Park Yong-taik

Park Yong-taik
LG Twins – No. 33
Outfielder
Born: (1979-04-21) April 21, 1979
Seoul, South Korea
Bats: Left Throws: Right
KBO debut
April 2, 2002, for the LG Twins
KBO statistics
(through 2017)
Batting average .310
Hits 2321
Home runs 201
RBI 1101
Stolen bases 307
Teams
Career highlights and awards

KBO Records

  • 2,321 career hits

Park Yong-taik (Hangul: 박용택, Hanja: 朴龍澤) (born April 21, 1979) is a South Korean outfielder who currently plays for the LG Twins in the Korea Baseball Organization. He bats left-handed and throws right-handed.

Amateur career

Park attended Huimoon High School in Seoul, South Korea. In 1996, he was selected for the South Korea national junior team that finished in 4th place at the World Junior Baseball Championship in Havana, Cuba.

Upon graduation from high school in 1998, Park entered Korea University instead of turning pro directly.

In 1999, his sophomore year at Korea University, he made his first appearance for the South Korea national baseball team in the Intercontinental Cup held in Sydney, Australia.

In 2001, Park competed in the Asian Baseball Championship in Taiwan. South Korea won the silver medal, and Park was selected to the All-Star team as an outfielder.

Notable international careers

Year Venue Competition Team Individual Note
1996  Cuba World Junior Baseball Championship 4th
1999  Australia Intercontinental Cup 7th
2001  Chinese Taipei Asian Baseball Championship All-Star (OF)

Professional career

Signed by the LG Twins, Park made his KBO league debut on April 2, 2002. In the 2002 KBO season, he batted .288 which was the highest batting average among the rookie players.

In 2004, He had a .300-plus batting average for the first time (.300), amassing 16 home runs and 58 RBIs.

Park was well known as a base-stealing cleanup hitter. While batting 4th in the order of his team since his rookie season, he stole 40-plus bases in two seasons (2003 and 2005), and won the stolen base title with a career-high 43 in 2005.

In 2006, Park was called up to the South Korea national baseball team for the inaugural World Baseball Classic. He appeared in 4 games as a pinch hitter, going 1-for-4 with one RBI. In Team Korea's second game of Round 1 against China, Park hit a RBI triple to drive in Lee Bum-Ho as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the seventh.

In 2008, Park fell into a horrendous slump. He batted a career-low .257 with a career-low 2 home runs, missing 30 games due to injuries.

In 2009, Park had his best career in batting average. He won the KBO batting title with a career-high .372 average and hit 18 home run. On December 11, 2009, he won the Golden Glove Award in outfielder nomination.[1]

In 2012, Park got a golden glove award.[2]

From 2013 and until 2017, and despite playing in his mid to late thirties, Park batted over .320 and reached at least 150 hits in each season, and is widely regarded as one of the best contact hitters in the KBO. With 2225 career hits at the end of the 2017, and with no immediate plans for retirement, Park is expected to overtake Yang Joon-hyuk as the all-time career hit leader in the KBO. To do so, he would need to best Yang's mark of 2318 total hits. Park has passed Yang Joon-Hyuk with hit #2319 in June 2018 to become the new career hits leader in South Korean Baseball.

Awards and honors

  • 2009 Golden Glove Award (Outfielder)
  • 2012 Golden Glove Award (Outfielder)
  • 2013 Golden Glove Award (Outfielder)

Achievements

  • 2005 Stolen Base Title
  • 2005 Runs Leader Title
  • 2009 Batting Champion Title

Notable international careers

Year Venue Competition Team Individual Note
2006  United States World Baseball Classic .250 BA (1-for-4), 1 RBI

See also

References

  1. ↑ (in Korean) KIA, GG 수상자 4명 배출…최다득표 김현수(종합)
  2. ↑ Kim, Soojung. "박용택 골든글러브 외야수 부분 수상". Retrieved 2012-12-12.
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