Ho-seong Lee (01)

Ho-seong Lee (이호성)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 175 lb.

• School Yonsei University
• High School Gwangju Jeil High School

• Born July 17, 1967 in Suncheon South Korea
• Died March 10, 2008 in Han River South Korea

BR register page

Biographical Information

Ho-seong Lee was a top outfielder in the Korea Baseball Organization for a few years, but his life ended as a murder-suicide.

Lee was drafted by the Chungbo Pintos in the second round of the 1987 draft but did not sign. He played for the South Korean national team in the 1989 Intercontinental Cup and tied for first in the 1989 Asian Championship. The Haitai Tigers took him in the first round of the 1990 draft. He hit .304/.395/.460 as a rookie, finishing 7th in the 1990 KBO in average and tied for third in triples (6). He joined two other Lees, Kang-don Lee and Jeong-hoon Lee, in being honored as the top three outfielders in the league. In 1991, he hit .288/.394/.493 and was among the leaders in numerous departments: walks (67, 5th), RBI (84, 3rd, after Jong-hun Jang and Ki-tae Kim), steals (25 in 34 tries, tied for 4th), hits (125, 10th), triples (7, tied for 6th), runs (98, 2nd, 6 behind Jang) and homers (21, 5th). He was again named one of the league's top three outfielders, along with Kang-don Lee and Soon-chul Lee.

The Suncheon native fell off a bit, to .278/.392/.449 in 1992. He was still 5th in the KBO in walks (70), 5th in steals (25 in 26 tries) and 9th in runs (78). In 1993, he hit .310/.427/.429 and stole his 23rd base in a row without being caught (dating back to 1992), a new KBO record. In '94, he produced at a .265/.358/.374 clip, with 63 runs (8th in the KBO), 52 walks (7th) and 21 steals (tied for 8th) in 28 tries. Lee continued to fade, batting .249/.307/.400 in 1995 and .258/.310/.359 in 1996.

In 1997, Lee rebounded a bit, hitting .276/.370/.429 and stealing 20 bases in 25 tries. He hit .276/.348/.398 in 1998 and .249/.342/.377 in 1999 then .242/.353/.365 in 2000. He was 4 for 16 with two doubles for the Tigers, now the KIA Tigers, in 2001. That year, he served as President of the Korean Professional Baseball Association.

Overall, Lee had batted .272/.368/.415 with 102 home runs and 167 steals in 222 tries in 1,090 KBO games.

After baseball, Lee began a wedding business, which was not successful. In 2007, he spent two months in jail due to investment fraud regarding real estate. During this time, he separated from his wife. He also began running up debts in horse racing. He got a mistress, Yeon-suk Kim, and began borrowing large sums of money from her. In February 2008, Lee strangled Kim and killed her three daughters as well. When police found out about the deaths and Lee's connections with the family on March 9, Lee drowned himself in the Han River a day later.

Sources

• KBO player page
• Korean Wikipedia entry
• Taiwan Baseball Wiki
• Baseball History Blog
• Baseball Necrology
• KBS World article on Lee