Manager for KBO club Twins resigns

All News 20:42 November 06, 2020

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, Nov. 6 (Yonhap) -- Ryu Joong-il, manager of the South Korean baseball club LG Twins, resigned on Friday, less than 24 hours after his team's postseason elimination.

The Twins said Ryu had expressed his intent to step down on Thursday, immediately after getting swept by the Doosan Bears in their best-of-three, first-round postseason series in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO). The club then accepted Ryu's resignation on Friday.

LG Twins manager Ryu Joong-il speaks to reporters before Game 2 of the Korea Baseball Organization first-round playoff series against the Doosan Bears at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on Nov. 5, 2020. (Yonhap)

Ryu had just completed the final year of his three-year contract. The Twins said they were going to "carefully consider" bringing back the 57-year-old but decided to respect Ryu's decision to quit on his own terms.

"I'd like to thank fans of the LG Twins for their support, and I apologize for our disappointing season," Ryu said in a statement released by the team. "I felt it was time for me to leave."

Ryu led the Samsung Lions to four straight Korean Series championships from 2011 to 2014. Then in October 2017, he signed a three-year deal with the Twins worth 2.1 billion won (US$1.9 million), the largest contract for a manager in the KBO at the time.

The former star shortstop couldn't end the Twins' title drought, which has now reached 26 years.

In his first year, they missed the postseason by finishing eighth among 10 clubs. In both 2019 and 2020, they ranked fourth in the regular season to qualify for the first round of the playoffs, but they failed to get past that stage in both years.