Why Hanwha Eagles Need KBO-Level Discipline

April 24, 2026, Daejon Hanwha Life Ball Park. Hanwha's Roh Si-hwan, just two days after returning to the major league, was hit square in the helmet by NC's Taylor's 144 km/h fastball on the first pitch and collapsed. There was no time to dodge the pitch.

The stands fell silent, and Taylor was immediately ejected.

Up to this point, the KBO's 'headshot ejection rule' introduced in 2014 was operating normally. (Korean Journal of Sport Science, 2022)

The problem came after that.

Roh Si-hwan got up on his own without medical assistance and walked to first base, and was not replaced.

Then on Kang Baek-ho's clutch hit, he made a bold baserunning play from first to third base.

In front of the broadcast camera, the player made a gesture indicating he was fine, and there was no action from the dugout.

Because of that one scene, I rushed to write this column. That gesture is actually decisive evidence that discipline is necessary.

1. Hanwha knows this better than anyone. Kim Tae-kyun's 'brain hemorrhage'

Let's turn back the clock to April 26, 2009.

Hanwha's star batter Kim Tae-kyun charged home in a game against Doosan at Jamsil, collided with catcher Choi Seung-hwan, his helmet flew off, and he hit the back of his head on the ground and lost consciousness.

He was transported to Seoul Medical Center, and CT results showed "concussion findings, no major abnormalities" (Edaily, 2009.4.26).

Coverage at the time uniformly wrapped up as 'concussion,' and Kim Tae-kyun rested for ten days before returning. However, his batting average in 17 games after his return was only .182, and he was eventually removed from the major league roster on May 29.

And 15 years later, Kim Tae-kyun himself confesses on Yoon Seok-min's YouTube channel: "I thought it was a concussion, but it was actually a brain hemorrhage." (Cyber Yoon Seok-min, 2025)

The meaning of this one sentence is grave.

• The initial hospital imaging reading at that time was 'concussion, no abnormalities.'
• The player himself felt "fine."
• But in reality, a brain hemorrhage was developing.
• As a result, a significant portion of Hanwha's top batter's 2009 season was lost, and by his own account, "I thought my baseball career was over" (Sports Kyunghyang, 2009).

This should be a trauma carved into Hanwha's organizational DNA: the fact that an 'all clear' assessment immediately after a head impact and the player's own "I'm fine" statement guarantee nothing.

But 17 years later, the same team made the exact opposite decision in the same situation.

2. What sports medicine has been warning about for 30 years. Second Impact Syndrome

In 1984, Saunders and Harbaugh published a brief case report in JAMA, one of the top medical journals.

It was a case of an American football player who returned to the game after a minor head impact, suffered a second light impact, and died. This paper marks the beginning of Second Impact Syndrome (SIS).

Since then, the accumulated consensus in sports medicine is as follows:

If a second impact is applied to a brain that has not recovered from a primary brain trauma, the cerebral autoregulation function collapses.

Intracranial pressure rises sharply, and diffuse cerebral edema and brain herniation progress within minutes.

Mortality rate at least 50%, survivors face permanent disability.

(Cantu RC, Clinics in Sports Medicine, 17(1):37-44, 1998 StatPearls/NCBI Bookshelf, Second Impact Syndrome, 2023)

There are three critical facts we must not overlook here,

1. The second impact does not require another direct blow to the head.

A strong impact to the back or chest causing the head to jolt, collision with the fence, or a head-first slide with the head striking the ground can all be triggers (Physio-pedia, 2024).

2. Being asymptomatic does not mean it is safe.

"When Second Impact Syndrome begins, an athlete may walk out of the stadium seemingly unaffected. However, symptoms rapidly worsen, leading to dilated pupils, respiratory failure, and death within minutes." — Cantu, 1998

3. You cannot rely on the athlete's own judgment that they are 'fine.'

"Since the primary brain trauma itself impairs the athlete's judgment, decisions to return cannot be based on the rationale that 'the athlete said they were fine.'" — Boys Town National Research Hospital Concussion Guidelines

All three of these broke down at once in today's 4th game.

3. What does MLB do? 7-Day Concussion IL

Baseball knows this too.

According to the MLB concussion study published by Ramkumar et al. in Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine (2018, Level of evidence 3 cohort study), MLB has been operating a 7-day Concussion IL (concussion-specific injured list) since 2011.

If there are suspected symptoms after a head impact, there is mandatory 7-day removal from play, and return is only possible with clearance from an independent neurologist, not the team doctor.

In the same study, the actual average return-to-play time for 145 MLB players with concussions during 2005–2017 was 26 days.

A follow-up study by Wasserman et al. here reveals an even more inconvenient truth.

MLB batters who returned after symptoms resolved still showed significant residual decline in batting skills (Wasserman et al., cited in Green et al., PMC6239129, 2018).

That is, there is a systematic gap between the point when a player feels "fine" and the point when the brain is actually recovered.

MLB confirmed this with data, and so they stripped managers of discretion and nailed it down with the 7-day IL.

What about the KBO? Still at managerial discretion.

If the manager says "sit out," they sit out; if the player says "I'll play," they play. And today, we witnessed live how one manager and one team exercised that discretion.

4. The broken chain of decision-making in Daejeon today

Responsibility must be examined separately.

(1) The player himself

As Cantu warned above, a judgment of "fine" immediately after primary head trauma has no medical credibility in itself. However, in the same team where senior Kim Tae-gyun made his "brain hemorrhage" confession, the fact that he slid head-first to third base on the same day after taking a headshot means the player lacks basic safety awareness.

(2) Manager, coaches, and trainers

When the player says he's fine, it's their professional duty to say "no." They neither substituted a replacement after the headshot nor stopped the head-first slide. This is not a game management decision—it's a failure in player safety management.

(3) The organization

Hanwha is the organization that knows the Kim Tae-gyun case best. An organization that experienced a situation in 2009 where a CT scan was "normal" but there was actually a brain hemorrhage—allowing the exact same scenario in 2026 where "no hospital visit and head-first to third base" happened—is a structural problem.

(4) The KBO

They created a headshot ejection rule 12 years ago and called it done. As of 2026, there is still no regulation on how to protect the player who was hit.

5. Why is discipline necessary

This is not a post about punishing one person. It's a post about changing the system.

First, we must block a bad precedent. The moment someone in another team's dugout says "Hanhwa did it and played, so what's wrong with us?", the brain safety standards of the entire league will be downgraded to the level set by Hanhwa today.

Younger players find it harder to say "please take me out." It's the responsibility of managers, teams, and the league to protect them.

Second, Hanhwa must learn from its own history. Kim Tae-gyun's 2009 season was one of the most painful seasons for Hanhwa fans.

When that pain came back 15 years later with the confession that "it was a brain hemorrhage," what should the organization have learned?

Looking at today's decision-making, it seems they learned nothing.

Third, KBO now has reason to create a protocol. At minimum, these three things must be codified:

• A player hit in the head must be immediately substituted (mandatory rule, not at the discretion of manager/player)
• Mandatory hospital medical evaluation and independent neurologist opinion
• Minimum period of game absence (refer to MLB's 7-day Concussion IL)

And because none of these exist yet, the KBO office must first send a signal through warnings and sanctions before the league establishes rules.

Team fines, manager suspension, and official caution against the organization itself. This is a sanction for failure in player safety management, not a rule violation.

In closing

I believe the weight of responsibility should lie not with individual players, but with those who have the authority to remove a player in that moment.

This should be the minimum standard for professional sports in 2026.

Hanhwa learned nothing from Kim Tae-gyun's brain hemorrhage. The KBO must learn.

References

• Saunders RL, Harbaugh RE. "Second impact in catastrophic contact-sports head trauma." JAMA, 252(4):538–539, 1984.
• Cantu RC. "Second-impact syndrome." Clinics in Sports Medicine, 17(1):37–44, 1998.
• Ramkumar PN et al. "Short-Term Outcomes of Concussions in Major League Baseball: A Historical Cohort Study." Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine, 2018.
• Green GA et al. "Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in Major and Minor League Baseball Players." PMC6239129, 2018 (Wasserman et al. 재인용).
• Hebert O et al. "The diagnostic credibility of second impact syndrome: A systematic literature review." Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 19:789–794, 2016.
• Korean Journal of Sport Science. "Review and Policy Proposals on Sports Concussion." 33(3):479–488, 2022.
• StatPearls/NCBI Bookshelf. Second Impact Syndrome, 2023.
• Shin Won-chul, "Collapsed from Roh Si-hwan's headshot", SPOTV News, 2026.04.24.
• Cyber Yoon Seok-min,
• "Brother Tae-gyun was a genius" Felt the vibe of 'baseball legend' Kim Tae-gyun, not just a broadcaster | Cyber Yoon Seok-min Ep.Kim Tae-gyun-3 (2025).