Lotte Giants, which was shocked by pitcher Seo Joon-won's involvement in sexual crimes against minors this year, is once again shocking that infielder Bae Young-bin (23) was found to have been caught drunk driving belatedly.
A Lotte club official said on the 14th, "We found out last week that Bae Young-bin was caught in a drunk driving crackdown after drinking alcohol and taking the wheel late last month," adding, "As soon as we checked, we reported it to the KBO Clean Baseball Center, and the club will hold its own reward and punishment committee the day after tomorrow (16th)."
On the 23rd of last month, Bae Young-bin was caught in a police crackdown while drinking alcohol, calling for a chauffeur, and moving his vehicle out of the alley, and his blood alcohol level was reportedly at the level of license cancellation.
However, Bae Young-bin was discovered late on the 11th after concealing this fact until the club found out. "In the end, Bae Young-bin did not report voluntarily," a club official said. "If it goes to the police investigation anyway, the record will naturally remain, so it is not something that can be avoided by avoiding it." Nevertheless, I didn't report it to the club as if I thought it was easy (to drink)."
Both the club and the KBO are expected to impose heavy penalties on Bae Young-bin. KBO, which received Bae Young-bin's drunk driving through the club on the 11th, will hold a reward and punishment committee to determine the level of disciplinary action. According to the provisions related to drunk driving in the baseball protocol, if the blood alcohol concentration meets the criteria for suspension of the license, it will be suspended for 70 games and disqualified for one year if it meets the criteria for revocation of the license. It is a permanent disqualification for five years if two drunk driving occurs, or three or more times.
The club's own disciplinary action is a recent case in which Seo Joon-won, who concealed his involvement in underage sex crimes in March and was later caught, was forced to withdraw. At the time, the club said, "The withdrawal is the highest level of disciplinary action for the club." Lee Kang-hoon, the team's CEO, said, "We acknowledge the negligence of player management and apologize for causing social controversy," adding, "We promise to prevent a recurrence."
However, player management still seems to be insufficient. Even the promise to prevent a recurrence became funny. Lotte, which declared a renewal of the atmosphere by replacing the head coach and the head of the team, met an unexpected bad news from the start.