Il-kwan Kim

Il-kwan Kim (김일환)

• Bats Left, Throws Left

• School Sungkyunkwan University
• High School Busan High School

• Born January 11, 1954 in Busan South Korea

BR register page

Biographical Information

Il-kwan Kim played in the Korea Baseball Organization for 8 years.

Kim played for the South Korean national team in the 1978 Amateur World Series. His teammates on the Bronze Medal team included the similarly-named Il-kwon Kim. He impressively reached all five plate appearances with four walks and a hit, scoring once. He had two putouts backing up Bong-yun Kim at first base.

When the KBO was founded in 1982, the Lotte Giants signed him and he recorded a .243/.325/.282 batting line in his first season. Lotte then released him, and the Haitai Tigers picked him up. Kim struggled in 1983 as his batting line was .184/.259/.245, but his batting line was .400 in the 1983 Korean Series and the Tigers beat the MBC Blue Dragons in 5 games. he bounced back with a .274/.341/.333 batting line in 96 games in 1984, then he batted .223/.274/.282 in 1985. Kim slumped to .217/.265/.261 in 1986, and he had a .264/.340/.322 batting line in 1987. The Tigers traded him to the Pacific Dolphins for cash, and he hit .200/.274/.220 in 66 games. Kim was 1-for-11 in 1988, then he announced his retirement.

Overall, Kim hit .240/.309/.289 with 227 hits and 0 homers in 8 seasons in the KBO. His 446 games and 1,075 plate appearances were the most for a player who didn't hit a homer until Han-wool Kang broke it.

Sources

• Namu Wiki