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Nat'l baseball team manager resigns after roster selection row

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Sun Dong-yol
Sun Dong-yol
South Korean national baseball manager Sun Dong-yol offered to resign Wednesday following a controversy surrounding his Asian Games roster selection.

"I think my time is up," Sun told Yonhap News Agency on the phone.

Sun will have a press conference explaining his decision later after meeting with Chung Un-chan, commissioner of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO).

Sun led South Korea to its third-straight gold medal at the Asian Games in Jakarta, but the team's uninspiring performance fueled public anger.

After the Asian Games, a civic group filed a report to the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission, the state anti-corruption watchdog, alleging that Sun violated the anti-graft law by picking underperforming players. He was then summoned to a parliamentary audit session by lawmakers.

Critics said Sun chose some players just to help them get their exemptions from military service, since South Korea, as the only fully professional team at the Asian Games, was virtually guaranteed to win the gold medal. Healthy South Korean men are required to serve about two years in the military, but athletes who win an Asian Games gold medal are exempt from conscription.

Sun, the former KBO MVP-winning pitcher, became South Korea's first full-time national team manager last July. He first managed South Korea at the 2017 Asia Professional Baseball Championship (APBC) ― a tournament also featuring Japan and Chinese Taipei that was open only to players under 24 ― followed by the Asian Games in Indonesia this summer.

Sun's contract runs through Tokyo 2020 should South Korea qualify for the Olympic Games. (Yonhap)




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