[The Power of Genes] Lee Jong-beom and Lee Jung-hoo, Father and Son Who Rewrote Korean Baseball History

113 million dollars (approximately 146.2 billion KRW) over 6 years. This is the total contract amount Lee Jung-hoo (26) signed with the Major League Baseball (MLB) San Francisco Giants on December 15 last year. Lee Jung-hoo set the record for the highest total salary among Korean players who have entered the Major Leagues through posting. The previous largest contract was Ryu Hyun-jin's 36 million dollars over 6 years (an average of 6 million dollars per year) with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2013.

At the time of the contract, MLB.com drew attention by calling Lee Jung-hoo the "Grandson of the Wind." They emphasized that Lee Jung-hoo is the son of former LG Twins coach Lee Jong-beom (54), a Korean professional baseball superstar famously nicknamed the "Son of the Wind."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The father-son duo Lee Jong-beom and Lee Jung-hoo made history as the first father and son to both win the KBO League Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. Coincidentally, both won the league MVP at the age of 24. Lee Jung-hoo claimed the MVP in 2022 by leading five categories: batting average (0.349), hits (193), RBIs (113), slugging percentage (0.575), and on-base percentage (0.421). His father, Lee Jong-beom, also won the MVP in 1994 by leading four categories: batting average (0.393), hits (196), stolen bases (84), and on-base percentage (0.452).

Lee Jung-hoo is adapting smoothly to Major League Baseball. As of the 30th, he started as the leadoff hitter in both of his team's two games, recording a batting average of 0.375 (3 hits in 8 at-bats) and 2 RBIs.

A similar case in professional basketball is the father-son duo Heo Jae and Heo Hoon. Heo Jae, known as the "Basketball President," has a second son, Heo Hoon, who in his third professional year during the 2019-2020 season, averaged 14.9 points, 2.6 rebounds, and 7.2 assists over 35 games, earning the regular season MVP. After being named MVP, Heo Hoon said in an interview, "It is meaningful to receive the same award as my father."

Former coach Heo Jae won the Playoff (PO) MVP in the 1997-1998 season. Strictly speaking, since Heo Jae never won the KBL regular season MVP, this case is not exactly the same as the Lee Jong-beom and Lee Jung-hoo duo. However, Heo Jae was twice named MVP during the era of the Korean professional basketball predecessor, the Industrial Basketball Festival (1991-1992, 1994-1995 seasons). Heo Jae's eldest son, Heo Ung, has not yet won an MVP but is regarded as a top domestic shooter with the potential to challenge for the MVP.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

In soccer, the father-son duo Cha Bum-kun and Cha Du-ri cannot be overlooked. Former coach Cha Bum-kun holds the records for most appearances and most goals in A matches. He played in 136 A matches and scored 58 goals. His eldest son, Cha Du-ri, was first selected for the senior national team at age 21 in 2001 and played until 2015. He appeared in 76 A matches and scored 4 goals.

In the cultural field, director Celine Song, who was a finalist for the 96th Academy Awards, draws attention. Korean-Canadian director Celine Song is the daughter of director Song Neung-han, who directed "Number 3" (1997). The film "Past Lives," directed by Celine Song, was nominated for Best Picture at the 96th Academy Awards, and Celine Song herself was nominated for Best Original Screenplay but unfortunately did not win. The third son of world-renowned conductor and pianist Myung-whun Chung, Jung-min Chung, is following in his father's footsteps as a conductor. He currently serves as the principal conductor of the Gangneung City Symphony Orchestra.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Although his son has reached the world's top stage, former coach Lee Jong-beom is known to have opposed Lee Jung-hoo playing baseball when he was young. He knows well how difficult it is to succeed as a baseball player.

In May last year, the Korea Employment Information Service released the "2021 Korea Occupational Information" report, which surveyed 16,162 people working in 537 representative occupations in Korea. Among various questions, one asked whether respondents would recommend the same occupation to their children. The positive response rate among workers in arts, design, broadcasting, and sports was not high. The Employment Information Service analyzed and quantified the responses, with workers in arts, design, broadcasting, and sports scoring 3.16 points, ranking fifth among the ten major occupational categories. The highest scoring occupational group was "Health and Medical" (3.49 points), followed by "Research and Engineering Technology" (3.41 points), and "Education, Law, Social Welfare, Police, Firefighting, and Military" (3.40 points).

The reason the health and medical occupational group ranked first is attributed to high income. The Employment Information Service also released data on the top 50 highest and lowest average income occupations. Among the top 10 highest average income occupations, except for first place (corporate senior executives at 190.43 million KRW), the remaining nine were all doctors. The order was plastic surgeons (138.63 million KRW), Korean medicine doctors (123.27 million KRW), psychiatrists (122.87 million KRW), and internists (121.76 million KRW).

On the other hand, occupations with low average income included theater and musical actors (22.23 million KRW), theater directors (25.10 million KRW), film screenplay writers (27.60 million KRW), composers (29.03 million KRW), popular dancers (29.31 million KRW), conductors (29.77 million KRW), and novelists (30.22 million KRW).