Lee Seung-yeop | |||
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Samsung Lions – No. 36 | |||
First baseman | |||
Born: Daegu, South Korea |
October 11, 1976 |||
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Professional debut | |||
KBO: April 15, 1995, for the Samsung Lions | |||
NPB: March 27, 2004, for the Chiba Lotte Marines | |||
Last NPB appearance | |||
October 18, 2011, for the Orix Buffaloes | |||
KBO statistics (through 2016) |
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Batting average | .304 | ||
Home runs | 443 | ||
RBI | 1,411 | ||
Hits | 2,024 | ||
Doubles | 434 | ||
NPB statistics (through 2011) |
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Batting average | .257 | ||
Home runs | 159 | ||
Runs batted in | 439 | ||
Hits | 686 | ||
Doubles | 138 | ||
Teams | |||
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Career highlights and awards | |||
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Medal record | ||
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Men's baseball | ||
Representing South Korea | ||
Olympic Games | ||
2000 Sydney | Team | |
2008 Beijing | Team | |
World Baseball Classic | ||
2006 San Diego | Team | |
Asian Games | ||
2002 Busan | Team |
Lee Seung-yuop | |
Hangul | |
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Hanja | |
Revised Romanization | I Seungyeop |
McCune–Reischauer | Ri Sŭngyŏp |
Lee Seung-yeop (born October 11, 1976 in Daegu, South Korea) is a baseball player, currently playing for the Samsung Lions of the KBO League. Nicknamed "Lion King" since his days with the Samsung Lions, while being affectionately known as "Mr. Seung" during his playing days with the Chiba Lotte Marines, Lee is arguably the greatest hitter in Korean baseball history. At the age of 26, he became the youngest professional baseball player in the world to hit 300 home runs. He formerly held the Asian home run record of 56 homers in a season, established in 2003 while playing for the Samsung Lions in the Korean league. The record was broken by Wladimir Balentien of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, on September 15, 2013, when he hit his 56th and 57th Home Runs of the season against the Hanshin Tigers of the Nippon Professional Baseball League. He holds the KBO records for career home runs, RBIs, slugging percentage and OPS. Combined, across the KBO and NPB, Lee has also recorded more hits than any other native-born Korean player.
Lee started his career with the Daegu Samsung Lions of the KBO League in 1995 and played with them for nine seasons. He then played for the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan's Pacific League for two years. He signed a one-year contract with the Yomiuri Giants for 210 million yen, including a 50 million yen signing bonus, for the 2006 season. He bats fourth and plays first base there. He has explicitly shown interest in making a move to Major League Baseball.
He had a slow start in Japan. Lee hit just 14 home runs and drove in 50 runs while batting .240 in 100 games. In the next season, he greatly improved, making 30 home runs and 82 RBI while batting .260 in 117 games.