Park Yong-taik

Park Yong-taik (Hangul: 박용택, Hanja: 朴龍澤) (born April 21, 1979) is a South Korean outfielder who has played his entire career for the LG Twins in the Korea Baseball Organization. With 2,504 career hits, he is the all-time career hit leader in the KBO. He bats left-handed and throws right-handed.

In this Korean name, the family name is Park.
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 2020)
Batting average.308
Hits2,504
Home runs213
RBI1,192
Stolen bases313
Teams
Career highlights and awards
  • All-time hit leader
  • 4x Golden Glove Award (2009, 2012, 2013, 2017)
  • 1x stolen base title (2005)
  • 1x runs scored title (2005)
  • 1x batting title (2009)

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 fourth 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 fourth 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.[1]

In 2006, Park was called up to the South Korea national baseball team for the inaugural World Baseball Classic. He appeared in four 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 two 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[1] and hit 18 home runs. On December 11, 2009, he won the Golden Glove Award as an outfielder.[2]

In 2012, Park received another Golden Glove award.[3]

From 2009 to 2018, Park hit over .300 every season.[4] 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 was widely regarded as one of the best contact hitters in the KBO. With 2,439 career hits at the end of 2019,[5] he is the all-time career hit leader in the KBO,[4] having over-taken Yang Joon-hyuk's mark of 2,318 total hits.

Before the 2020 season, he declared that he would retire after the season.[6][5]

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. KIM HYO-KYUNG. "Pushing 40, LG Twins’ Park Yong-taik proves that age is no obstacle," Korea JoongAng Daily (August 28, 2016).
  2. (in Korean) KIA, GG 수상자 4명 배출…최다득표 김현수(종합)
  3. Kim, Soojung. "박용택 골든글러브 외야수 부분 수상". Retrieved 2012-12-12.
  4. Wolfe, Tony. "Buried in the LG Twins’ Lineup, a Korean Baseball Great," FanGraphs (May 14, 2020).
  5. KIM HYO-KYUNG, KANG YOO-RIM. "Hitting legend Park just wants one title," Korea JoongAng Daily (January 10, 2020).
  6. "[풀카운트] '은퇴 예고' 박용택, 웃으며 떠날까?". sports.news.naver.com (in Korean). Retrieved 2020-06-15.
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