Seong-rae Kim

Seong-rae Kim (김성래)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 0", Weight 198 lb.

• School Yonsei University
• High School Kyeongbuk High School

• Born December 3, 1961 in Uiseong County, South Korea

BR register page

Biographical Information

Seong-rae Kim played in the Korea Baseball Organization for 17 years and won a MVP.

Kim was drafted by the Samsung Lions in the first round of the 1984 KBO draft, and he was primarily put in the minors in his rookie year. He only played 40 games with a .186/.290/.271 batting line with the big club. Since the Lions already had star shortstop Dae-seok Oh, Kim was turned into a second baseman in 1985 KBO, and he hit .283/.390/.467 with 13 homers. He won his first KBO Gold Glove in 1986 as a second baseman, and his batting line was .288/.362/.427 in 102 games. He attended the KBO All-Star Game in both of these two seasons.

The Uiseong native had a huge improvement in 1987, and he hit .332/.413/.569 with 22 homers. He led the league in homers (four ahead of Man-soo Lee); he also ranked 4th in batting (.055 behind Hyo-jo Jang), 3rd in RBI (6 behind Man-soo Lee) and 8th in hits (11 behind Jeong-hun Lee). He was the only second baseman to led the KBO in homers as of 2023. He also attended the All-Star Game, and won another Gold Glove. Kim was still solid in 1988, and he hit .350/.459/.519 with 10 homers. He ranked 2nd in batting (.004 behind Sung-han Kim) and 8th in hits (21 behind Seong-han Kim). However, he had a collision with his teammate Sung-han Kim, and he tore his right ACL. Thus, he only played 39 games the next season after coming back.

The injury took away Kim's speed, and he also struggled at batting. What's worse, talented second baseman Ki-woong Kang joined the team, and Kim lost his spot. He only hit .199/.303/.348 in 1990, and he even slumped to .157/.328/.353 in 1991. He underwent another knee surgery in 1991, and the Lions moved him to the outfield. Kim bounced back in 1992, and he hit .292/.392/.496 with 11 homers.

Kim had his career year in 1993 as a first baseman, and he hit .301/.395/.544 with 28 homers. He led the league in homers (five ahead of Jun-hyeok Yang) and RBI (one ahead of Yang), ranked 3rd in hits (16 behind Hyung-suk Kim) and 5th in batting (.04 behind Yang). He won the Gold Glove as a first baseman, and won the KBO MVP. However, that was his last star season, and his batting line declined to .246/.395/.442 in 1994. He only played 66 games combined in the next two seasons, and the Lions released him after he hit .162/.262/.297 in 1996.

The Ssangbangwool Raiders signed him, and Kim hit .256/.348/.410 in 1997. The veteran was still productive, as he hit .231/.314/.378 in 1998 and had a .272/.363/.405 batting line in 1999. He only played 29 games in 2000, then Kim announced his retirement after he collected his 1,000th hit. After retiring, he was a coach for the SK Wyverns from 2001 to 2009, and became the batting coach for the Lions from 2011 to 2012. He was the bench coach for the Lions from 2013 to 2016, and coached the Hanwha Eagles from 2017 to 2020. He was also a coach for the South Korea national baseball team in the 2007 Baseball World Cup.

Overall, Kim hit .278/.376/.451 with 1,008 hits and 147 homers in 17 seasons in KBO.

Sources

• Namu wiki