Lee Seung Yeop 이승엽 李承燁
Samsung Lions — No. 36
First baseman
Born: (1976-08-18) August 18, 1976 (age 35) Daegu, South Korea
Bats: Left	Throws: Left
Professional debut
1995 for the Samsung Lions
KBO statistics
Batting average	.305
Home runs	324
RBI	948
Hits	1286
Doubles	292
NPB statistics (through 2011)
Batting average	.257
Home runs	159
Runs batted in	439
Hits	686
Doubles	138
Teams
Samsung Lions (1995–2003), (2012–Present) Chiba Lotte Marines (2004–2005) Yomiuri Giants (2006–2010) Orix Buffaloes (2011)
Career highlights and awards
5× KBO MVP (1997, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003) 2× KBO Golden Glove Award winner (1998, 2000) 2× Korean Series champion (2001, 2002) 2× Japan Series champion 2005, (2009)

This article contains Korean text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Hangul or Hanja.

Lee Seung-yeop also Lee Seung-yuop (born August 18, 1976 in Daegu, South Korea) is a baseball player, currently playing for the Samsung Lions of the Korean Baseball Organization. Nicknamed "Lion King" since his days with the Samsung Lions, while being affectionately known as "Mr. Seung" during his playing days with the Chiba Lotte Marines, Lee is arguably the greatest hitter in Korean baseball history. At the age of 26, he became the youngest professional baseball player in the world to hit 300 home runs. He also holds the Asian home run record of 56 homers in a season, established in 2003 while playing for the Samsung Lions in the Korean league.

Professional career[link]

Lee started his career with the Daegu Samsung Lions of the Korean Baseball Organization in 1995 and played with them for nine seasons. He then played for the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan's Pacific League for two years. He signed a one-year contract with the Yomiuri Giants for 210 million yen, including a 50 million yen signing bonus, for the 2006 season. He bats fourth and plays first base there. He has explicitly shown interest in making a move to Major League Baseball.

He had a slow start in Japan. Lee hit just 14 home runs and drove in 50 runs while batting .240 in 100 games. In the next season, he greatly improved, making 30 home runs and 82 RBI while batting .260 in 117 games.

He was selected to play for the Korea national baseball team in the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006. He batted .333 and led all players in the tournament with 5 home runs and 10 RBI. This has increased speculation that an MLB team might eventually sign him. However, Lee was under contract to play with the Yomiuri Giants for the 2006 season. On 1 August 2006, Lee became only the third professional baseball player ever to hit 400-career home runs before the age of 30 (others include Sadaharu Oh and Alex Rodriguez).^{[1][dead link]} In the 2006 season, he batted .323 with 41 homers.

On August 3, 2006, a report on MLB Radio on XM satellite radio stated that the New York Yankees and Lee had agreed to start negotiations during the offseason after the 2006 regular season. The South Korean daily, ChosunIlbo, had reported on July 19 that the Yankees had expressed interest in the slugger.^[2]

After the conclusion of the 2006 season, Lee re-signed with the Yomiuri Giants, citing that he wishes to win a Japan Series with the team. However, there is also a clause which allows Lee to be a free agent if the Giants win the series.

As of February 2008, Lee still has not made an effort to play in the Major Leagues. He may have lost his best chance to play in MLB in 2004 when he demanded the LA Dodgers include verbiage in any contract they offered guaranteeing him a starting position, something no MLB player has ever had written into a contract.

After being released by the Giants at the end of the 2010 season, Lee joined the Orix Buffaloes of the Japan's Pacific League in December 2010.

On 5 December 2011, Lee rejoined his former team Samsung Lions signing a one-year deal.^[3]

Lee is 6'0" tall and his playing weight is listed at 187 pounds (85 kg).^[4]

2008 Summer Olympics[link]

Lee played for the South Korean national team in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing. Slowed down by an injury to his left thumb, Lee struggled in the preliminary rounds, limited to 3-for-22 (.136) with two runs batted in and no home runs, before coming alive in the medal round games against Japan and Cuba.

In the semifinal game against Team Japan, Lee hit a dramatic go-ahead two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth inning off reliever Hitoki Iwase, which proved to be the winning runs in Korea's 6-2 win.

In the gold medal game against Cuba, Lee hit a two-run home run in the first inning off Cuban starter Norberto González to help Korea defeat Cuba and win the gold medal.^[5]

Career statistics[link]

Career Statistics in KBO[link]

Career statistics in NPB[link]

See also[link]

• Samsung Group
• Lotte Group
• South Korea's Lee could be bound for majors (link broken)

References[link]

External links[link]

v t e 2008 Olympic Champions Baseball – South Korea 3 Ko Young-Min 7 Park Jin-Man 8 Jeong Keun-Woo 10 Lee Dae-Ho 11 Oh Seung-Hwan 13 Jang Won-Sam 14 Kim Min-Jae 15 Lee Yong-Kyu 17 Kim Kwang-Hyun 18 Kim Dong-Joo 20 Jin Kab-Yong 21 Chong Tae-Hyon 22 Han Ki-Joo 25 Lee Seung-Yeop 28 Yoon Suk-Min 29 Lee Taek-Keun 35 Lee Jin-Young 37 Kang Min-Ho 39 Lee Jong-Wook 47 Kwon Hyuk 50 Kim Hyun-Soo 51 Bong Jung-Keun 91 Song Seung-Jun 99 Ryu Hyun-Jin Manager: 74 Kim Kyung-Moon

This is about ice hockey player; for the baseball player, see Lee Seung-Yeop.

Lee Seung-yup
Born	(1984-03-20) March 20, 1984 (age 28) Seoul, KOR
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Weight	171 lb (78 kg; 12 st 3 lb)
Position	Defenceman
Shoots	Right
ALH team	Anyang Halla
Playing career	2006–present

Lee Seung-yup (Korean: 이승엽 born March 20, 1984 in Seoul) is a Korean professional ice hockey defenceman. He is playing in his fourth year for Anyang Halla.^[1]

References[link]

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