Seung-Yeop Lee
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| Olympic medal record | |||
| Men’s Baseball | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Bronze | 2000 Sydney | Team | |
| Seung-Yeop Lee | |
|---|---|
| Hangul: |
이승엽
|
| Hanja: |
李承燁
|
| Revised Romanization: | Yi Seung-yeop |
| McCune-Reischauer: | Yi Sŭng-yŏp |
Lee Seung-yeop (born August 8, 1976 in Daegu, Korea) is a baseball player, currently playing for the Yomiuri Giants in the Japan's Central League. Lee's nickname is the "Lion King". 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.
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 has recently signed a one-year contract with the Yomiuri Giants for 210 million yen, including a 50 million yen signing bonus. He bats fourth and plays first base there. He has explicitly showed interests in making a move to Major League Baseball.
He did have 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).[1] 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 Seung-Yeop 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.
Lee is 6'1" and 211 pounds (96 kg).
After the conclusion of the 2006 season, Seung-Yeop Lee resigned with the Yomiuri Giants, citing that he wishes to win a Japan Series with the team. However, there is also a clause which allows Mr. Lee to be a free agent if the Giants win the series.
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