A Shocked Lee Seung-yeop

These days Lee Seung-yeop’s (28, Chiba Lotte Marines) cellular phone is off. Doosan pitcher Park Myung-hwan, a very close friend of Lee, says, “I can’t get in touch with him. We only share greetings during the few times that he calls.”

Lee’s father Lee Chun-kwang says, “It has been over a month since I talked to my son. That was the 17th of last month. Seung-yeop does not call me, and I don’t call him because I don’t want to burden him.”

Recently, Lee fired his agent in Japan, Kim Ki-joo. Mr. Kim was fired because he was inattentive towards Lee due to his busy schedule with local broadcasting work, and his effort in bringing Lee to Japan was not smooth at all. Currently, the only people around Lee are his wife, Lee Song-jeong, and his interpreter, Lee Dong-hun. Lee has isolated himself from other people because it disturbs him from playing baseball. Lee’s father says, “I heard that Seung-yeop is even stressed to hear encouragement phone calls such as ‘Cheer up.’ Nowadays the best thing is to leave him alone.”

Although people say Lee is a model player, courteous and unable to say anything negative towards the people around him, his pride in baseball is parallel to that of any other baseball player’s. In other words, Lee is introspective, but once he wants something done, he will do anything to have it done.

However, Lee has been demoted to the minors, excluded from the starting lineup if the opposing team’s starting pitcher is left handed, and his manager’s shocking words, “If you want, it is alright to go back to Korea,” were leaked to the Japanese media. In addition, it is almost certain that Lee will not make it to the All-Star game because of his poor performance.

There cannot be any more indignity for Lee. He is now grinding his teeth with vexation. Now, “standing on his own,” will he become a true fighter?

Sang-Soo Kim ssoo@donga.com