Lee Seung-Yeop

Infobox Korean name
hangul=이승엽
hanja=李承燁
rr=I Seung-yeop
mr=I Sŭng'yŏp
tablewidth=265
color=#cccccc

Lee Seung-yeop also Lee Seung-yuop (born August 18, 1976 in Daegu, South Korea) is a baseball player, currently playing for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan's Central 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 also holds the Asian home run record of 56 homers in a season, established in 2003 while playing for the Samsung Lions in the Korean league.

Professional career

Lee started his career with the Daegu Samsung Lions of the Korean Baseball Organization 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 interests 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.

He was selected to play for the Korea national baseball team in the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006. He batted .333 and led all players in the tournament with 5 home runs and 10 RBI. This has increased speculation that an MLB team might eventually sign him. However, Lee is under contract to play with the Yomiuri Giants for the 2006 season.On 1st August 2006, Lee became only the third professional baseball player ever to hit 400-career home runs before the age of 30 (others include Sadaharu Oh and Alex Rodriguez). [ [http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/sports/200608/kt2006080121475111640.htm Page Error : 찾으시는 Page의 URL이 잘못되었거나 없습니다 ] ] In the 2006 season, he batted .323 with 41 homers.

On August 3, 2006, a report on MLB Radio on XM satellite radio stated that the New York Yankees and Lee had agreed to start negotiations during the offseason after the 2006 regular season. The South Korean daily, ChosunIlbo, had reported on July 19 that the Yankees had expressed interest in the slugger. [ [http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200607/200607070026.html Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition) : Daily News in English About Korea ] ]

After the conclusion of the 2006 season, Lee Seung-Yeop re-signed with the Yomiuri Giants, citing that he wishes to win a Japan Series with the team. However, there is also a clause which allows Lee to be a free agent if the Giants win the series.

As of February 2008, Lee Seung-Yeop still has not made an effort to play in the Major Leagues. He may have lost his best chance to play in MLB in 2004 when he demanded the LA Dodgers include verbiage in any contract they offered guaranteeing him a starting position, something no MLB player has ever had written into a contract.

Lee is 6'0" tall and his playing weight is listed at 187 pounds (85 kg). [cite web|url=http://www.japanesebaseball.com/players/player.jsp?PlayerID=1797|title=Seung-Yeop Lee Profile|publisher=Japanesebaseball.com|date=2008-08-23|accessdate=2008-08-23]

2008 Summer Olympics

Lee played for the South Korean national team in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Slowed down by an injury to his left thumb, Lee struggled in the preliminary rounds, limited to 3-for-22 (.136) with two runs batted in and no home runs, before coming alive in the medal round games against Japan and Cuba.

In the semifinal game against Team Japan, Lee hit a dramatic go-ahead two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning off reliever Hitoki Iwase, which proved to be the winning runs in Korea's 6-2 win. After the game, he apologized to the Japanese people. [cite web|url=http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/baseball/news;_ylt=AsFeXbmCipQg.QP3HZcvL9iTaJh4?slug=reu-baseballapology_pix&prov=reuters&type=lgns|title=Korean Lee says sorry for beating Japan|publisher=Yahoo! Sports|date=2008-08-23|accessdate=2008-08-23]

In the gold medal game against Cuba, Lee hit a two-run home run in the first inning off Cuban starter Norberto González to help Korea defeat Cuba and win the gold medal. [cite web|url=http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Olympics/idUSPEK31662920080823|title=Korea clips Cuba to take baseball gold|publisher=Reuters|date=2008-08-23|accessdate=2008-08-23]

Career statistics

Career Statistics in KBO

Career statistics in NPB

References

ee also

* Samsung Group
* Lotte Group
* [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/baseball/mlb/wires/08/05/2010.ap.bbi.south.korean.slugger.0447/ South Korea's Lee could be bound for majors] (link broken)

External links

* [http://www.giants.jp/top.html Yomiuri Giants Official Website] Jp icon