Fingers crossed for Lee's 600th home run
Samsung Lions’ designated hitter Lee Seung-yuop / Yonhap
By Kang Hyun-kyung
If Lee Seung-yuop hits one more home run in the remaining 18 games of this year’s season to mark his milestone 600th homer, it will be a record unlikely to be broken at least in the near future.
During his two decades in professional baseball, which includes his eight years in the Japanese league, the 40-year-old Samsung Lions’ designated hitter made 599 hits over the outfield fence. He’s hit 440 home runs at home, while making 159 in Japan between 2003 and 2011 when he returned to the Lions.
With the milestone record close at hand, Lee is poised to make history in the 34 years of professional baseball in Korea.
“We have had no players like Lee. I think it’s hardly likely that we’ll have a player like him in the Korean baseball league in the near future,” said baseball analyst Min Hoon-ki.
“There are plenty of great baseball players and they are younger than Lee. But I think the probability of one or some of them outperforming Lee in their careers is not likely. Lee’s record shows that he is Korea’s all-time greatest player.”
Min called Lee a legend.
“Lee already wrote history by setting the home run record,” he said.
The baseball commentator noted that to hit 600 home runs is incredibly demanding even for great players. He said the milestone, if reached, is rare even in the United States or Japan which both have a much longer professional baseball history than that of Korea.
“In Major League Baseball which has 140 years of history, there are only eight players who’ve hit 600 home runs or more,” Min said. “In the Japanese professional league, the number is smaller; only two Japanese players made it in almost 80 years of professional baseball there.”
On Tuesday, fans flocked to Daegu Samsung Lions Park in the namesake landlocked city, hoping that the star player can rewrite baseball history in the Lions’ game against the Hanwha Eagles.
Those home fans crossed their fingers for Lee to make his dream come true.
In media interviews, Lee said he’d be happier if he could achieve that goal in front of his hometown fans in Daegu.
“I know home runs are not something that I myself can control,” he said. “However, if possible, I’d like to pull together the milestone home run at Daegu Samsung Lions Park,” he said. The ballpark only opened this year after his team and hometown fans had long hoped for their own ballpark.
Kim Yu-kyoum, a professor of Seoul National University’s Department of Physical Education, said Lee’s 600 home run record, if realized, would have significant implications for the athlete.
“Lee has long been considered one of the great players of all time. The milestone home run, however, would lift him to the greatest player in Korean baseball history,” he said. “He has hit an average 30 homers annually during the past two decades and this is a record that is really tough for baseball players.”
According to Kim, there have been plenty of great players who performed spectacularly over short stretches of time. “But none of them were as consistent as Lee. His greatness comes from this persistent pattern of great performances over the past 20 years in the Korean and Japanese baseball leagues.”
Lee has continued to break records he set earlier. This earned him the nickname “the record-breaker.”
In 1997 when he was 22, he was the youngest baseball player to hit 100 home runs. In 2003, he achieved a record-high 56 homers, making him one of the greatest Asian players of all time. That year, his career took a turn as he joined the Chiba Lotte Mariners in the Japanese professional league.
He played for several other teams in the eight years before returning to the Samsung Lions in 2011.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) declined to comment on the implications of Lee’s possible 600 home runs, saying it is inappropriate for the organization to comment on the accomplishments of certain players or teams.
The KBO, however, noted that when it comes to baseball records, such as the number of home runs, the organization only counts records made in the KBO.
The KBO doesn’t include Lee’s 159 home runs he hit in the Japanese professional league.