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Samsung Lions release troubled pitcher Lim Chang-yong amid gambling allegations

November 30, 2015

Lim Chang-yong (Yonhap)

The South Korean baseball club Samsung Lions on Monday released a troubled pitcher facing illegal gambling allegations.

The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) said the Lions left their 39-year-old reliever Lim Chang-yong off their protected list. Lim was summoned by Seoul prosecutors last week over illegal overseas gambling suspicions. During a 13-hour interrogation, Lim admitted to gambling in Macau but denied he bet as much money as what a gambling house owner earlier claimed.

In October, Lim and two of his teammates were left off the Lions’ roster for the Korean Series, the KBO’s championship final, in light of their gambling allegations. The Lions, which had won the KBO titles in each of the previous four years, lost to the Doosan Bears in five games.

Lim led the KBO with 33 saves in 2015, his second season back with the Lions after a brief stint with the Chicago Cubs. Well past his prime and coming off his second surgery he agreed to a minor league deal with the Cubs, but did not impress during September call-up and was released.

Before joining the big league club, the right-hander had spent the previous five seasons with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball.

He made his KBO debut with the Haitai Tigers in 1995. He pitched for the Lions from 2000 to 2007 before leaving for Japan. He has recorded 232 saves in his KBO career, second on the all-time list, but this is not the first time he has made the headlines with off-the-field issues.

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Yonhap materials were used in this article.