‘Mr. All Star’ Kim Yong-hee returns to his former team… takes over as coach of Lotte’s second team

‘Mr. All Star’ Kim Yong-hee (68) returned to Lotte. On the 21st, professional baseball Lotte announced, “Kim Yong-hee, a member of the KBO (Korea Baseball Organization) game operation committee, has been appointed as the futures (second team) coach.” Coach Kim is a franchise star who has been active in Lotte since the first year of professional baseball in 1982. He began his leadership career at Lotte as a playing coach in 1989, served as a first-team hitting coach, and served as Lotte coach from 1994 to 1998. Afterwards, he served as manager of Samsung and returned as head coach of Lotte’s first team in 2002, after which he served as acting manager, manager of the second team, etc. In the 2015-2016 season, he took command of SK (now SSG).

Afterwards, he served as a member of the game management committee, rewards and punishment committee, and rules committee member in the KBO, and wore his former team’s uniform 17 years after leaving Lotte as the second-team manager in 2006. Lotte explained the reason for the appointment, saying, “Coach Kim has the ability to communicate across generations, has an autonomous baseball philosophy to develop strong competitiveness among players, and has diverse administrative experience.” Coach Kim said, “I feel a great sense of responsibility,” and added, “Through his long leadership experience and administrative experience at the KBO secretariat, I will enable Lotte to create a thick training system.”