Lions' Lee reaches 2,000-hit milestone

Lee Seung-yuop of the Samsung Lions, left, is celebrated by his teammates after reaching the 2,000-hit milestone during his team’s Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) League game against the KT Wiz at Daegu Samsung Lions Park, Wednesday. / Yonhap

By Baek Byung-yeul

Lee Seung-yuop of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) team Samsung Lions reached the 2,000-hit milestone, Wednesday.

The 40-year-old veteran, who had hit 1,998 hits before the Wednesday game, set the record during his team’s KBO League game against the KT Wiz at the Daegu Samsung Lions Park.

Batting fifth, Lee started the game as a designated hitter and hit his 1,999th career hit in the third inning, adding another hit in the seventh inning to become the oldest player to join the 2,000-hit club at the age of 40 years and 20 days. He added one more hit in the eighth inning to go 3-for-5 with three singles in the game.

He also became the eighth player to reach this mark, following Yang Jun-hyuk, Jeon Jun-ho, Jang Sung-ho, Lee Byung-kyu, Hong Sung-heon, Park Yong-taek and Jeong Seong-hoon.

Making his KBO League debut in 1995, he recorded his first career hit on April 15 and became the youngest player to reach the 1,000-hit mark in 2002 at the age of 25 years, eight months and nine days. After playing in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball league for eight years from 2003 to 2011, he returned to the Lions and has been filling the designated hitter’s slot since then.

This season he has a .303 batting average with 23 homers, 102 RBIs and 78 runs.