'License Cancellation' Level Drunkenness... Not Reported to the Team
KBO Disciplinary Committee Sanctions Inevitable Due to Team's Own Punishment
This year, Bae Young-bin (23), who joined the Lotte Giants as an infielder in professional baseball, was caught driving under the influence and failed to report it to the team, a fact that was revealed belatedly. The Lotte team has sent Bae Young-bin home from the closing training and plans to hold an internal disciplinary committee to impose severe punishment.
On the 14th, the Lotte team stated, "We only found out last week that Bae Young-bin was caught driving under the influence after having a drinking party at an undisclosed location in Seoul at the end of last month," adding, "We immediately reported it to the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) Clean Baseball Center."
Bae Young-bin was caught by police while moving his car out of an alley after calling a designated driver on the 23rd of last month. It is known that his blood alcohol concentration was at the license cancellation level. A team official said, "Regardless of the KBO disciplinary action, we plan to hold an internal disciplinary committee on the 16th," and added, "No matter the reason for taking the wheel, it is unacceptable to hide the fact of being caught."
Not only did Bae Young-bin drive after drinking, but he also failed to inform the team immediately after being caught, making it difficult to avoid severe punishment.
After receiving the report from the Lotte team that Bae Young-bin was caught driving under the influence, the KBO plans to convene a disciplinary committee soon to decide the level of punishment. According to the professional baseball DUI penalty regulations, a first offense at the 'license suspension' level results in a 70-game suspension, a first offense at the 'license cancellation' level results in a one-year disqualification, a second DUI offense results in a five-year disqualification, and three or more offenses lead to permanent disqualification.
Bae Young-bin graduated from Seoul High School and Hongik University and joined Lotte as a development player this year before being promoted to a regular player in May. During the regular season, he appeared in 18 games with a batting average of 0.313 (16 at-bats, 5 hits), 2 doubles, 1 stolen base, and 2 runs scored.
Meanwhile, in March this year, Lotte also faced an incident where pitcher Seo Jun-won concealed for over three months that he was involved in a minor sex crime before it was exposed. Seo Jun-won was highly favored by the team to the extent that he was included in the 2023 season spring camp roster, but as the controversy intensified, the team eventually held a disciplinary committee and dismissed him.
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