Twins veteran out after drunken driving offence

The LG Twins are already having a headache with their poor performance, but also with players’ behavior outside the stadium.

The KBO last Wednesday suspended Twins infielder Jeong Seong-hoon for the rest of the season for a drunken driving incident last month.

It was reported last week that Jeong was caught for drunken driving in his apartment’s parking lot on Aug. 10. The 35-year-old tried to park his car himself after he arrived at his apartment and sent his driver home. A resident who witnessed the incident called police.

Jeong’s alcohol level was reportedly enough to cancel his drivers license, but since apartment parking lots are not considered as road under Korean law, he didn’t get his driver license cancelled, although he was fined.

The real problem was that Jeong didn’t report the incident to his club and played games later. Almost a month since the incident, the Twins last Tuesday finally slapped him with a 10 million won fine. But fans criticized the club’s punishment as unequal as pitcher Jeong Chan-heon was caught drunken driving in June. The Twins fined him 10 million won with a three month suspension.

The KBO, however, came out with its own punishment the next day that ruled that the Twins first baseman would be out for the season and had to perform 120 hours of youth baseball community service. Jeong will therefore end his season with a .284 batting average with 45 RBIs.

JOO KYUNG-DON [joo.kyungdon@joongang.co.kr]