“Permanent 0.300 hitter” Yang hits his 1600th

Hitting .300 even with reversed batting, Samsung’s Yang Joon-hyuk, 35, achieved his marvelous 1600th hit of his career.

Samsung and Doosan played in the 2004 Samsung Securities Cup in Chamsil Stadium on May 2. The team’s 3rd hitter Yang doubled into left field to drive in 2 RBIs as bases were loaded with one out at the top of the 3rd inning when the team was behind 0-3, which marked his 1600th hit.

1600 hits marks second place in the record for total hits, following Hanhwa’s Chang Jong-hoon, but Yang accomplished this in only 1395 games, 286 games less than Chang’s 1738 hits in 1681 games.

Excited from setting the record earlier in the game, Yang doubled again for 1 RBI into right field in the 4th inning, performing superbly with 3 hits and 3 RBIs in 5 at bats. He is the representative left-handed hitter of Korea Pro baseball as he has marked a batting average of over 0.300 for 9 years straight since his rookie season, 1993.

Meanwhile the starting pitcher of Samsung, Roh Jang-jin pitched well with just 6 hits and 3 runs allowed (2 earned runs) to capture his first win of the season. He was caught by manager Kim Eung-riong drunk in the early morning on April 7. Afterwards, he resisted stepping down to the second class team, walked out on the team without permission, and was punished with a 10 million won fine (the highest fine imposed on an individual) and demotion to the second class group. His pitching of the day was kind of an apology.

Samsung won, 7-5, after reversing the game by scoring five runs with the timely hit of Yang and the three-run homer of Jin Kap-yong in the 3rd inning.

In Kunsan, Kia dramatically defeated LG, 6-5, with Son Ji-hwan’s three-run homer over the left-center fence in the bottom of the 8th inning when they were behind 3-5.

Hanhwa edged out Lotte, 2-1, to escape 2 straight losses.

Sang-Soo Kim ssoo@donga.com