Former teammates willing to put personal feelings aside in KBO’s postseason duel as managers

SSG Landers manager Lee Sung-yong and his Samsung Lions counterpart Park Jin-man said Thursday they will put aside their decades-long friendship as former teammates this month as they prepare to battle it out for the first time in a playoff series.

The Landers and Lions will face off in the first round of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) playoffs, which begins Thursday at the Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon.

Lee and Park were teammates on the Hyundai Unicorns from 1996 to 2004. Lee was five years older and 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 who 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 coaches in the playoffs.”

Park credited Lee with helping him become the player he became — one of the best shortstops in KBO history — and said Lee was the teammate he admired most.

“When I came straight out of high school and didn’t know anything about professional baseball, he really showed me the ropes,” Park said. “We built a lot of good memories together.”

But Park insisted he would now 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 outsmart him in this series.”