Park Jong-ho (; born 27 July 1973) is a retired South Korean second baseman who played 17 seasons in the

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 ...

. He was a

switch hitter In baseball, a switch hitter is a player who bats both right-handed and left-handed, usually right-handed against left-handed pitchers and left-handed against right-handed pitchers. Characteristics Right-handed batters generally hit better aga ...

, and threw

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 ...

. Park was the first switch hitter to win a

batting Batting may refer to: *Batting (baseball), the act of attempting to hit a ball thrown by the pitcher with a baseball bat, in order to score runs *Batting (cricket), the act of defending one's wicket with the cricket bat while attempting to score ru ...

title in KBO history.

Professional career

Upon graduation from Seongnam High School, Park made his KBO debut in 1992 with the

LG Twins LG Corporation (or LG Group) (), formerly Lucky-Goldstar from 1983 to 1995 (Korean: ''Leokki Geumseong''; ), is a South Korean multinational conglomerate founded by Koo In-hwoi and managed by successive generations of his family. It is ...

. He finished his first KBO season batting .192 with 14 hits and 7 RBIs. After the mediocre rookie season, Park became a fixture in second base for the Twins in 1993 when he finished with a .263 batting average, 6 home runs and 33 RBIs. In 1994, Park batted .260, hit 6 home runs, drove in 56 runs and stole a career-high 21 bases, playing in 105 games as a starting second baseman. He helped his team to clinch

Korean Series The Korean Series is the final championship series of the KBO League. It has been held since the KBO League's first season in and is the final series of the post-season play-offs. From to 2013, the winner of the Korean Series went on to play in ...

title 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 ...

at second base. Prior to the 1998 season, Park was traded to 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 1999, Park hit his first .300 batting average (.301) in his pro career, amassing a career-high 10 home runs and 55 RBIs. In 2000, Park finished with a .340 average, becoming the first player to win a

title as a

. After the season, he won his second Golden Glove award as well. In August, Park was part of 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 ...

that won the bronze medal at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

. In 2004, his first year 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 ...

, Park won his third and final Golden Glove Award at second base.

References

External links

Career statistics
from

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 ...

Jong-Ho Park at databaseOlympics.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Park, Jong-ho Baseball players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for South Korea Olympic baseball players for South Korea LG Twins coaches Samsung Lions players Hyundai Unicorns players LG Twins players KBO League second basemen South Korean baseball coaches South Korean baseball players 1973 births Living people Olympic medalists in baseball Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics