Lee Taek-keun (

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...

: 이택근,

Hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, wh ...

: 李宅根) (born July 10, 1980 in

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

) is an

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

who plays for the

Kiwoom Heroes The Kiwoom Heroes () are a South Korean professional baseball team based in Seoul. They are a member of the KBO League. The Heroes play their home games at Gocheok Sky Dome in Gocheok-dong, a neighborhood located in the southwestern part of Seou ...

in the

Korea Baseball Organization The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO; ko, 한국야구위원회) is the governing body for the professional leagues of baseball in South Korea. The KBO was founded in 1981 and has governed two leagues: the KBO League ( ko, KBO 리그) and KBO ...

. He bats and throws

right-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

Amateur career

Attending Kyungnam Commerce High School in

, Lee was considered one of the top high school catching prospects. In 1998, he was selected for the South Korea national junior team that finished in 3rd place at the 1998 Asian Junior Baseball Championship in

Kaohsiung Kaohsiung City (Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsi ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. Upon graduation from high school in 1999, he chose to play college baseball at

Korea University Korea University (KU, ) is a private research university in Seoul, South Korea, established in 1905. The university is included as one of the SKY universities, a popular acronym referring to Korea's three most prestigious universities. The ...

instead of turning pro directly. Lee was soon regarded as one of the best offensive amateur catchers in the nation, becoming a fixture in the starting nine in his first collegiate season. In his freshman year at

, he was called up to the

South Korea national baseball team The South Korean national baseball team ( ko, 대한민국 야구 국가대표팀) is the national baseball team of South Korea. It won the Baseball World Cup in 1982, and participated in the Summer Olympic Games of 1984, 1988, 1996, and 2000. At ...

, and participated in the 1999 Intercontinental Cup. In Korea's first game of the round-robin tournament against

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

, he led his team to a memorable 4-3 victory, which was South Korea's first victory over Cuba at international baseball competitions organized by the

IBAF The International Baseball Federation (IBAF; Spanish: ''Federación Internacional de Béisbol'', French: ''Fédération internationale de baseball'') is the former worldwide governing body recognized by the International Olympic Committee as over ...

. In 2001, Lee was selected for the

, that finished in 6th place at the 2001 Baseball World Cup. Lee was one of five amateur players on the roster. In 2002, Lee competed for the South Korea national baseball team again in the inaugural World University Baseball Championship held in

Messina Messina (, also , ) is a harbour city and the capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of more than 219,000 inhabitants in ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, manning the designated hitting and the catching positions.

Notable international careers

Professional career

Signed by the

Hyundai Unicorns The Hyundai Unicorns () were a South Korean professional baseball team based in Suwon. They were a member of the KBO League. The Unicorns won the KBO championship four times (1998, 2000, 2003 and 2004). The Unicorns were dissolved after the 20 ...

in 2003, Lee started his pro career as a

catcher Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...

. Although Lee immediately became one of the most reliable and consistent hitters in the team, he failed to make an impact with the Unicorns as a catcher due to his defensive deficiencies. So, the team convinced Lee to convert to the outfield in spring training 2006. As the 2006 season started, the team finally moved Lee to the outfield permernantly. In the 2006 season, he finished second in batting average (.322), tenth in RBI (66) and sixth in hits (135), and was selected to the All-Star team and won his first

KBO League Golden Glove Award The KBO League Golden Glove Award is an award given out annually by the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) to the best overall player at each position in the KBO League. It is also commonly known as the KBO Golden Gloves. The award was established i ...

. After the season, he was selected for the South Korea national team and competed in the

2006 Asian Games 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

held in

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the coun ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...

. In the 2007 season, he finished ninth in batting average (.313) and sixth in hits (137). In the 2008 season, Lee had a .317 batting average, that ranked seventh overall, with 12 home runs and 118 hits. He also stole 18 bases, batting

leadoff In baseball, a lead or lead off is the short distance that a player stands away from their current base. On the bases In baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batti ...

. In August 2008, he competed for the South Korean national team in the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

held in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, where they won the gold medal in the baseball tournament. In March 2009, Lee was called up to the South Korea national baseball team for the

2009 World Baseball Classic The 2009 World Baseball Classic (WBC) was an international baseball competition. It began on 5 9 and finished 5 26. Unlike in 2006, when the round-robin format of the first two rounds led to some eliminations being decided by run-difference ti ...

. He appeared in 7 games, but mostly served as a

pinch runner In baseball, a pinch runner is a player substituted for the specific purpose of replacing another player on base. The pinch runner may be faster or otherwise more skilled at base-running than the player for whom the pinch runner has been sub ...

and backup

center fielder A center fielder, abbreviated CF, is the outfielder in baseball who plays defense in center field – the baseball and softball fielding position between left field and right field. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the c ...

. In the 2009 KBO season, Lee had another impressive performance. He batted .311 (eighth in the league) and posted career-highs in hits (142), home runs (15), doubles (26), RBI (66), runs (84) and stolen bases (43). Lee finished third in

stolen bases In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base to which they are not entitled and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe or ...

(43 in 51 attempts) and his

stolen base percentage Stolen base percentage is a statistic used in baseball. A player's stolen base percentage (a.k.a. SB%) measures his rate of success in stealing bases. Because stolen bases tend to help a team less than times caught stealing hurt, a player needs to ...

(.843) was higher than title-winner

Lee Dae-Hyung Lee Dae-hyung (Hangul: 이대형, Hanja: 李大炯; born July 19, 1983, in Boryeong) is a retired South Korean outfielder for the KBO League. Lee played 17 seasons in the KBO — eleven seasons for the LG Twins, one year for the Kia Tigers, an ...

and runner-up Jeong Keun-Woo. On December 11, 2009, he won his second Golden Glove Award as an outfielder. On May 18, 2017, he won the game against Hanwha by hitting the first pinch-hitter-ending grand slam in the KBO league against Jung Woo-ram.

Awards and honors

*2006 Golden Glove Award (Outfielder) *2009 Golden Glove Award (Outfielder)

Notable international careers

Controversy

In 2018 Lee was suspended 36 games for the 2019 season by the league because of an earlier (May 2015) incident in which he struck a younger teammate, Moon Woo-ram, in the face with a bat multiple times, leaving him with a concussion and serious swelling in the face. Lee said that he had hit Moon because he didn't follow his order of getting a haircut."Veteran outfielder gets 36-game suspension for striking teammate with bat,"
Yonhap News Agency (December 19, 2018).

Filmography

Television show

References

External links

Profile and stats on the KBO official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Taek-keun 2009 World Baseball Classic players Baseball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for South Korea Olympic baseball players of South Korea LG Twins players Kiwoom Heroes players Hyundai Unicorns players KBO League first basemen KBO League center fielders South Korean baseball players Korea University alumni 1980 births Living people Olympic medalists in baseball Asian Games medalists in baseball Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Baseball players at the 2006 Asian Games Asian Games bronze medalists for South Korea Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games Sportspeople from Busan