Hyuk Kang

Hyuk Kang (강혁)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 11", Weight 179 lb.

• School Hanyang University
• High School Shinil High School

• Born August 25, 1974 in Seoul South Korea

BR register page

Biographical Information

Hyuk Kang was an Olympic outfielder.

Kang played for the South Korean national team when they won the Silver Medal in the 1994 Asian Games. In the 1994 Baseball World Cup, he hit .250/.310/.278 as Korea's starting right fielder. In the Gold Medal game, he went 1 for 4 in a loss to Cuba and Lazaro Valle. He was in the 1995 Asian Championship (Korea won the Silver Medal) and 1995 Intercontinental Cup, hitting .250/.344/.393 as the Korean first baseman in the latter event.

Hyuk was Korea's most-used first baseman (26 innings) and right fielder (32 2/3 innings) in the 1996 Olympics. In the Atlanta Games, he hit .429/.467/.679 with a team-high 7 runs and 6 RBI (tied for the lead with Pil-sun Kang and Byung-kyu Lee); he led the team in OPS as well. He did very well against the big powers, going 3 for 4 with 3 runs and 2 RBI in a loss to Cuba and taking Seth Greisinger deep and scoring twice in a loss to Team USA.

Kang also powered the Korean attack in the 1998 Baseball World Cup, putting up a .333/.409/.667 line with four homers and 10 RBI in ten games. He tied Oscar Machado for fourth in the event in dingers, one behind co-leaders Chin-Feng Chen, Alessandro Flisi and Orestes Kindelan. Kang went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts as Korea's #3 batter in the 7-1 Gold Medal game loss to Cuba's Jose Contreras. He also won the Gold at the 1998 Asian Games. Overall, he had gotten four Silvers and one Gold in international competition.

Turning pro, Kang joined the Doosan Bears in 1999 and went 3 for 20 with three walks and two doubles. In 2000, he hit .266/.325/.380 in his only season as a starter, manning first base for Doosan. He moved to the SK Wyverns in 2001 and batted .253/.326/.406 in 57 games. Down to 31 games as a bench player in '02, he hit .149/.184/.192. He recovered in 2003 to bat .294/.351/.396 as a good part-time performer. In 2004, Kang hit .191/.252/.235 in 88 games. He served in the military in 2005 and 2006, then returned to go 0 for 7 with four walks in 2007, his last year.

Kang had batted .250/.314/.356 in 1,035 plate appearances and 428 games in the Korea Baseball Organization.

Sources

• Defunct IBAF site
• KBO stats at statiz.co.kr
• Chinese Wiki Baseball
• Korean Wikipedia entry
• KBO Player Page