KB News Desk
Baek In-chun, the only player ever to hit .400 in the South Korean professional league, is in critical condition as of Friday afternoon.
The former player and manager suffered cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead in the morning and was reported as such. But his pulse returned as medical staff moved him to Dankook University Hospital in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, in preparation for his funeral.
The Korea Baseball Organization had initially planned to hold a funeral for him at the hospital.
Baek’s family and friends are monitoring his condition as of now, as are officials of the KBO. The family is slated to talk to the medical staff about follow-up measures, as they reportedly do not want him to rely on life support.
The 83-year-old 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.
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 Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. 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 a Korean baseball legend.
Since 2014, the Pro Baseball Players Alumni Association has 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.
