Heung-sik Park

Heung-sik Park (박흥식)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 9", Weight 170 lb.

• School Hanyang University
• High School Shinil High School

• Born January 5, 1962 in Chilgok County South Korea

BR register page

Biographical Information

Heung-sik Park was an Olympic outfielder who played for nine seasons in the Korea Baseball Organization and then coached in the KBO for over 15 years.

Park played for the South Korean national team in the 1983 Intercontinental Cup, 1983 Asian Championship, 1984 Amateur World Series and 1984 Olympics. In the 1984 Amateur World Series, he was 1 for 11 with 3 walks while backing up Jong-doo Lee in right field. He began his pro career with the MBC Blue Dragons in 1985, hitting .238/.347/.324 with 5 triples (tied for third in the league). He batted .255/.324/.302 in 1986 (with a league-high 10 HBP) then had his best season at .300/.390/.392 in 1987. He led the league with 9 triples, ranked 7th in OBP (between Kwang-rim Kim and Yong-cheol Kim), was 8th with 46 walks and was 10th with 15 steals (in 20 tries).

In 1988, he hit .301/.365/.402 then .245/.370/.286 in 1989. The Blue Dragons were replaced by the LG Twins in 1990 and the 28-year-old hit only .245/.370/.286 with 16 steals in 26 attempts. He was 8th with 51 walks. LG won the 1990 Korean Series. Park saw little action (5 for 40, 12 BB) in 1991), hit .224/.331/.324 in 1992 and was 6 for 31 with two doubles and a walk in 1993. He had batted .256/.349/.331 in 660 KBO games, with 73 steals in 118 tries.

Park was hitting coach for the Samsung Lions from 1996 to 2007, winning three Korean Series. He was noted for his work with Seung-yeop Lee. He later coached for the KIA Tigers, Nexen Heroes (hitting coach from 2010-2012), Lotte Giants (hitting coach, 2013-2014) and KIA (hitting coach, 2015-2017). He managed KIA's minor league team in 2018 and was in that role early in 2019 before being promoted to KIA's manager when Ki-tae Kim was let go. He was not retained for 2020, replaced by Matt Williams.

Sources

• Old IBAF site
• KBO page
• Korean Wikipedia