Baseball legend Paik In-chun, Korea's only .400 hitter, dies at 83

Paik In-chun, the legendary former manager who remains the only player in Korean professional baseball history to bat over .400 in a single season, died Saturday at 6:41 a.m. He was 83.

Paik suffered a cerebral hemorrhage at his home in Cheonan on Friday morning and was found in cardiac arrest. Paramedics transported him to a nearby hospital, where he was resuscitated, but his condition remained critical and he was transferred to Dankook University Hospital in Cheonan, where he had been receiving regular treatment. He fought for his life in the intensive care unit for a day before dying.

Paik played for 23 years in Korean and Japanese professional baseball. He is the only player in KBO history to bat .412 in a single season, a feat he achieved in 1982 — the league's inaugural year — while serving as player-manager of MBC Cheongryong.

The Korea Baseball Organization said it will hold a KBO-sponsored funeral in Paik's honor — only the second in the organization's history — in recognition of his contributions to Korean baseball. The KBO and his family have set up a memorial altar at Dankook University Hospital in Cheonan, with the funeral procession scheduled for Monday morning.

Paik was born in 1942 in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China, and came to South Korea during the Korean War. He learned baseball at Gyeongdong Middle School and Gyeongdong High School, playing as a catcher. He joined the amateur agricultural cooperative team Nonghyup in 1961 and the following year signed as a free agent with the Toei Flyers — the predecessor of the current Nippon Ham Fighters — to begin his career in Japanese professional baseball.

He went on to play for the Taiheiyo Lions (now the Seibu Lions), the Lotte Orions (now the Chiba Lotte Marines) and the Kintetsu Buffaloes, remaining in Japan through 1981. During his time with the Taiheiyo Lions, he won the Pacific League batting title in 1975 with a .319 average.

Paik returned to South Korea when the KBO launched and played two more seasons with the Sammi Superstars in 1983 and 1984 before retiring after a 23-year professional career spanning both countries.

He moved into coaching in 1985 as a hitting instructor for the Cheongbo Pintos. In 1990, he became the inaugural manager of the LG Twins — formed when LG Group acquired and relaunched MBC Cheongryong — championing a philosophy of playing with heart and soul and leading the club to a Korean Series championship.

Paik managed three KBO clubs: LG (1990–1991), Samsung Lions (1996–1997) and Lotte Giants (2002–2003). He also served as a hitting coach at Samsung, Hanwha Eagles and SK Wyverns, now known as the SSG Landers.