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Yang Seung-ho (Yonhap News) |
The Lotte Giants' manager Yang Seung-ho has resigned from his post, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) team announced Tuesday, to take the fall for the club's failure to reach a final during his two-year tenure.
The Busan-based Giants said Yang had offered to step down in a meeting with the team president, Chang Byung-soo, last Wednesday, and the management decided to accept his resignation offer.
Yang, 52, replaced Jerry Royster as the Giants' manager in October 2010. Royster, the first American to manage a KBO team, guided the Giants, once the league's perennial doormat, to three consecutive playoffs, but failed to reach the championship Korean Series.
At the time of his signing, Yang vowed to lead the Giants to the Korean Series within two seasons. The Giants last won the KBO title in 1992.
In his first year, the Giants finished second among eight KBO teams in the regular season and earned a bye to the second round of the playoffs. There, the Giants lost to the SK Wyverns in five games.
In 2012, the Giants ranked fourth in the regular season and took on the third-place Doosan Bears in the opening round of the playoffs. The Giants claimed the best-of-five series in four games, and went on to face the Wyverns in the second round for the second straight year.
The Giants held a 2-1 series lead but dropped the final two games to be eliminated.
In the immediate aftermath of that defeat, Yang reportedly told the team he would assume the full responsibility for coming up short for the second straight season.
Based in one of the country's most passionate baseball towns, the Giants this year became the first KBO team to draw more than 1 million home fans for five seasons in a row, and led the KBO in home attendance in each of those past five years.
In 2012, the Giants played their first year without slugger Lee Dae-ho, a former league MVP and two-time Triple Crown winner who signed with the Orix Buffaloes as a free agent last winter. (Yonhap News)
<관련 한글 기사>
롯데 양승호 감독, “책임지고” 사퇴
프로야구 롯데 자이언츠의 양승호(52) 감독이 한국시리즈 진출 실패의 책임을 지고 전격 사퇴했다.
롯데 구단 측은 "양 감독이 지난 24일 장병수 대표이사와 면담 자리에서 사의를 표명했다"면서 "구단은 심사숙고 끝에 사퇴 의사를 수용키로 했다"고 30일 밝혔다.
양 감독은 2010년 10월, 제리 로이스터 전 롯데 감독의 후임으로 부임하면서 앞으로 2시즌 이내에 팀을 한국시리즈에 반드시 진출시키겠다고 약속한 바 있다.
그러나 이번 시즌 플레이오프에서 SK와이번스에게 2승3패로 아깝게 패해 롯데의 한국시리즈 진출은 좌절되었다. 양 감독의 첫 시즌이었던 2011 시즌에 롯데는 정규시즌 2위를 차지해 플레이오프에 직행했으나, 역시 SK 와이번스에게 5차전만에 석패했다.
양승호는 이번 플레이오프 패배 직후, "2년 연속 한국시리즈 진출 실패에 책임을 지겠다"라고 공언한 바 있다.
이번 시즌 롯데는 일본 오릭스 버펄로스로 이적한 강타자 이대호의 공백이 우려되었으나, 플레이오프까지 오르며 저력을 과시했다.
한편 롯데는 윤학길 2군 감독, 윤형배 2군 투수코치와도 재계약을 하지 않기로 했다.
