LG Twins of professional baseball has another unsavory incident at the end of the season. It is a drunk driving accident. This is the second drunk driving incident this year alone.
The LG club said in a press release on the afternoon of the 14th, “We reported Lee Mi-um, who was accompanied by Lee Sang-young, who caused a stir by drunk driving on the 14th, to the KBO Clean Baseball Center and decided to humbly accept the disciplinary results of the KBO reward and punishment committee in the future.”
On the morning of the 14th, the news of LG’s drunk driving accident was reported. It was reported anonymously as a player in his 20s with LG, but the LG club revealed the identities of Lee Sang-young and Lee Mi-um in the afternoon.
Seongnam Jungwon Police Station said on Monday morning that it will investigate Lee on charges of violating the Road Traffic Act (Drunk Driving). The police will also investigate Lee Mi-deum, who accompanied her, on charges of aiding and abetting drunk driving.
Lee caused a traffic accident on the road in the Jungwon district of Seongnam at around 6 a.m. on Wednesday. After the accident, Lee asked the car driver to verify his identification card and said, “We will deal with the accident later,” before leaving. The car driver suspected the drunk driving accident and reported it to 112. The police checked Lee’s personal information through the car driver and contacted him, and found him at Dobong Doseok Rest Area in Icheon. Lee’s blood alcohol level was reportedly at the level of license cancellation.
Lee Sang-young and Lee Mi-eum voluntarily reported to the team after they were caught drunk driving by police. The team reported the incident to the KBO Clean Baseball Center. The team has decided to wait for the disciplinary action of the KBO reward and punishment committee. The KBO encourages the team to decide on its own punishment for players’ deviant behaviors such as drunk driving after the committee is disciplined.
The team also issued an apology for the drunk driving incident. LG said, “We sincerely apologize to the fans. The LG Twins sincerely apologize to the fans regarding Lee Mi-eum, who was accompanied by Lee Sang-young’s drunk driving.
Despite his continuous education and special attention to his social responsibilities and postures as a professional baseball player, DUI has violated the law and caused fans to be disappointed. Once again, the club deeply feels responsible for managing the team.
“The club will once again check the lack of training and management of the team and do its best to prevent a recurrence in the future. We bow down and apologize again to all the fans who love and support professional baseball 먹튀검증,” he said.
This is not the first time that the LG club has issued an apology for drunk driving. At the end of July, coach Choi Seung-joon was booked for drunk driving, and the LG club decided to terminate the contract with coach Choi Seung-joon and issued an apology.
Choi was indicted on charges of refusing the police’s request for a sobriety test while driving under the influence of alcohol at around 6:30 a.m. on July 29 in Samseong-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul. After receiving a report of suspected drunk driving, the police went to the police and demanded a sobriety test, but Choi refused to do so, and the police arrested him. Choi admitted to drinking alcohol to the police after his arrest. The team later terminated its contract with Choi.
This time, a player got into an accident. The KBO has set the level of disciplinary action on a case-by-case basis for drunk driving. According to the KBO’s DUI punishment regulation, suspension of a driver’s license is a 70-game suspension and cancellation is a one-year disqualification. Two DUI cases are disqualified for five years, and three times or more are permanently disqualified.
Lee Sang-young is expected to be disqualified from the KBO Reward and Punishment Committee for at least one year because he was caught revoking his license. As there are no separate disciplinary regulations for aiding and abetting drunk driving, the punishment for already gaining the license is expected to be decided after discussion by the reward and punishment committee.
Attention is focusing on what kind of punishment LG will take for Lee and Lee after the disciplinary action of the KBO reward and punishment committee. Attention is focusing on whether the team will punish Lee for drunk driving or take strong disciplinary action to raise awareness of repeated drunk driving. It will be a concern because the two players are promising players. Since Coach Choi Seung-joon’s drunk driving in July, LG has made more efforts to prevent recurrence of such accidents. Nevertheless, the team could withdraw from drunk driving, which could lead to casualties, and hold Lee responsible for his mistakes.
Lee was selected in the second round (the fifth overall pick) in the 2019 rookie draft. He returned to the military after being discharged from the military in July last year. Lee Sang-young, who became the reigning champion of multiple wins at the military athletic department, received a chance to select players after being discharged from the military, but failed to display good performance.
This year, he prepared for the season with a bullpen session, but suffered an injury prior to an exhibition game. He pitched in eight games (three starts) in this year’s first team, recording one loss and one hold with an ERA of 3.31. In the Futures League, he recorded four wins and one loss with an ERA of 3.62 in 10 games.
Lee joined the team after receiving the second round of the fourth round (37th overall) pick in the 2021 rookie draft. He made his debut in the first division this year. He took the mound as a temporary starter against Kiwoom on June 4 and allowed 11 hits and seven runs in four innings.
In 16 games in the Futures League, he pitched 5 wins, 4 losses, 1 hold, and a 4.84 ERA. Lee took the mound as the starting pitcher in the Futures League’s second division game against Lotte at LG Champions Park in Icheon on the 13th, and became the winning pitcher with five hits, two outs, four strikeouts, and one run in 6.2 innings. After the game, Lee Sang-young and Lee Mi-um had a drinking party, leading to drunk driving.
