Lee Seung-yeop, 54th Home Run

˝Thank you, Jung-soo, and Song-jung!˝ `Lion King` Lee Seung-yeop has finally hit his 54th homerun.

On September 21, during the game against LG, at his home stadium in Daegu, Lee, who had only 3 more homeruns to go to break the Asian record but had been in a slump recently, hit a run at his first bat, and then hit the straight ball just over the left pole, recording a solo homerun at the 3rd, when his team was winning 3:0.

Lee, who became the Korean Homerun King on September 30 1999, recorded this year`s 54th homerun 9 days earlier than in 1999, and had hit this 54th after 9 games and 40 bats of silence, since his 53rd homerun on September 10, at the game against Hanhwa.

Now that he is expected to hit 58 homeruns this season, Lee has only 2 more homeruns to go in 10 remaining games, in order to renew the Asian record of 55 homeruns, by Sadaharu Oh (1964), T. Rhodes (2001) and Alex Cabrera (2002).

With the current pace of 0.44 homeruns per game, there is a high possibility of the 56th homerun being hit during the away game in Sajik against Lotte, on September 27.

Today`s homerun is said to be the result of help from Shim Jung-soo of Hyundai and Lee`s wife Lee Song-jung.

Shim Jung-soo always threatened Lee of catching up, urging Lee to hit another homerun. While Lee was caught in a slump for the recent 8 games, Shim almost caught up with Lee, hitting 5 homeruns in a row, including the 2 on September 20 against Lotte, urging Lee to do better.

Lee`s wife played a role as his batting coach. Lee Song-jung, who collect all articles with her husband`s name in it, recently advised Lee to ˝push the ball when hitting,˝ after reading an article that stated that Lee even pulls the balls heading outside, due to his nervousness.

Whether it is a coincidence, Lee happened to have pushed the ball along the route it was coming, which ultimately recorded a homerun.

Hwan-Soo Zang zangpabo@donga.com