Park Byung-ho

Park Byung-Ho (Hangul: 박병호; hanja: 朴炳鎬; born July 10, 1986 in Buan, Jeollabuk-do) is a South Korean first baseman for the Nexen Heroes in the Korea Baseball Organization. He bats and throws right-handed.

Amateur career

Park attended Sungnam High School in Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do. Park first gained attention at the 38th President's Cup National High School Baseball Championship, where he became the first high school player to hit four home runs in four consecutive plate appearances on April 29 and May 1, 2004. In June 2004, Park led his team to win the 59th Blue Dragon Flag National High School Baseball Championship, ranked first in runs with 10.

In August 2004, Park was selected for the South Korean under-18 national team and participated in the World Junior Baseball Championship held in Taiwan. There he helped the team to clinch bronze, leading team attack alongside future KBO league stars Kang Jung-Ho and Choi Jeong.

Notable international careers

Year	Venue	Competition	Team
2004	Chinese Taipei	World Junior Baseball Championship

Professional career

Park was selected by the LG Twins in the first round of the 2005 KBO Draft. He entered the league with high expectation, converting his position from catcher to first baseman in his first season. However, Park batted a disappointing .190 with only 3 home runs and 21 RBIs in 79 games. In 2006, he batted .162 with 5 home runs, spending most of the season in the minors. After the 2006 season, Park joined the Korea Armed Forces Athletic Corps Baseball Team to serve two-year military service.

Although he came back to the Twins after being discharged from the military duty in early 2009, Park continued to hit below the Mendoza line (.218 in 2009 and .188 in 2010), mostly serving as the backup to first baseman Lee Taek-keun.

On July 31, 2011, Park was traded to the Nexen Heroes along with Shim Soo-Chang for Kim Seong-Hyun and Song Shin-Young.

In 2012, Park earned home run (31) and RBI (105) titles, and led the league in slugging percentage (.561). He also won the 2012 KBO Most Valuable Player Award and the Golden Glove Award at first base.

Park showed improved performances in the 2013 season. He earned home run (37), slugging percentage (.602), RBI (117) and runs (91) titles in 2013. He also played all 128 regular season games as the team's starting first baseman and fourth hitter. He was selected as All-Star, won 2013 KBO Most Valuable Player and Gold Glove Award at first base. In the last semi-playoff game against the Doosan Bears, Park hit a three run home run against Doosan Bears pitcher Dustin Nippert to even up from the score 0-3 to 3-3 with two outs in the bottom of the 9th inning.

External links

• Korea Baseball Organization career statistics from Koreabaseball.com