The backwater of the Yangtze River pushes out the front. Doosan’s Lee Seung-yeop’s title as the KBO’s No. 1 hitter will be removed from his juniors.
KIA slugger Choi Hyung-woo, 40, reached the 1,500-run plateau in his career on Tuesday with a blast in the top of the fourth inning against Daejeon Hanwha. He surpassed Lee Seung-yeop’s 1498 RBIs and became the first player in KBO history to reach 1,500 RBIs. Now, Choi Hyung-woo, not Lee Seung-yeop, is the KBO’s all-time RBI leader.
Choi Hyung-woo had already surpassed Lee Seung-yup (464) for the most career doubles with a double in the first inning of the Gwangju Samsung Electronics game on April 23. Through 20 days, he has 477 career doubles. If Choi, whose three-year, 4.7 billion won free-agent contract ends this season, stays on the active roster next year, he could challenge for the all-time record of 500 doubles.안전놀이터
However, the highlight of the juniors’ dethroning of Lee was still to come. There is a real hero. SSG Living Legend Choi Jung (36). Choi is on track to surpass Lee as the all-time leader in home runs and runs scored.
Choi hit a dramatic game-winning grand slam in the top of the 10th inning against Doosan in Jamsil on the 20th. The shot gave Choi 444 career home runs and 1,330 runs scored. Lee has 467 home runs and 1,355 runs scored in his career. Choi needs just 23 home runs and 25 runs batted in to match Lee.
Realistically, the top spot on the career runs scored list is on the countdown. In the second half of the season, he’s sure to push Lee into second place. That’s the highlight reel. If his 15-homer season pace continues, he could pass Lee for the all-time home run lead at the end of the season. That could happen as early as the 2024 season. Choi and SSG’s six-year, $10.6 billion free agent contract runs through the 2024 season.
In the history of the KBO and Korean baseball, Lee Seung-yeop is the home run, and the home run is Lee Seung-yeop, so if Choi surpasses Lee as the KBO’s all-time home run leader, it will be a highlight reel of Korean baseball history.
In fact, Choi is fourth on the all-time RBI list with 1415. At 36 years old, he’s sure to play longer than Choi Hyung-woo, who is 40, so there’s a good chance that the top spot will eventually belong to him. This means that Choi will lead the league in home runs, RBIs, and runs scored. However, she is 10th in career doubles with 374. Choi surprisingly hasn’t exploded for RBI production.
Lee Seung-yeop is still the leader in this category. Lee leads the league in total bases with 4077. Choi Hyung-woo is third with 3866 runs and Choi Jung is fourth with 3786 runs. There is a good chance that Choi will eventually move into first place. However, it will take some time.
It’s important to remember that Lee has an eight-year handicap on the KBO’s career record books. He played for the Chiba Lotte, Yomiuri Giants, and Orix Buffaloes in Nippon Professional Baseball from 2004 to 2011, when he was at his peak. Despite losing eight years of his career, he’s still ranked first or second on the all-time career list, so it’s up to the younger generation to remind him of his greatness. Arguably, the best hitter in Korean baseball is Lee Seung-yeop. It’s an immutable truth.