Cho Sung-min (; April 5, 1973 – January 6, 2013) was a South Korean professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

player with the

Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and the

Hanwha Eagles The Hanwha Eagles ( ko, 한화 이글스) are a South Korean professional baseball team based in Daejeon. They are a member of the KBO League. The Eagles' home ballpark is Daejeon Hanbat Baseball Stadium. The Eagles have won the Korean Series on ...

of the

KBO League The KBO League (), officially the Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League, is the highest level league of baseball in South Korea. The KBO League was founded with six franchises in 1982 and is the most popular sports league in South Korea. The Kia Tigers ar ...

. He also received media attention for his much-publicized marriage and divorce from actress

Choi Jin-sil Choi Jin-Sil (December 24, 1968 – October 2, 2008) was a South Korean actress. She was considered one of the best actresses in South Korea, nicknamed "The Nation's Actress". She played leading roles in 18 films and 20 television dramas, appea ...

Career

Cho Sung-min dominated the baseball amateur league in the 1990s, and with his attractive looks and top-class pitching skills, he had many female fans in Korea and Japan. He pitched for the South Korea national baseball team in the 1994 Asian Games, when South Korea finished with a silver medal. Cho joined Japan's

in 1996, and his best years as a pro-baseball player were 1997-1998 when he was named an All-Star

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

for the

Central League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consist ...

after racking up a record of seven wins, six losses and a 2.75

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

in the first half of the 1998 season. But after peaking his career soon went downhill, with a prolonged slump due to ankle and elbowKang Seung-woo
"Sun Setting on Baseballs Golden Generation,"
''The Korea Times'' (2007-08-30). injuries. He left the Yomiuri Giants in 2002. He returned to the

Korean baseball league The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO; ko, 한국야구위원회) is the governing body for the professional leagues of baseball in South Korea. The KBO was founded in 1981 and has governed two leagues: the KBO League ( ko, KBO 리그) and KB ...

in 2005 to play for the

until October 2007, but instead of making an impressive comeback, he had to leave the team in 2007 with a disappointing performance. He briefly worked as a TV commentator, before joining the

Doosan Bears The Doosan Bears ( ko, 두산 베어스) are a South Korean professional baseball team based in Seoul. Founded in 1982, they are a member of the KBO League. The Bears have won six Korean Series titles (1982, 1995, 2001, 2015, 2016, and 2019) and ...

in 2011 as a coach of one of their minor league teams. He refused to extend his contract with the club in November 2012 when his term ended. Cho also tried his hand at various businesses including an unsuccessful bakery chain, and invested heavily into a baseball management company he had set up in 2008.

Marriage and divorce

Cho's personal life was as turbulent as his career. He first met actress

on the set of a television show in 1998. At the time, Cho was a promising player and one of the league's all-star team members, while Choi had starred in dozens of films and television dramas in the 1980s and 90s and was dubbed the "nation's actress." Cho and Choi married in a lavish wedding ceremony in 2000. A few years later, however, the couple grabbed headlines in Korea when they accused each other of being "unfaithful" and they divorced in August 2004 after Cho was arrested for

beating Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery ...

his wife. The ex-baseball star remarried in 2007 but was apparently separated since 2010. After Choi Jin-sil committed

suicide by hanging Suicide by hanging is the intentional killing of oneself (suicide) via suspension from an anchor-point such as an overhead beam or hook, by a rope or cord or by jumping from a height with a noose around the neck. Hanging is often considered t ...

in October 2008, Cho was embroiled in a dispute with her bereaved family as he sought custody of his son Hwan-hee and daughter Jun-hee. Choi Jin-sil's younger brother, the singer

Choi Jin-young Choi Jin-young (; November 17, 1970 – March 29, 2010) was a South Korean actor and singer. Career Choi made his debut as a television commercial model in 1987 and began his acting career three years later. He rose to stardom in 1993 with ...

, deemed Cho's move as a step to take over his late wife's wealth that her children were to inherit. The case was settled as Cho gave up his rights over her property, and the children were left in the legal custody of their maternal grandmother. Choi's death resulted in a number of

copycat suicide A copycat suicide is defined as an emulation of another suicide that the person attempting suicide knows about either from local knowledge or due to accounts or depictions of the original suicide on television and in other media. The publicized ...

s among Koreans, including celebrities. A year and a half later, Choi Jin-young also killed himself in March 2010. In November 2012, Cho had a scuffle with strangers at a pub and underwent police questioning.

Death and impact

On January 6, 2013, Cho's body was discovered by his girlfriend, hanged in the bathroom of her apartment in

Dogok-dong Dogok-dong is an affluent ward of Gangnam-gu in Seoul, South Korea. It is home to high-end residential homes including the Samsung Tower Palace, a luxury residential complex which contains the eleventh-tallest building in South Korea. Education ...

, southern

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

, at around 5:26 a.m. According to investigators from the Suseo Police Station, on the night before his death, Cho drank three bottles of

soju (; Hangul: ; Hanja: ) is a clear and colorless Korean distilled alcoholic beverage. It is usually consumed neat. Its alcohol content varies from about 12.9% to 53% alcohol by volume (ABV), although since 2007 low alcohol soju below 20% h ...

with his 40-year-old girlfriend, identified only by her surname Park, during which she told him she wanted to end their relationship. Park then left her house at around midnight to meet a friend, and returned at 3:40 a.m. only to find Cho hanging from the bathroom shower using his belt. Cho hinted at suicide in a text message he sent to his mother at around 12:11 a.m. and in the message he sent to his girlfriend five minutes later over the mobile messenger service

KakaoTalk KakaoTalk (Hangul: 카카오톡), commonly referred to as KaTalk (Hangul: 카톡) in South Korea, is a mobile messaging app for smartphones operated by Kakao Corporation. It was launched on March 18, 2010, and it is available on mobile and deskto ...

. In the message to his mother, he wrote, "It looks like there is no way for me to live in Korea anymore. I am very sorry, but please think that you never had a son." To Park, he left the words, "My heart breaks that we can't be together in the final moments of my life. Thank you for everything. Hang tough even after I am gone." No

will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...

was found at the scene. Sung-min's suicide would also be a

Copycat suicide A copycat suicide is defined as an emulation of another suicide that the person attempting suicide knows about either from local knowledge or due to accounts or depictions of the original suicide on television and in other media. The publicized ...

. For his funeral wake, Cho's family set up a memorial altar at

Korea University Korea University (KU, ) is a private research university in Seoul, South Korea, established in 1905. The university is included as one of the SKY universities, a popular acronym referring to Korea's three most prestigious universities. The ...

Anam Hospital. His body was

cremated Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre i ...

on January 8, 2013, and the remains were buried at the in

Bundang Bundang is a planned community in the Bundang-gu district of Seongnam, South Korea. It was developed to encourage affordable housing and urban decentralization. The community has a sports complex, a park and a youth center. Origin Bundang wa ...

Gyeonggi-do Gyeonggi-do (, ) is the most populous province in South Korea. Its name, ''Gyeonggi'', means "京 (the capital) and 畿 (the surrounding area)". Thus, ''Gyeonggi-do'' can be translated as "Seoul and the surrounding areas of Seoul". Seoul, the na ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cho, Sung-min 1973 births 2013 deaths Asian Games medalists in baseball Asian Games silver medalists for South Korea Baseball players from Seoul Baseball players at the 1994 Asian Games Hanwha Eagles players Korea University alumni Medalists at the 1994 Asian Games South Korean expatriate baseball players in Japan 2013 suicides Suicides by hanging in South Korea Yomiuri Giants players