Samsung Lions Lee Seung-yeop hits a single in the third inning of his team's game against the Kia Tigers in Gwangju on May 22. Lee needs two more home runs to reach 400 regular season home runs in his career. Yonhap

An Byeong-hun, center, with his father An Jae-hyung, left, and mother Jiao Zhimin at Incheon International Airport after An won the U.S. Amateur Championship. / Korea times file photo



By Baek Byung-yeul

Samsung Lions slugger Lee Seung-yeop, 38, takes aim at a milestone home run this week in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), Korea's top-flight baseball league.

Lee homered in his first at bat Friday against the Kia Tigers against starting pitcher Yoo Chang-sik in Gwangju, giving him the 398th homer of his career.

Lee has the most home runs in KBO history. Only 53 players have reached the 400-homer run plateau in Major League Baseball, while 17 players have done so in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball.

Since making his debut in 1995 with the Lions, "Lion King" Lee has been rewriting a slew of KBO records including winning the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award five times, leading in runs batted in (RBI) for four seasons and home runs five times.

When he hit 56 homers in 2003 and broke the record for most home runs in a single season, a milestone he had previously set with 54 in 1999, baseball fans came out to the ball park where he played and scrambled to get outfield seats in hopes of catching Lee's home run balls with butterfly nets.

After playing for the Lions for nine seasons, Lee flew to Japan and played there for eight years, hitting 159 homers. Lee made his return to the KBO in 2012.

In a list of all-time home runs record, Lee is followed by retired Lions player Yang Joon-hyuk (351), former Hanwha Eagles slugger Chang Jong-hoon (340), retired Lions outfielder Shim Jeong-soo (328) and former SK Wyerns catcher Park Kyung-oan (314).

The second-place Lions (27 wins and 18 losses) will take on the fifth-place Nexen Heroes (24-22) at home from Tuesday to Thursday, and will have a three-game series with the ninth-placed LG Twins (19-1-26) in Seoul over the weekend.

The league-leading Doosan Bears (25-16) are set to battle it out with the third-place NC Dinos in Changwon and the last-place KT Wiz in Suwon this week.

The fourth-place Wyverns (24-19) will take on the fifth-place Lotte Giants (24-22) and the Heroes at their Incheon SK Happy Dream Park home in Incheon this week.