Lee Seung Yeop

Short Biography

Lee Seung-yeop (born October 11, 1976 in Daegu, South Korea) is a baseball player, currently playing for the Samsung Lions of the KBO League. 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 formerly held the Asian home run record of 56 homers in a season, established in 2003 while playing for the Samsung Lions in the Korean league. The record was broken by Wladimir Balentien of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, on September 15, 2013, when he hit his 56th and 57th Home Runs of the season against the Hanshin Tigers of the Nippon Professional Baseball League. He holds the KBO records for career home runs, RBIs, slugging percentage and OPS. Combined, across the KBO and NPB, Lee has also recorded more hits than any other native-born Korean player.