Coach Lee Byeong-gyu (49), who led the Australian professional baseball league team Geelong Korea, admired Geelong Korea’s first coach and senior, Koo Dae-seong (54), who threw the ball from the mound even in his 50s. couldn’t
The Geelong Korea team returned home at 1:55 pm via Incheon International Airport on the 23rd. Geelong Korea, led by coach Lee Byeong-kyu, returned with a record of 13 wins and 27 losses this season. It is the club’s best record ever.안전놀이터
What drew attention from the Geelong Korea team this season was that Koo Dae-seong, the first coach of Geelong Korea, returned to the mound as an active player after four years. Koo Dae-seong left a record as a ‘professional pitcher in his 50s’. He took the mound in three games and took on 2⅓ innings, recording an ERA of ‘0’.
Coach Lee Byeong-gyu said, “I said I would give you a chance to pitch if you came to Adelaide, but you really came. His juniors also invited him because he thought they might feel something. Watching him train, I could see that he really wanted to throw. He looked back and said, “I thought it was great.”
Koo Dae-seong, who was one of the pitchers representing Korean baseball with his ‘Invincible Daeseong’ during his active career, returned to the Australian Professional Baseball stage after 4 seasons after the 2018-2019 season. On January 20, 2019, he pitched against Brisbane and recorded one hit and no run in one inning, earning the title of ‘oldest pitcher’. Previously, the oldest pitcher in Australian professional baseball was Chris Oxspring (46), who also played in the KBO League.
Director Lee said, “It seems that the passion to be able to throw the ball from the mound even in the 50s is great. He must have felt it for the players too. He came up with the idea and respect that he had to work hard. I wanted to show that to our players as well. I was really grateful that senior Koo Dae-sung threw it in a healthy way.”
Meanwhile, Geelong Korea recorded 7 wins and 33 losses in the 2018-2019 season, when it first entered the Australian Professional League, and recorded 11 wins and 29 losses in the 2019-2020 season. In the third season, although they failed to advance to the postseason, they broke the club’s best record in the regular season and the team’s most 4 consecutive wins.
After skipping the last two seasons due to the corona pandemic, he achieved results with the most wins and the highest win rate (.325) in the third season. A total of 50 players, 25 pitchers and 25 batters, played 40 games and spent valuable time in the offseason.
Coach Lee said, “Australian league players are rough. Still, the players must have had a good experience.” Song Chan-eui said, “It was definitely rough. Also, the cultural part was a little different,” he said. But I also thought it was a good experience.”