Bong-yun Kim

Bong-yun Kim (김봉연)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 176 lb.

• School Wonkwang University, Yonsei University
• High School Kunsan Commercial High School

• Born January 13, 1952 in Jeonju South Korea

BR register page

Biographical Information

Bong-yun Kim was a top slugger in the first decade of the Korea Baseball Organization.

Kim played for the South Korean national team when they won the 1975 Asian Championship and 1977 Intercontinental Cup; he was also in the 1975 Intercontinental Cup and 1976 Amateur World Series. He started at first in the 1978 Amateur World Series, hitting .250/.341/.306 with 6 runs and 5 RBI in 10 games, playing error-free ball. Only Jae-bak Kim had more runs for South Korea and only Il-kwon Kim drove in more. South Korea won a Bronze, their first Amateur World Series medal. He also was with them in the 1980 Amateur World Series, 1981 World Games and 1981 Intercontinental Cup, winning Silver in the Amateur World Series and World Games.

He hit .331 and slugged .636 in the KBO's first season, 1982, while going deep 22 times in 74 games. He won the first KBO home run title. In '83, he fell to .280 and slugged .552, with 22 homers and 59 RBI in 80 games. He finished five homers behind leader Man-soo Lee. He then starred in the 1983 Korean Series, hitting .474 with 8 RBI to lead his Haitai Tigers to victory. He was named Korean Series MVP.

Kim batted only .249 in 1984, while slugging .452 and going deep 17 times. In '85, he hit .253/?/.449 with another 17 homers. Bong-yun batted .300 and slugged .514 while leading the KBO in both homers (21, the lowest total to lead the league in its first 25 years) and RBI (67). He won a Gold Glove at DH.

In 1987, Kim faded to .271/?/.369 with only six homers, then .257/?/.358 with five home runs at age 36 in 1988, then retired. Overall, he had hit .278 and slugged .478 in 630 KBO games, with 310 runs, 110 homers and 334 RBI.

Kim went back to get a master's at Wonkwang University and became a professor at Far East University in 2002.

Sources

• Defunct IBAF site
• Chinese Baseball Wiki
• Korean Wikipedia entry