmed that he will remain with our team."
Coach Mo was a prospect who graduated from Gwangju Jeil High School and Sungkyunkwan University and joined the SK Wyverns as the third-ranked player in the second round in 2008. With the special designation of the new team, he moved to NC in 2013, enjoyed the joy of winning his first championship in 2020, and decided to retire the following year, April 2021. He played in 1,042 games with a batting average of 282, 92 homers and 439 RBIs. After retirement, he experienced team work as a front desk manager and power analyst.
He seemed likely to become a coach at NC in the 2022 season, but he started his first coaching career at LG with batting coach Lee Ho-joon from NC.
Living with Lee Ho-joon, the main batting coach in the first division, he struggled to raise the batting of LG hitters, and as a result, he raised LG's batting, which was ranked eighth overall with a batting average of .25 in 2021, to 269 (3rd) in 2022, and last year, he ranked first with .279 to win the regular league and the Korean Series.
This year, coach Lee Ho-joon was promoted to quality control coach, and coach Mo became the main hitting coach. Since then, coach Lee has built up coaching classes by assisting manager Yeom Kyung-yeop as a head coach, and after the postseason, he has moved to a new coach after receiving NC's proposal.
As head coach Lee went to NC, there was a saying that coach Mo, who knows Lee's batting view best, might also go with him. The relationship between the two was strong. Coach Lee was present when Coach Mo joined SK in 2008, and when Lee moved to NC as FA in 2013, Coach Mo moved to NC with a special designation for the new team. Then he moved to LG together as a coach. We've been together for 17 years this year. But it's time to break up. As a coach, it can be said that he remained at LG, where he started his coaching career, and stood alone.
LG ranked third overall with a team batting average of 283 this season and second overall with a team score of 808 points, but it did not become a big ball, ranking ninth overall with 115 home runs and eighth with a slugging percentage of 0.414.
Coach Yeom Kyung-yeop was also eliminated from the playoffs and announced his plan to strengthen the big ball next season, giving coach Mo a new challenge. How will the new start of coach Mo, who broke up with coach Lee, come to fruition.
indyk@sportschosun.com
