Korean baseball legend reveals life story

Lee Seung-yuop of the Samsung Lions salutes the crowd during his retirement ceremony at Daegu Samsung Lions Park last Oct. 3. / Yonhap

Cover for Lee Seung-yuop’s autobiography “I. 36. Lee Seung-yuop”

By Baek Byung-yeul

For baseball fans in Korea, former Samsung Lions slugger Lee Seung-yuop is one of the great stars of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) League.

The 41-year-old retired from baseball after last season. Playing 1,906 games in the KBO League, Lee is the all-time leader in home runs with 467, runs scored (1,355), RBIs (1,498), doubles (464) and total bases with 4,077. He also hit 56 home runs in 2003 to set the league’s all-time single season record.

While the greatest slugger bid farewell to baseball, Lee, also known by his nick name “Lion King,” recently published an autobiography “I. 36. Lee Seung-yuop.” The number 36 is the jersey number he used while playing for the Lions for 15 seasons. The Lions officially retired the number 36 in team history.

In his autobiography, Lee shares his life story that made him one of the most successful baseball players in Korea.

Lee said he made up his mind to publish the autobiography in the middle of the 2017 season. The book features his baseball story ranging from meeting with former Lions manager Baek In-chun to the days when he was playing in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) league from 2004 to 2011.

Lee began his professional baseball career in 1995. Though he was supposed to become a pitcher at first, then Lions manager Baek urged him to become a batter in the spring camp. Lee began focusing on batting since then.

After setting the all-time single season home run record in 2003, Lee signed with a NBP league team Chiba Lotte Marines to achieve his ambitious goal to display his skill in the overseas league. He finally became a player for the Yomiuri Giants, the most popular baseball club in Japan. In his first year with the Giants in 2006, Lee proved he was one of the best hitters in Japan, hitting the league’s second most home runs with 41. He experienced ups and downs, though, in the following seasons due to a series of injuries.

Mentioning that his famous quote “faithful efforts will never betray you,” Lee writes the key thing that made him the greatest slugger in Korea was to continually make genuine efforts.

In the book, Lee also emphasized if you trust yourself you can achieve what no one else believes you can. “Crisis in your life lurks everywhere. But there should be a chance to correct it,” Lee wrote.

After retiring from baseball, Lee has been working as an honorary ambassador for the KBO League. He also conducts charity work, as he recently established the Lee Seung Yuop Baseball Foundation in a bid to expand the baseball population here. Prior to publishing his autobiography, Lee said he would donate all if the profits from the book to his foundation.