S. Korean slugger Lee Seung-yeop hits record 400th homer

Lee Seung-yeop, the South Korean slugger with the Yomiuri Giants in Japan's professional baseball league, hit two home runs Tuesday to take his career total to 401.

Lee, who bats fourth in the club lineup, smashed an eighth ball off Kei Igawa to the left fence in the bottom of the first inning of the game with the Hanshin Tigers, giving his team a 2-0 lead.

He hit another in the bottom of the ninth to produce a game-ending two-run homer. Yomiuri won the game 4-2.

With the home runs, Lee became the third player in world baseball history to hit his 400th home run before his 30th birthday after Sadaharu Oh, a former player of the Yomiuri Giants, and Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees.

"I am very happy to achieve the record (400th home run)," Lee said in an interview after the game. "I think now is the time to start afresh, and redouble my efforts to play better."

The hitter started his professional career in 1995, sending 324 balls over the fence in Korea League games during eight seasons with the Samsung Lions. He also set the Asian home run record with 56 in a single season.

Becoming a free agent after the 2003 season in Korea, the slugger moved to Japan to play with the Pacific League's Lotte Marines in 2004. But after struggling to adapt to an unfamiliar style of play there, he finished his first season in Japan with 14 homers and a .240 batting average.

Lee, a victim of Lotte's platoon system, was frequently replaced by a right-hand hitter when a left-handed pitcher appeared.

However, after some hard winter training in his home country in the off season, he went back to Lotte with a sharp, compact swing in 2005, and his performance improved a little, with 30 homers and a .260 batting average.

With a total of 44 homers under his belt in Japan during the past two seasons, the slugger started strong this year. He blasted five home runs in the inaugural World Baseball Classic to top the home-run race.

He said in an interview that he owed a huge debt to Giants club manager Tatsunori Hara, who "trusted him and played him as a starter and the heart of the batting order" throughout the games.

With the 400th home run, he is now on the way to challenge other Giants hitting records set by foreign players.

The records for most home runs, 45, set by Tuffy Rhodes, and 112 RBIs by Warren Cromartie, are on the verge of being broken by Lee.

Although his 65 RBIs look to depend on his club's performance, he can possibly set a new record for most RBIs.

With the home-run record, Lee is now causing baseball fans in both Korea and Japan to have higher expectations, and leading Major League Baseball clubs, which rejected him three years ago, to have more interest in him.

Tokyo, Aug. 1 (Yonhap News)