KBO: Lee Seung-yeop hits 300th HR

Dear Mr. Westbay,

I had talked to Thomas St. John of the Korea Times before I posted his article to the forum (Thomas has been my baseball buddy since mid-90s).

He didn't have any objection except one thing: He didn't want his e-mail address at his article to be shown. According to him, it's his personal e-mail. I think KT should have put his business e-mail at the bottom of the article instead. That's why I made a copy of his article deleting his e-mail address at the bottom of it.

If you prefer, however, you may leave it as it is above as his original article with his personal e-mail address is indicated at Korea Times web site anyway.

Thanks,

B.J. Ahn

Thank you for that clarification. From my standpoint, though, I need confirmation from (preferrably) both the author and the Korea Times. The KT web site makes its money off of banner ads, so by reposting their articles here, they (and pretty much all newspapers) often see it as lost revenue. Since I make a grand total of 0 yen from this site per year, I can't afford to get them upset and demand reembursement.

The reason I would want the article posted in full here is for archival purposes. I know it's true with the Japan Times and Daily Yomiuri, they cycle out articles after a week or so, so the links go dead and the actual article is no longer reachable.

Thank you again for the explanation.

He sounds like a great HR batter. Could you please give us more information about him? Compared to Godzilla?

27-year-old "Lion King" is in his 9th and possibly last season with KBO.

Lee compared to Godzilla?

Before going to the U.S., Matsui was already a superstar in a proven league (NPB). On the other hand, KBO has not produced an MLB hitter yet, so there is no barometer to use. Besides, Matsui can play outfield while Lee is a first baseman. Both hit left handed.

Lee is a lifetime .306 hitter and has hit over 300 homeruns in 8+ seasons. His homerun total, however, is somewhat misleading: He plays half of his games at Citizens' Stadium in Daegu, one of the most homerun-friendly parks in KBO. I won't be surprised if Lee hits .300 in MLB, but hitting 30 HRs seems to be a tall order for him.