Seong-hoon Moon

From BR Bullpen

Seong-hoon Moon (문승훈)

  • Bats Right, Throws Right

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Biographical Information[edit]

Seong-hoon Moon played and umpired in the Korea Baseball Organization. His son Jeong-bin Moon and cousins Seon-jae Moon and Jin-je Moon all played in the KBO.

Moon was drafted by the Haitai Tigers in the third round of the 1989 KBO draft, and he hit .280/.371/.370 in 58 games in his first season. He struggled in 1990 as he went 4-for-26, then he had a 2-for-29 record in 1991. Moon only played one game in 1992, then he announced his retirement. He became an umpire in 1993, and he wass one of two umpires from the KBO who worked the 2009 World Baseball Classic.

On April 24, 2024, Moonwas involved in a scandal about the automated ball-strike system which was newly introduced in the KBO. When Jae-hak Lee of the NC Dinos faced the Samsung Lions' Jae-hyeon Lee, the ABS determined his pitch was a strike, but the umpire said that was a ball. NC's manager In-kwon Kang argued that it was actually a strike, and first base umpire Min-ho Lee said that the ABS system had an error, so that umpire made an incorrect call. However, it was later revealed that in fact the system was right, and the umpire made the wrong announcement. Lee even required another two umpires (home umpire Moon and third base umpire Pyeong-ho Choo) to say that they heard the system said ball, so he made the call. Lee was immediately fired, and Moon and Choo was suspended for three months. Moon was removed from the umpire lists after the 2024 season.