The late Baek In-cheon, former manager. [Yonhap]
The late Baek In-cheon, former manager. [Yonhap]

Baek In-cheon, the only player in Korean professional baseball history to hit .400 in a single season, died at 6:41 a.m. Saturday at Dankook University Hospital in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 83.

Baek collapsed from cardiac arrest at his Cheonan home at around 6 a.m. Friday and was rushed by ambulance to a nearby hospital, where doctors restored his blood pressure and pulse through cardiopulmonary resuscitation. His condition remained critical, and he was transferred to Dankook University Hospital, where he had been receiving regular treatment. He fought for his life in the intensive care unit for a day before dying.

Baek played professional baseball in Korea and Japan for 23 years. In 1982, the inaugural season of the Korea Baseball Organization, he served as player-manager for the MBC Blue Dragons and batted .412 — a mark that remains the only .400 season in KBO history.

The KBO will honor his contributions to Korean baseball with a state funeral, only the second in the league's history. The KBO and his family have set up a memorial altar at Dankook University Hospital in Cheonan, with the funeral procession scheduled for Monday morning.

Baek In-cheon (third from right), then a player for the MBC Blue Dragons, celebrates his 100th hit of the season against the OB Bears in September 1982, the first year of Korean professional baseball. [Yonhap]
Baek In-cheon (third from right), then a player for the MBC Blue Dragons, celebrates his 100th hit of the season against the OB Bears in September 1982, the first year of Korean professional baseball. [Yonhap]

Born in 1942 in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China, Baek came to South Korea during the Korean War and learned baseball at Gyeongdong Middle School and Gyeongdong High School. He began his career as a catcher, joining the Nonghyup industrial baseball team in 1961 before signing as a free agent in 1962 with the Toei Flyers — the predecessor of the current Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball league.

He went on to play for the Taiheiyo Lions (now the Seibu Lions), the Lotte Orions (now the Chiba Lotte Marines) and the Kintetsu Buffaloes, remaining in Japan through 1981. During his time with the Taiheiyo Lions, he won the Pacific League batting title in 1975 with a .319 average.

Baek returned to Korea when the KBO launched and played two more seasons with the Sammi Superstars in 1983 and 1984 before retiring, closing out a 23-year professional playing career spanning both countries.

In 1990, he became the inaugural manager of the LG Twins, formed after LG Group acquired and relaunched the MBC Blue Dragons franchise. Preaching a philosophy of "baseball with soul," he led the team to a Korean Series championship. He went on to manage three KBO clubs in total — LG (1990–1991), the Samsung Lions (1996–1997) and the Lotte Giants (2002–2003).


yjc@heraldcorp.com