The “poisoned chalice” is a metaphor for being a baseball manager, a job that only 10 people in South Korea can hold .It’s an honorable position, but sometimes you can’t escape the fate of having to drink from a chalice that you know contains poison. The Lotte Giants have had more managers than any other team in baseball history. Excluding acting managers, 17 different managers have led the team, including Larry Sutton. This year is the 42nd season of the KBO, which means that each manager has been at the helm for an average of 2.5 years .It’s even harder to find a manager who has fulfilled his contract with Lotte .Former manager Jerry Royster was given a three-year contract, but he was not re-signed due to poor postseason performance, and Yang Seung-ho took over in late 2010.Seung-ho Yang was suspended for two years for fraudulent school admissions, and his successor, Si-jin Kim, was removed after two years due to poor performance. Lee Jong-woon, who will lead the team for the remainder of the 2023 season as acting head coach after Sutton’s voluntary resignation on Aug. 28, had previously left the team after just one season in 2015.Cho Won-woo fulfilled his contract after signing a two-year contract at the end of 2015, but he resigned after the 2018 season due to poor performance, one year after signing a three-year contract. Yang Sang-moon left the team after half a season in 2019, and Heo Moon-ho was fired in May 2021, his second season in charge .Sutton, who took over after Heo’s departure, met the same fate as his predecessors, failing to make it through the final year of his contract .In baseball circles, the Lotte managerial position has a reputation for attracting a lot of ‘wild men’. That’s because they change managers so often, and they don’t necessarily stick to pure bloods. In fact, as early as the 27th, a day before Sutton’s resignation, the baseball world was buzzing with rumors about Lotte’s next manager, including current and former coaches. Even though they knew it was a “poisoned chalice .In Busan, where baseball is a hot topic, the amount of jubilation I would feel if I succeeded as Lotte manager would be enormous. Even though it’s been more than a decade since he left Korea, the nostalgia for Royster, who brought Lotte a second golden era, is still palpable .The club is keeping the talk of a successor to a minimum. There are still 36 games left in the regular season, and the postseason race is far from over. “At this point, all we can officially say is that we will finish the season with Lee Jong-woon as acting head coach,” said a Lotte 스포츠토토링크 representative.