The best Baseball player in the world is a South Korean: Lotte Giants’ Lee Dae-Ho
South Korean baseball star Lee Dae-Ho has just cemented his place among the world’s best baseball players. The Asian phenomenon has recently become the first player ever to score 9 consecutive homeruns in 9 consecutive games. What is interesting is the fact that most baseball fans, when they think of hitting greats like Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and Ken Griffey Jr., all think about the MLB in America. But it was a player in the Korean Baseball League that broke the world record and probably stunned a few people State side. The future looks bright for this slightly overweight but amazing baseball player.
Lee’s story is one of overcoming adversity to rise to greatness. Lee was born in 1982 and his father passed away when he was very young. His mother remarried and he was sent away to live with his grandmother, who also passed away when he was in second grade. He showed a talent for baseball at an early age and started to impress his high school coach with his skills. He performed very well in the World Junior Championships and had a very good hitting average during the tournament. He was picked up by the professional Korean baseball team, the Lotte Giants, soon after that as a pitcher. This is interesting because he is not known anymore for his pitching but it was what got him into professional baseball. Apparently his coach in those early seasons did not like to play Lee because of his hefty weight. It seems his weight was an issue for him at the time, because even though he is 6’3” tall, he weighs a large 264 pounds.
Lee, or ‘Big Boy’ as he is called, slowly started to shine for the Giants. His early seasons for the team were alright, but it was in 2006 that the large baseball player truly emerged as a superstar. That year his batting average was .336/.410/.571 with 26 home runs. In 2007, he improved his performance by hitting 29 homeruns and winning his second Golden Glove award. In 2008, the big star helped Korea win gold in baseball at the Olympics in Beijing. In 2009, Lee hit 28 home runs, and 100 RBIs. It was also in 2009 that one of the most thrilling encounters was seen in the sport when Korea took on Japan in the World Baseball Championships. That game went down to the wire, with Japan needing to score to win. The game was tied at 3-3 in the tenth inning and it came down to Ichiro Suzuki who hit a two run single to give the Japanese the lead, the game and the championship. Even though Lee tried his hardest as did the rest of the Korean players, they could not stop the Japanese from claiming their second World Baseball Championship trophy.
2010 is turning out to be Lee Dae-Ho’s year, and he will probably remember it for a long time. Very recently, the portly baseball star broke a world record by hitting 9 consecutive home runs in 9 games. This record betters the ones set by Ken Griffey Jr., Dale Long and Don Mattingly in the MLB. These players have only managed to hit 8 home runs in 8 games but Lee’s record blew them out of the water. The Korean is also having his best season ever: he has managed to hit 38 home runs so far and his batting average is currently .367/.440/.681 in 103 games. He seems unstoppable at the moment and at the rate he is going, he might start to get some people over in America excited and scouts would probably be getting interested to get the big man over to play for a Major League team very soon.
Baseball fans do not really consider just how good players outside of America really are. Japan has some very talented players and some have even gone to play in Major League Baseball. Now Korean players are starting to shine and are getting noticed all over the world. It is only a matter of time before the whole world gets to see the pure talent and skills that are being nurtured in Asia. What is needed now is an international showdown between countries; a tri-nation tournament between America, Japan and Korea would certainly be a spectacular event to watch.
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