SSG Landers manager Lee Sung-yong and his Samsung Lions counterpart, Park Jin-man, said Thursday they will put aside their decadeslong friendship as former teammates this month as they get ready to battle in a postseason series for the first time.
The Landers and the Lions will lock horns in the best-of-five first round of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason, starting Thursday at Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon.
Lee and Park were teammates with the Hyundai Unicorns from 1996 to 2004. With Lee being five years older, he took Park under his wing when the latter joined the KBO club out of high school.
The two became so close that it was Lee who introduced Park to a woman that later became his wife.
“I really liked him as a teammate back then,” Lee said of their time together. “And it brings back a lot of memories, now that we’re about to meet as opposing managers in the postseason.”
Park credited Lee with helping him become the player that he developed into — one of the finest shortstops in KBO history — said Lee was the teammate he admired the most.
“When I came straight out of high school and knew nothing about professional baseball, he really showed me the ropes,” Park said. “We built a lot of fond memories together.”
But Park insisted he is now going to try to beat Lee.
“I have to check my personal feelings at the door,” Park added. “I have to try to figure out how to outwit him this series.”
