'Lion King' closes in on 600 homer milestone

Lee Seung-yuop of the Samsung Lions reacts after hitting an RBI single in the fourth inning of his team’s Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) League game against the SK Wyverns at Daegu Samsung Lions Park, Tuesday. With the RBI, Lee tied with former Lions hitter YangJoon-hyuk for most career RBIs with 1,389. / Yonhap

By Baek Byung-yeul

Samsung Lions veteran Lee Seung-yuop is set to reach another milestone in Korean baseball history, as the 40-year-old slugger only needs to make two more home runs to reach 600 for his career.

Lee, often dubbed the “Lion King” for his time with the Samsung Lions, has racked up 598 home runs in his professional career in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) and Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) as of Tuesday.

Making his professional baseball debut in 1995, Lee hit 324 home runs up to the 2003 season with the Lions. He then made 159 homers in Japan while playing for eight seasons with three NPB teams, including Chiba Lotte Marines, Yomiuri Giants and Orix Buffaloes from 2004 to 2011. After returning to the Lions in 2012, Lee added 115 home runs to lead the KBO with 439 homers.

As controversy erupted when Japanese baseball player Suzuki Ichiro surpassed Pete Rose’s most-hit record of 4,256 hits in June with his accumulated record based on performances in the U.S. and Japan, Lee’s 600-home run milestone won’t be credited as an official record.

Acknowledging these concerns, Lee has said he doesn’t put much emphasis on the 600-home run milestone.

“It is obvious that I am pleased to get close to the record. However, as it is not an official record, I don’t want to attach special meaning to it,” Lee told reporters, Aug. 10, after hitting his 19th home run of this season.

Instead, Lee has said that he has been aiming at reaching 2,000 career hits in the KBO for which he needs only 13 more as of Tuesday.

Last year, Lee became the first KBO player to hit 400 home runs.

Besides the 400 home runs, Lee has achieved a slew of other milestones.

In 1999, he became the first player to hit more than 50 home runs in a single KBO season with 54. He then broke his own single season home run record in the 2003 season after hitting 56 homers. With a flurry of home runs, Lee has been rewriting many KBO records including winning the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award five times, leading the runs batted in category (RBI) for four seasons and home runs five times.

Lee set another milestone Tuesday as he tied former Lions hitter Yang Joon-hyuk for most career RBIs with 1,389.

Batting fifth as a designated hitter, Lee hit a single to score second base runner Park Han-yi in the bottom of the fifth to tie Yang during his team’s game against the SK Wyverns at Daegu Samsung Lions Park.

Although over 40 years old, Lee has been cruising this season, staying at the top of many batting categories. Appearing in 109 games so far this season, Lee has recorded a batting average of .301 with 127 hits including 23 home runs, 96 RBIs and 71 runs.