KBO legend Lee Dae-ho is the first leader to live in Taiwan, not in Korea... "I asked you to do that, but I couldn't refuse it."

*This content was translated by AI.

KBO legendary hitter Lee Dae-ho (44) revealed the back story of starting his first leader at the Jungshin Brothers in the Taiwan Professional Baseball (CPBL).

At the 2026 KBO Rookie Orientation held at Daejeon Convention Center on the 14th, Lee Dae-ho laughed, saying, "Coach Keiichi Hirano asked too much."

On the 2nd, Jungshin Brothers announced on the club's official channel that Lee Dae-ho will be the guest hitting coach for the 2026 spring camp. Jungshin Brothers said, "Lee Dae-ho is one of the best right-handed hitters in Asian baseball history. During his visit to Taiwan last year, he gained popularity with players only with a short one-point lesson," he said. "We decided to let Lee Dae-ho take care of the team's batting and mental management with the aim of improving the quality of the batting and strengthening long-range hitting power."

It was unexpected that Lee Dae-ho's first career destination as a leader was Taiwan. Lee Dae-ho is a legendary hitter who was nominated by the Lotte Giants as the fourth-ranked player in the second round of the KBO Rookie Draft in 2001 and hit 374 home runs by 2022.

In addition, he was called Joseon's No. 4 hitter for his outstanding performance on the national team, and he succeeded in advancing to the Japanese NPB and the U.S. Major League Baseball (MLB). After retirement, he went to high schools across the country through his personal YouTube channel to watch his juniors and was expected to lead a career.

Relationships worked strongly during the NPB days. Lee Dae-ho entered the NPB in 2012 heading to the Orix Buffaloes. He spent two years with the Orix and two years with the Softbank Hawks, hitting a career-high 98 home runs. During the Orix period, he ranked No. 1 in RBIs in the Pacific League and No. 1 in on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS), and during the Softbank period, he won the series MVP by winning the Japanese series for two consecutive years.

Hirano, who is currently the head coach of Jungshin, was a senior when he was at Orix. Hirano once played with Lee Dae-ho in 2013 as an operational baseball player who ranked second in the league's batting average. After retiring in 2016, he served as a running coach and hitting coach for the Hanshin Tigers and has been linked with CPBL since 2022.

Lee Dae-ho said, "Director Hirano has been asking for it since before. He came all the way to Busan this winter. The senior said, "Daeho, you don't have to come for a long time, so I asked if you could make time somehow, so I said I would try to set the time."

"Fortunately, I had time. He is a senior who played together, and although he is a Taiwanese team, he is the head of a team, and he came so far to ask, but he couldn't refuse. I thought I had to go find someone like this," he added.

I also thought it would be a good time. At this opportunity, I'm going to look at Taiwanese players and compare them with Korean baseball. Taiwanese baseball is performing well these days, and I think it will be a time to study what they are good at."

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*This content was translated by AI.