Korean team president offers to quit after allegedly spying on own players
Major League Baseball players have no idea how easy they have it here in North America. Not since news surfaced of George Steinbrenner spying on Dave Winfield in 1987 has the leader of a baseball team been accused of something so outrageous against his own players:
The team president of the Lotte Giants, a member of South Korea’s major league the KBO, has offered to resign after facing charges that he masterminded the illegal surveillance of his players during the recently completed season.
The Yonhap News Agency reports that Ha-jin Choi (pictured on the far right during happier times) “has emerged as the principal figure” in allegations that Giants spied on the habits of their players during road trips by reviewing closed-circuit video of them coming and going through the lobbies of team hotels.
The club’s general manager, Jae-hoo Bae, reportedly has submitted his resignation already after failing to stop Choi from carrying out the surveillance.
Yonhap reports:
Choi acknowledged that he’d ordered reviews of [closed-circuit] footage, but said he’d also told the front office, the manager and the coaches to first let the players know about his plan to inspect them.
The Giants have been in turmoil since the end of the regular season. After missing the postseason for the second straight year, their manager Si-jin Kim resigned after the team’s final regular season game Oct. 17.
Late last month, a report in a local sports newspaper claimed that the Giants’ players voiced their strong disapproval of a managerial candidate that they felt was too close with the management for their liking.
The team’s captain, Joon-seo Park, sent a group text message to reporters to refute the earlier story on brewing mutiny, but only hours later, the players issued a statement saying the text had been sent under pressure from the front office.
Imagine if — for example — Larry Lucchino had been found to be using such methods around the time Boston Red Sox players were embroiled in the chicken-and-beer controversy. The entire narrative of the story would have switched from “How could the players be so feckless?” to “How could ownership be so creepy?”
Yonhap goes on to report that Giants players believe the club’s head of baseball operations — who is not named in the story for some reason — is the real culprit because repeated attempts to foster a culture of mistrust between the players and coaches. Sounds diabolical, if not helpful in maintaining a winning organization. Yonhap says the unnamed official — whatever his name is — also has offered to resign.
As for the team president, a post in the Korea Times says Choi was promoted to managing director of the Giants in 2013. The team’s success on the field, along with its attendance, has been in decline the past few seasons, possibly leading to this moment.
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David Brown is an editor for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter!
