Baseball Career Spanning 50 Years Leading School and Haitai's Glory
Soothing Honam's Sorrows While Laying the Foundation for the Prestigious Tigers Team
Publication Celebration to Be Held Next Month on the 1st at Gwangju JS Convention
On the 28th, when the KIA Tigers clinched their 12th Korean Series championship in the history of Korean professional baseball, Gwangju was buzzing with excitement. Whenever the professional baseball team Tigers establish themselves as the nation's top club, one player is always recalled. That is former KIA Tigers manager Kim Seong-han, who was immensely popular during his playing days and affectionately nicknamed ‘Origungdungi’ (Duck’s Rear).
Former manager Kim Seong-han has published a book titled My Life, My Baseball, co-authored with Kim Eun-sik, which chronicles his 50 years in baseball.
In the inaugural year of professional baseball in 1982, Kim was an unprecedented all-rounder for the Haitai Tigers, the predecessor of KIA, excelling as both a pitcher and a batter by recording 10 wins, 10 home runs, and leading in RBIs simultaneously. At that time, he enjoyed popularity surpassing even Kim Do-young, who is this year’s biggest hit for the KIA team. He is a representative franchise star who led the golden era of the Tigers.
Kim’s baseball journey began at Gunsan Jungang Elementary School, followed by Gunsan Middle School, Gunsan Commercial High School, and Dongguk University. He joined Haitai in the first year of professional baseball (1982). He played as an active player for 14 years and served as the last manager of Haitai Tigers and the first manager of KIA Tigers. Since then, he has continued engaging with citizens through various broadcasts such as CMB KIA Tigers home game commentary, CMB’s Kim Seong-han’s Jeollado Corners, and KBS’s Open Yard. Thanks to his warm face and charming Jeolla dialect, he has maintained steady popularity as a broadcaster, rivaling his playing career. His Chinese restaurant ‘Shanghai’ is also one of his notable ventures.
Unlike his brilliant playing career, his managerial career was not smooth. “The day I retired as a player, I cried so bitterly. When I was dismissed as a manager, my heart felt so lonely. The brightest and most intense time in my life was when I was wearing the uniform.”
The citizens of Gwangju in the 1980s, and more broadly the people of Honam, who had to soothe the darkness of society through baseball, cannot deny that they were able to wisely overcome hardships by finding comfort in the outstanding baseball star Kim Seong-han. His autobiography reflects this era and contains the unspoken pain and joy deeply held in the heart of a country boy from Gunsan.
As the saying goes, baseball is all about the bottom of the 9th inning with two outs, and even now in his mid-60s, Kim’s life is still like a bases-loaded situation in progress.
Kim will hold a book launch event for his autobiography on November 1st at 3 PM at the Gwangju JS Convention Center.
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