Kwang-rim Kim

Kwang-rim Kim (김광림)

• Bats Left, Throws Left
• Height 5' 8", Weight 171 lb.

• School Korea University
• High School Gongju High School

• Born March 9, 1961 in Daejeon South Korea

BR register page

Biographical Information

Kwang-rim Kim is a former KBO batting champion.

Kim was a first-round pick of the OB Bears in 1984. He hit .245/.296/.344 as a rookie and improved to .309/.333/.352 in 1985. The outfielder steadily won more playing time, batting .246/.323/.297 in 305 plate appearances in 1986 and .328/.403/.412 in 397 in 1987. He made league leaderboards for the first time that year, finishing 6th in average and OBP, tied for 2nd in runs (7 behind Kwang-eun Lee), was 7th in hits (117), tied for 2nd in triples (7) and tied for 10th in walks (42).

In 1988, he produced at a .312/.372/.424 clip. He tied for third in doubles (21). He slumped to .275/.333/.365 in 1989, tying for 4th with five triples. He had a rough time of it in 1990 (.165/.243/.245). He rebounded nicely in 1991 at .308/.372/.418; he was 9th in average and stole 20 bases in 26 tries to tie for 9th. He dropped to .287/.340/.352 in 1992 but hit .300/.359/.377 in 1993. He was 6th in average and 6th in hits (129, between Jun-hyeok Yang and Ki-woong Kang). He won a KBO Gold Glove, which in the KBO goes to the top overall player at each position, not just being a defense-only award. He joined Jun-ho Jeon and Soon-chul Lee as the Gold Glove outfielders that year.

The veteran was then traded with Dong-chang Choi to the Ssangbangwool Raiders for starter Gil-ryong Kang in an attempt for the Bears to beef up their pitching. He hit only .240/.311/.330 in 1994. The 34-year-old had his career year in 1995 with a batting line of .337/.406/.432. He won the batting title, was among the OBP top-10 and tied Jeon for third in hits. He won his second and final Gold Glove, alongside Jeon and Sang-ho Kim. He hit .303/.368/.385 for his final .300 season in 1996; as usual, his offense was driven by singles and triples. He made the leaders in average (7th), runs (tied for 6th with 69), triples (6, tied for 2nd, 3 behind Jeon) and hits (136, 7th, between Seung-yeop Lee and Soo-keun Jung). That was his final time on the leader lists. He also won the KBO All-Star Game MVP.

He was dealt to the Hyundai Unicorns for Yeong-Su Kang and Ui-sik Kong , hitting .292/.363/.379 in 1997 and .255/.347/.352 in 1998. Returning to the Raiders for his final season, he eked out a .229/.298/.264 line to finish his career at .285/.351/.369 with 50 triples, 170 steals (in 271 tries) and 619 runs in 1,638 games.

Kim later was an announcer and coach. He coached the Doosan Bears from 2004 to 2011 and NC Dinos from 2013 and 2016. He was the batting coach of the KT Wiz in 2017