KBO club Eagles hire Olympic gold medal-winning skipper Kim Kyung-moon as new manager

A manager of the 2008 Olymic team Kim Kyung-moon watches a game in Yokohama Stadium, Japan, Aug. 4 2021. Newsis

The Hanwha Eagles announced Sunday that Kim Kyung-moon, who led Korea to the 2008 Olympic

baseball gold medal, will be their new manager.

The Eagles signed Kim to a three-year deal worth 2 billion won ($1.4 million), including a signing bonus of

500 million won.

Kim's hiring comes six days after his predecessor, Choi Won-ho, resigned to take the fall for the team's

struggles.

Kim, 65, will be managing in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) for the first time since June 2018.

Kim has amassed 896 wins in the KBO, the sixth-highest total in league history. He also managed in four

Korean Series — three with the Doosan Bears and one with the NC Dinos — though he has yet to win a

title.

Kim's career highlight came at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, where Korea reeled off nine straight wins en

route to its first baseball gold 추천 medal.

Kim returned to the national team helm for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but Korea finished fourth then.

Choi was hired in May last year, and he stepped down with two years left on his three-year deal. With the

51-year-old out, the Eagles were said to be pursuing a veteran figure to put in charge.

Enter Kim, who has managed in 1,700 regular-season games.

Choi quit after the Eagles had won two straight, and the team went on to win three more games in a row

under interim manager Chung Kyoung-bae before losing the next three.

They are now in eighth place among 10 teams at 24-32-1 (wins-losses-ties).

The Eagles reached the top of the standings at the end of March on the strength of a seven-game winning

streak, but early-season good vibes have given way to all-too-familiar dismay.

Since April 1, however, they have the league's worst record at 17-31-1.

Between 2008 and 2023, the Eagles reached the postseason just once. They finished either last or second-

to-last every year from 2019 to 2023.

They entered the 2024 season under high expectations.

They had signed some well-established players in free agency in recent winters to augment a young

foundation and made their biggest splash to date in February, when they reunited with former major

league pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin.

Ryu, who first pitched for the Eagles from 2006 to 2012, ended his 11-year stint in the big leagues and

signed an eight-year contract with his old KBO team.

But he has not lived up to considerable preseason hype yet, with a mediocre 4.50 ERA and a 3-4 record

after 11 starts. He was scratched from his most recent scheduled start on Friday due to discomfort in his

left elbow.

KBO CLUB EAGLES HIRE OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL-WINNING SKIPPER KIM KYUNG-MOON AS NEW MANAGER