Lotte Giants manager Yang Seung-ho resigns

The Lotte Giants’ manager Yang Seung-ho has resigned from his post, the Korea Baseball Organization team announced Tuesday, to take the fall for the club’s failure to reach the Korean Series during his two-year tenure.

The Busan-based Giants said Yang had offered to step down in a meeting with the team president, Chang Byung-soo, last Wednesday, and the management decided to accept his resignation offer.

Yang, 52, replaced Jerry Royster as the Giants’ manager in October 2010. Royster, the first American to manage a KBO team, guided the Giants, once the league’s perennial doormat, to three consecutive playoffs, but failed to reach the championship Korean Series.

At the time of his signing, Yang vowed to lead the Giants to the Korean Series within two seasons. In his first year, the Giants finished second among eight KBO teams in the regular season and earned a bye to the second round of the playoffs. There, the Giants lost to the SK Wyverns in five games.

Yonhap