In-ho Baek

In-ho Baek (백인호)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 8", Weight 170 lb.

• School Dongguk University
• High School Kunsan Commercial High School

• Born May 19, 1963 in Kunsan South Korea

BR register page

Biographical Information

In-ho Baek played for 12 years in the Korea Baseball Organization.

Baek hit .316/.350/.395 with a team-high 6 RBI as the main 2B (fielding .979) for the South Korean national team in the 1984 Amateur World Series; only Ki-woong Kang had a better average for the Korean squad. He was with South Korea in the 1984 Olympics, 1985 Asian Championship, 1985 Intercontinental Cup and 1986 Amateur World Series as well; South Korea won the Silver Medal in the latter three events.

The Haitai Tigers picked the Kunsan native in the first round of the 1987 KBO draft. He hit .272/.316/.361 as a rookie in 1987, stealing 21 bases in 25 tries, while playing primarily SS for the 1987 Korean Series champs. During the regular season, he was 6th in steals, between Jung-hoon Lee and Kwang-soo Kim. Baek hit .261/.337/.364 and went 14-for-19 in steals in the 1988 KBO and the Tigers won the 1988 Korean Series.

In 1989, the infielder hit .266/.351/.340 but only stole 11 bases in 28 tries. Only Il-kwon Kim was caught stealing more but he had just 5 more times caught while having 51 more successful swipes. He also did tie Sun-cheol Lee for 8th with 58 runs scored. Haitai won the 1989 Korean Series.

In-ho had a career year in 1990, producing at a .297/.403/.424 clip. He was among the league leaders in average (8th), walks (7th, 53) and OBP (3rd behind Dae-hwa Han and Chan-yeop No). Former Olympic teammate Ki-woong Kang won the Golden Glove as the top overall second baseman in the league. Moving to right field, he hit .232/.325/.296 in 1991 but did steal 18 bases in 25 tries. He did not play in 1992.

Moving to the Ssangbangwool Raiders for 1993, Baek batted only .200/.289/.210 in 40 games as a backup outfielder. He rebounded to .281/.334/.388 in 1994 but he would not become a regular infielder again and was no longer a base-stealing threat (9 SB in his final seven years). He hit .244/.309/.352 in 1995 and .232/.333/.320 in 49 games in 1996.

Returning to the Tigers, he batted .245/.322/.321 in 62 games in 1997 and Haitai won the 1997 Korean Series. Baek hit .278/.319/.391 in 70 games in 1998 and .240/.321/.240 in 27 contests in 1999 to end his playing career.

In 953 KBO games, Baek had hit .260/.338/.352 with 40 HR, 329 R, 270 RBI and 82 steals in 125 tries.

After his playing career ended, Baek became a coach for Jeongju High School (1999) and for the Tigers (now the KIA Tigers) from 2001 to 2007, the Nexen Heroes in 2008-2009 and then KIA again starting in 2010.

Sources

• KBO player page
• Old IBAF site
• Korean Wikipedia entry