Pro Baseball: SK’s Park Kyung-wan Stretches His Hitting Streak to 31 Games

“Heavy arms, light bat.”

Park Kyung-wan of the SK Wyverns, who has hit his way to the homerun championship as a catcher for the first time since Lee Man-soo of the Samgung Lions did it 15 years ago, continues his hitting streak as the “legendary Chinese monk” hitting power of the 32-year-old reaches a crescendo.

In SK’s game against the Doosan Bears on April 11, Park hit a two-run homerun against Bears ace Son Hyuk in the first inning in which the Wyverns led the Bears 2-0 with two outs and one run. Park, who hit homeruns in the first four games of the season, hit a three-run homerun that reversed the game in the third inning and a home run that decided the game in the sixth inning.

With seven homeruns in eight games, Park is leading the homerun race with Troy O`Leary and Park Han-yi, who both have hit four homeruns so far, in distant second. Lee Seung-yup, who broke the Asian homerun record last year with 56 homeruns in a single season, managed to hit his first seven homeruns of the season on May 4, 24 days after the season opener.

Park’s stiff hitting curve is critical to his powerful batting, dubbed as his “legendary Chinese monk” swing. Throughout the winter, he concentrated on weight training. He’s also taking advantage of a lighter 870-880g bat. He has become more powerful, but his bat has become lighter. His bat speed has improved conspicuously.

The Wyverns, although swayed by finisher Lee Sang-hoon’s underperformance, held on as game opener Je Choon-mo did not give up a score until the seventh inning with two walks and two hits. Two closers, Chung Dae-hyun and Shin Seung-hyun, sealed the game 5-1 against the Bears, who managed to score with a homerun in the ninth inning by Kim Dong-joo.

In Daejon, in a game between the Samsung Lions and the Hanhwa Eagles, Park Jong-ho of the Samsung Lions hit in his 31st consecutive game of the season, tying the record set by Park Jeong-tae in 1999.

Park ended the first inning with a ground ball to the shortstop, and reached in the fourth inning on an error by the second baseman. However, with a single homerun in the sixth inning, he extended his hitting streak, which he started as a Hyundai Unicorns hitter last year, to 31 games.

In the U.S. Major League Baseball, Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees hit safely in 56 consecutive games in 1941. In Japan, Takahashi Yoshihiko hit safely in 33 consecutive games in 1979.

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The Lions, initially boosted by Kang Dong-woo’s three-run homerun in the fourth inning, beat the Eagles, 9:5 with two additional homeruns by Park Han-yi and Troy O’Leary.

Hwan Soo Zang zangpabo@donga.com