Park Hae-min (

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 ...

: 박해민, born February 24, 1990, in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

) is a South Korean

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 ...

for the LG Twins 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 left-handed and throws right-handed.

Amateur career

Upon graduation from Shinil High School in

, Park was eligible for the KBO Draft but went undrafted. Instead, he entered

Hanyang University Hanyang University (Korean: 한양대학교) is a private research university in South Korea. The main campus is located in Seoul and its satellite campus, the Education Research Industry Cluster (ERICA campus), is in Ansan. ''Hanyang'' (한양, ...

to continue to play baseball. Park had mediocre freshman and sophomore seasons, but finally showed signs of promise in his junior year in , when he led the team attack alongside Ko Jong-wook, posting a .299 batting average. In , Park was moved to the lead-off role right after the team's four-year lead-off hitter Ko Jong-wook graduated. In July 2011, Park won the batting title with a .452 batting average at the 2011 National Summer League Championship, going 14-for-31 as the team's lead-off hitter. Park finished his last collegiate season with a career-best .429 batting average (which was ranked first in the 2011 national collegiate season), 11 RBIs, and 7 stolen bases.

Professional career

2012 KBO Draft

When Park, the 2011 college batting champion, made himself eligible for the KBO draft after his senior season at Hanyang University, many expected him to be an early-round pick. However, some scouting reports highlighted his lack of prototypical height and inability to hit home runs and questioned his defensive abilities, and Park was not called in the KBO Draft. A week later, he signed with the

Samsung Lions The Samsung Lions () are a South Korean professional baseball team founded in 1982. They are based in the southeastern city of Daegu and are members of the KBO League. Their home stadium is Daegu Samsung Lions Park. They have won the Korean Champ ...

as an undrafted free agent.

Samsung Lions

In 2012, Park played his professional rookie season with the Lions' farm-league affiliate. In the 2012

KBO Futures League KBO Futures League () or Korea Baseball Futures League is South Korea's second level of baseball, below the KBO League. It serves as a farm league with the purpose to develop professional players on-demand to play in the KBO League. The league ...

for the reserve teams, he batted .254 with 20 RBIs and 3 stolen bases. Park made his first

KBO League The KBO League (), officially the Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League, is the highest level league of baseball in South Korea. The KBO League was founded with six franchises in 1982 and is the most popular sports league in South Korea. The Kia Tigers ar ...

appearance on September 13, 2013, 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 ...

for Choi Hyoung-woo, who had singled, but did not score. In 2014 Park had a breakout season, making 119 appearances as a starting

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 ...

for the Lions, and batting .297 with 31 RBIs and 36 stolen bases. He was ranked fifth overall in stolen bases and third in the 2014 KBO Rookie of the Year Award.

International career

In September 2011, Park 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 ...

for the

2011 Baseball World Cup The 2011 Baseball World Cup (BWC) was the 39th international Men's amateur baseball tournament. The tournament was sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation, which titled it the Amateur World Series from the 1938 tournament through the ...

held in

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

. Park went 3-for-4 in the Team Korea's first game against

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. He hit a game-tying three-run homer off

Darío Veras Darío Antonio Veras (born March 13, 1973) is a former Major League Baseball player. A pitcher, Veras played for the San Diego Padres ( and ) and Boston Red Sox (). Veras attempted a comeback with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2007, but ultimately w ...

in the ninth inning of the Team Korea's last Round 1 game against

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares wit ...

, which ended with a Korea's 5-4 victory. In 2018, he represented

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 ...

at the

2018 Asian Games The 2018 Asian Games ( id, Pesta Olahraga Asia 2018 or ''Asian Games 2018''), officially known as the 18th Asian Games and also known as Jakarta-Palembang 2018 or Indonesia 2018, was a Asia, continental multi-sport event that was held from 18 A ...

References

External links

Career statistics and player information
from the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Park, Hae-min 1990 births Living people Baseball players at the 2018 Asian Games Baseball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Asian Games gold medalists for South Korea Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games Asian Games medalists in baseball KBO League outfielders LG Twins players Samsung Lions players South Korean baseball players Baseball players from Seoul Olympic baseball players for South Korea 2023 World Baseball Classic players