It emerged recently that former Korea Baseball Organization superstar and Pirates infielder Jung Ho Kang was interested in resuming his career in his native Korea. But it wasn’t clear just how he planned to accomplish that.
Trouble is, Kang has been arrested three times for driving under the influence — a shameful mark that scuttled his MLB career and subjects him to the KBO’s harsh mandatory minimum suspension of three years. At 33 years of age, a three-year wait would pose some difficulties.
It seems the hope is to argue that the rule shouldn’t be applied in that manner. Per Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap (Twitter thread), Kang’s reps have asked the league not to count the third arrest since it took place when he was under contract with the Pirates rather than a KBO outfit.
The applicable KBO authorities are slated to consider the matter shortly. If successful, Kang might be permitted to resume play after a much shorter suspension. Yoo suggests something on the order of ninety games might be levied.
Given that he has already seemingly exhausted his chances stateside, and is already at a fairly advanced age for a ballplayer, it’s quite unlikely we’ll see Kang back with an affiliated organization. But it would be quite interesting to watch a potential KBO return effort. The league has only continued to grow in quality since Kang left and it is for the moment the top active baseball league in the world.
Yoo indicates that Kang’s former team, the Kiwoom (formerly Nexen) Heroes, retains his rights even after receiving a posting fee from the Pirates. Accordingly, he’d either work something out with the Heroes or be forced to seek that organization’s approval to latch on with another KBO club.
i dont see that going over well
Keep him away from 50 cent beer night
Tough to keep me away from that, too
Accountability.
Unfortunate the Pirates lost two of their better players, Kang (irresponsibility and alcoholism) and Vazquez (child predator) to unforeseen circumstances. They need all the breaks they can get with how limited they run things.
He already had a history of DUIs before he played for the Pirates. Not totally unforeseen.
South Korea’s legal limit for driving is 0.03 and there are check points all over in truly random places where enforcement isn’t by the book strict. Public intoxication is not as strictly enforced, with peeing on the street, vomiting, and open container pretty regular stuff all over Seoul.
Unfortunately for Kang, he broke the side of the alcohol rules that they take seriously.
So what is the excuse for the US DUI? The limits in the US are 0.08. I’d imagine he probably just has a drinking problem.
Dude’s gotta have enough money to Uber, right?
S Korea also has a service better than Uber. Two people will arrive to your location in a car and one of them will drive your car to your destination while the other one follows. Once they reach the destination they get back in their car and continue to the next stop. The cost is reasonable. About 50% more than a cab ride. Pretty cool, huh?
Whatever editor allowed “Trouble is” to be an acceptable start to a sentence should be fired.
You complain about something on every post, yet I don’t see you working as a journalist.
For the record, Mr Grammar Expert, it would be ‘Whichever editor”
Give Mark Richt a break! He was fired from his alma matter because he can’t coach! He’s just sad because his glory days are behind him! Correcting grammar is the only thing that gets him to full mast!
He needs rehab, a therapist and AA sponsor more than a loophole to play in the KBO.
From hero to zero.
I wish Jung Ho well.He was a good player with the Pirates in 2015 and 2016 and was a very good pickup by Neil Huntington.The drinking arrest negated his 2017 and almost all of his 2018 seasons,and he just could not get back up to near the top of his game in 2019.
He may have been able to develop a good big league career otherwise.
wouldn’t a kbo team be an affiliated organization?