Former South Korean professional baseball player and manager Baek In-chun died Friday of cerebral infarction at the age of 83, according to the Korea Baseball Organization.
Baek was found at his home in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, Friday morning in cardiac arrest. He was taken to a hospital, but was pronounced dead at around 6:30 a.m.
He previously suffered a cerebral infarction four times, but was said by his acquaintances to be in good physical condition when he received a medical checkup on Thursday.
The KBO will hold the funeral for Baek at the Dankook University Hospital in Cheonan.
Baek was among the most impactful players in the fledgling years of the KBO League, batting .412 as the player-manager of the MBC Chungyong (forerunner of the LG Twins) in the inaugural 1982 season.
No other player in the country's history has reached the .400 mark — a feat last achieved in Major League Baseball by Ted Williams in 1941.
Born in 1942 in Wuxi, China, Baek was a standout athlete and blossomed as an elite player in the Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan, as Korea did not have a professional league at the time.
He was a standout player even as the oldest player in the KBO, recording a slugging percentage of .740 that went unmatched for 33 years. Despite his success in KBO's first-ever season, he failed to retain his elite status in the following years and retired after the 1984 season.
He coached several teams in the KBO and led LG to the championship in 1990, but failed to repeat that success when his Lotte Giants' finished dead last for two straight seasons. Despite his failures with the Giants, he is widely regarded as one of the legends of Korean baseball.
Since 2014, the Pro Baseball Players Alumni Association have honored him by awarding the BIC 0.412 award — referring to Baek's name and his hitting record in 1982 — to the best hitters in high school or college each year.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com