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| Park Byung-ho of the KT Wiz hits a solo home run against the Samsung Lions during the top of the fourth inning of a Korea Baseball Organization regular season game at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu, 290 kilometers southeast of Seoul, June 30. Yonhap |
After going homerless in the first seven games of June, KT Wiz slugger Park Byung-ho went deep in the final five games of the month.
The 35-year-old capped off that streak with two long balls against the Samsung Lions in a 13-2 rout Thursday. With the double dip, Park also climbed to fourth on the all-time Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) home run list with 353.
Park broke the tie with the retired legend Yang Joon-hyuk and now sits seven behind Lee Dae-ho of the Lotte Giants. Lee, who has nine homers in 2022, will retire after this season.
Park took Samsung starter David Buchanan deep for a two-run homer in the top of the third inning at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu, 290 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
In the very next inning, Park got to Buchanan again, this time for a solo shot that gave the Wiz a 6-1 lead.
Lee Seung-yuop, another retired slugger, is the KBO's career leader with 467 home runs. Choi Jeong of the SSG Landers is second overall and leads all active players with 413, and he has hit 10 home runs so far this year.
Choi, 35, began getting regular playing time as a 19-year-old in 2006 and has reached double digits in homers in every year since then. Though Choi may not match the 35 homers he had a year ago, he still has a strong shot at surpassing Lee's all-time mark before he's finished.
Park only became an everyday player in the second half of the 2011 season at age 25, following a trade from the LG Twins to the Nexen (currently Kiwoom) Heroes. Park also spent the 2016 and 2017 seasons playing for the Minnesota Twins, an ultimately unsuccessful stint that came on the heels of consecutive 50-homer seasons and then a 40-homer campaign with the Heroes.
Park, who turns 36 in nine days, may fall short of Lee's mark and also finish behind Choi when both are done playing. But Park will almost certainly win his sixth career home run crown this year.
He leads the league with 26 home runs this year and no one else even has 20. Kim Hyun-soo of the Twins and Lee Jung-hoo of the Kiwoom Heroes are tied for second with 14 dingers.
Park is the first KBO player ever to hit at least 20 home runs in nine consecutive seasons. He reached that mark on the number last year in 118 games but blasted his 20th homer in his 65th game this year.
The Heroes let Park walk as a free agent after the first baseman put up a .227/.323/.430 line, his worst numbers across the board in a full season. The Wiz then rolled the dice by giving Park a three-year deal worth 3 billion won ($2.3 million).
The deal that didn't appear to be a smart investment at first will likely end up as the best bargain in the KBO this year. (Yonhap)
