Chu-Ming Lee

Chu-Ming Lee (李居明)
(Mr. Baseball)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 185 lb.

• School Chinese Cultural University
• High School Meiho High School

• Born June 8, 1959 in Tainan City Taiwan

BR register page

Biographical Information

Chu-Ming Lee was a member of the Taiwan national team for almost a decade, including two trips to the Olympics, then played and coached in Taiwan's pro leagues.

Lee debuted in the 1982 Amateur World Series and helped Taiwan finish 4th. In the 1984 Amateur World Series, he hit .333/.386/.487 with 7 runs in 12 games as the starting center fielder for Taiwan. Taiwan won Silver, its first Medal ever in an Amateur World Series. Lee also appeared in the 1984 Olympics. He was with Taiwan for the 1985 Asian Championship, 1985 Intercontinental Cup and 1986 Amateur World Series (when Taiwan won Bronze).

The Tainan native helped Taiwan take home Gold at the 1987 Asian Championship. In the 1987 Intercontinental Cup, Lee led all players in the round-robin phase with 25 hits. He hit .500 and slugged .909 and joined Luis Casanova and Tai-Chuan Chiang on the All-Star outfield. Only Alejo O'Reilly and Orestes Kindelan posted better averages. In the 1988 Baseball World Cup, Lee played flawless defense in center (31 putouts, 1 assist, no errors in 13 games) and hit .271/.296/.500 with 13 RBI in 13 contests. He was also with Taiwan for the 1988 Olympics.

From 1984-1989, Lee had played for the Brother Hotel team. When the Chinese Professional Baseball League was formed, he remained with the club run by that hotel chain, the Brother Elephants. Lee hit .290/.345/.430 in 1990, and he ranked 5th in hits (19 behind I-Tseng Lin). He was also selected into the 1990 CPBL All-Star Game, and he was 2-for-10 with a homer against Yi-Chuan Liu in Game 3. Lee would never missed the event in his 8-year CPBL career. He slumped to .236/.307/.376 with 7 homers in 1991, but he still attended the 1991 CPBL All-Star Games. Lee crushed another homer off Chang-Heng Hsieh in Game 1, and he had a 3-for-7 record in 3 games.

Lee bounced back soon, hitting .291/.344/.431 with 8 homers in 1992. He was 6th in batting (.035 behind Juan Castillo) and 5th in hits (9 behind Min-Ching Lo. He won his first Best Ten as an outfielder along with I-Tseng Lin and Chung-Chiu Lin. He improved to .309/.363/.468 in 1993, ranking 6th in batting (.028 behind Kuei-Chang Tseng), 5th in RBI (12 behind Min-Hsiung Liao) and 7th in hits (12 behind Tseng). He was 4-for-8 with a homer against Fu-Ming Tu in 1993 CPBL All-Star Game 3. Lee played his only Taiwan Series in this season, but he only hit .190/.217/.238. The Brothers still beat the Uni-President Lions in 7 games, and Lee won his only title. He was the first winner of the CPBL Gold Glove as an outfielder, and he also won the Best Ten.

The Mr. Baseball repeat his solid performance in 1994, hitting .350/.387/.483 with 7 homers and a career-high 26 doubles. He was 3rd in batting (.010 behind Angel Gonzalez), 5th in hits (12 behind Luis de los Santos) and 4th in doubles (15 behind Francisco Laureano). He also attended the 1994 CPBL All-Star Game, and he was 1-for-3. He won both Gold Glove and Best Ten again. Lee hit .314/.351/.409 with 15 doubles in 1995, and he was 7th in batting (.040 behind Gonzalez). He slumped to .270/.339/.376 in 1996.

Lee came back as he hit .331/.386/.439 with a career-high 119 hits in 1997, and he won his fourth Best Ten in the CPBL. He was 7th in batting (.042 behind Ted Wood), 5th in hits (20 behind Wood) and 4th in doubles (8 behind Wood). Lee only hit .269/.330/.350 in 1998, then he jumped to the Kaoping Fala of the TML after this season. He recorded a .338/.373/.434 batting line in 1999, and he won the Best Ten. On October 6, 2000, he became the first player in Taiwanese pro baseball history to collect 1,000 career hits. However, his batting line fell to .237/.280/.403 and he announced his retirement. Lee became head coach of the Taipei Gida in 2001 and then coached for the Chianan Braves in 2002. In 2003 and 2004, he ran a cafe. He returned to baseball in 2005, as a batting coach for the Brother Elephants. He became the team's bench coach for 2008. He then coached the EDA Rhinos from 2013 to 2014 and managed their minor league team in 2015.

Overall, Lee hit .297/.349/.413 with 1,000 hits, 187 doubles and 58 homers in 11 seasons in the CPBL.

Sources

• Defunct IBAF site
• 1988, 1995-1996 and 1998-2000 Baseball Almanacs
• Taiwan Baseball Wiki
• CPBL.com Bio
• Chinese Wikipedia entry
• KT Choi's Taiwanese baseball database