Jun-hwan Kim

Jun-hwan Kim (김준환)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 176 lb.

• High School Gunsan Commercial High School

• Born May 19, 1955 in Wanju County South Korea

BR register page

Biographical Information

Jun-hwan Kim was a 5-time All-Star in the Korea Baseball Organization.

Kim played for the South Korean national team in the 1978 Amateur World Series. The IBAF archives didn't list him on the roster, but other sources did; the IBAF had a "Joon-han Kim" (born 1/25/1955) listed instead - that player was 2-for-11 with two walks, a double and two runs, handling six chances error-free, backing up Hyo-jo Jang in right and Hae-chang Lee in center. When the KBO was founded in 1982, the Haitai Tigers signed him and he recorded a .301/.347/.549 batting line with 19 homers in his first season. He won one of the first KBO Gold Glove awards as an outfielder; Seong-gwan Kim and Seung-gwan Yang were the other initial winners. Kim was 6th in hits (between Jong-do Lee and Bong-yun Kim), 10th in RBI (between Dong-kyun Yun and Jong-mo Kim) and 2nd in homers (tied with former NPB star In-chun Baek). Kim slumped to .249/.308/.362 with 10 homers in 1983, and he recorded a .267/.314/.358 batting line in 1984.

The Wanju native bounced back in 1985, and his batting line was .301/.355/.405 with 5 homers. He ranked 9th in batting, between Soon-chul Lee and Sang-hun Kim). Kim played 42 games with a .274/.326/.417 batting line in 1986, and he struggled in 1987 as his batting line was .204/.265/.281. In the 1987 Korean Series, he hit .500/.625/1.083 with 2 homers, and his 1.708 OPS was the highest in Korean Series history as of 2024. The Tigers swept the Samsung Lions, and Kim was named the Korean Series MVP. He bounced back with a .293/.348/.440 batting line and 11 homers in 1988, then he hit .252/.310/.330 in 1989. Kim announced his retirement after the 1989 season, and he was the batting coach of the Ssangbangwool Raiders from 1990 to 1999. He was also an interim manager of the Raiders in 1999, and he became the bench coach of the SK Wyverns in 2000. Kim later coached Wonkwang University from 2003 to 2016.

Overall, Kim hit .271/.325/.397 with 588 hits and 61 homers in 8 seasons in the KBO.

Sources

• Namu Wiki
• Defunct IBAF site