For Lee Dae-ho, the veteran Lotte Giants slugger, his baseball career will end at age 40 this year. But he has been playing as if he still had so much left in him and he could be competitive for a couple more years in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO).
At every turn, Lee has insisted that he will not alter his plans to retire after this season. But if he continues to swing the bat like he has recently, Lee’s retirement will lead to a major “what if” question: What if Lee had decided to keep playing a little longer? Would the Giants then win their first Korean Series title since 1992?
For now, Lee is just trying to enjoy the ride. After going 4-for-5 with a home run and three RBIs in Wednesday’s 12-5 win over the SSG Landers, Lee climbed back into the lead in batting average with .350.
Lee has won three batting titles in his KBO career, which began in 2001, with stops in Japan and in Seattle from 2012 to 2016. If Lee can hold off the likes of the reigning batting champ Lee Jung-hoo, he will become the oldest player to lead the KBO in batting average.
Lee Dae-ho also set a couple of personal milestones on Wednesday.
His single in the third inning made Lee just the fourth player with 100 or more hits in 14 consecutive seasons. The two-run blast in the sixth inning was his 10th homer of the season, as Lee became the eighth player to reach double figures in home runs in 14 seasons in a row.
“I have not been paying attention to those numbers, but it’s great to take care of two streaks in the same game,” Lee said afterward.
Lee is slugging at a .500 clip, while his on-base percentage is at .385, both marks being his highest since 2018.
Lee, boasting a .405 batting average over his past 10 games, has attributed his strong first-half numbers to luck, and he said he’d rather see the Giants do well than win anything for himself. They are in sixth place at 34-41-3 (wins-losses-ties), three games out of the final postseason spot.
“There are still a lot of games left, and I’d prefer not to talk about individual titles,” Lee told reporters before Tuesday’s game. “I’ve been putting up good numbers, but I’d like to see the team higher up in the standings. Hopefully, we’ll close out the first half well and build on that in the second half.”
Lee, who was voted as an All-Star Game starter at designated hitter earlier this week, reiterated that he is not coming back in 2023.
“I’ve already said I will retire and get out of the way of younger guys. It won’t be right for me to change that plan just because I am hitting well now,” Lee said. “I’ll try to play in as many games as I can in my final season.”
In the opposite dugout for the Landers this week was another veteran turning back the clock, Choo Shin-soo.
Choo, who will turn 40 next Wednesday, and Lee played on the same elementary school team in Busan, and they have been friends ever since. Choo made his KBO debut in 2021 after ending his 16-year career in the majors, and became the oldest player in the South Korean league with a 20-20 season, with 21 home runs and 25 steals.
Despite undergoing elbow surgery last winter, Choo has been no less effective in 2022. He is sitting at 10 home runs with eight steals through 70 games, along with a .272/.406/.441 line, right around last year’s numbers.
This year, Choo is third overall in the KBO in on-base percentage, and no leadoff hitter has gone deep more often than Choo, who has four home runs in his last three games.
That combination of pop and on-base skills is what made Choo an All-Star for the Texas Rangers in 2018. Though Choo lost out to Lee in the All-Star voting at the DH spot, he will still likely earn a spot in the midsummer festivities as a managerial pick.
Compared to his two friends, Samsung Lions closer Oh Seung-hwan, who turns 40 in eight days, is having a quietly effective season himself. After leading the KBO with 41 saves in 2021, he is third this year with 18, while sporting a 2.61 ERA.
Unlike Lee, Choo and Oh have not yet announced plans to retire any time soon.
Source: Yonhap News Agency
