Since the 1982 formation of Korea’s first professional baseball league, 20 batters in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) have announced themselves with a home run in their first at-bat. In the league’s third season, in early April 1984, Seuk-gyu Lee of the Lotte Giants teed up a blast over the wall against Sung-man Jung of the now-defunct Sammi Superstars. The blast came in the second inning in front of the home crowd at Lotte’s former home, the Gudeok Baseball Stadium in Busan.
Lee’s home run was the only first at-bat homer hit during the 1980s, but a new decade brought an influx of power. In August 1992, Chun Yun of the LG Twins homered in his first time up against the Ssangbangwool Raiders in Jeonju. In 1998 the KBO allowed foreign players into the league for the first time. The first great foreign superstar, Tyrone Woods, a former Montreal Expos prospect who reached Triple A in the United States, presaged his tremendous career in Korea by homering in his first at-bat for the OB Bears (now the Doosan Bears) on Opening Day. That same day, Kyung-hwan Cho of the Lotte Giants also homered in his first at-bat in Daegu. Cho hit eight more home runs in 1998, and he turned into a consistent slugger for the Giants and the SK Wyverns, accumulating 131 homers during his KBO tenure.
In 2000, two more foreign players accomplished the feat when Tom Quinlan, who spent parts of four seasons in the US major leagues, and Jim Tatum, a journeyman who last appeared with the New York Mets, each homered on Opening Day April 5, 2000. Tatum’s home run came on the first pitch he ever saw in a Korean regular-season game.
Over the subsequent two decades, the number of first-at-bat home runs grew, with 14 coming between 2001 and 2022. Mendy López of the Samsung Lions in 2004 and Christian Bethancourt of the NC Dinos in 2019 homered upon their arrival in Korea. While López played only a half-season in the KBO, he helped the Samsung Lions to the 2004 Korean Series title by hitting two home runs with a .588 on-base percentage en route to playoff MVP honors. The defense-first catcher Bethancourt, once a highly regarded prospect with the Atlanta Braves, struggled through five seasons in the US major leagues before moving to the KBO for one year. He returned to the major leagues in 2022 with the Oakland A’s and split time in 2024 with the Miami Marlins and Chicago Cubs.
Bethancourt’s home run was one of two in a first at-bat that came off a foreign-born pitcher. The other was hit by then-18-year-old phenom Baek-ho Kang of the KT Wiz against Héctor Noesí in 2018. Arguably the most accomplished Korean player to homer in his first at-bat, Kang hit 29 home runs in his rookie season and hit 121 over his first eight seasons through 2024. Kang also had a robust .307/.388/.494 slash line over that time.
Baek-ho Kang’s first career home run in 2018 (Video: Chan-haeng Lee)
Of the 20 KBO players who homered in their first at-bat, Tyrone Woods went on to hit the most career home runs in the league. Woods’ 174 home runs are also the most by any foreign player in KBO history. Kang, who turned 25 years old in 2024 and starred for the KT Wiz, could hit more than 174 by the time his career is over, which would make him the career leader for those who started their KBO tenure with a homer. At the other end of the spectrum, two players, Young-jin Kwon and Jae-yong Lee, hit homers in their first at-bat and never hit another in the KBO.
— Zac Petrillo
First At-Bat Home Runs
Korea Baseball Organization (KBO)
| Player | Date | Team | City | Inning | First pitch |
Pinch Hitter |
Opening Day |
Opponent | Pitcher | Career HR** |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Seok-gyu Lee | 1984-04-10 | Lotte Giants | Busan | 2 | Sammi Superstars | Sung-man Jung | 2 | |||
| 2. | Chan Yun | 1992-08-23 | LG Twins | Seoul | 2 | Ssangbangwool Raiders | Dong-han Jin | 2 | |||
| 3. | Kyung-hwan Cho | 1998-04-11 | Lotte Giants | Busan | 2 | X | Samsung Lions | Kye-hyeon Cho | 131 | ||
| 4. | Tyrone Woods | 1998-04-11 | OB Bears | Seoul | 2 | X | Hatai Tigers | Dae-jin Lee | 174 | ||
| 5. | Tom Quinlan | 2000-04-05 | Hyundai Unicorns | Suwon | 1 | X | Hanwha Eagles | Yong-duk Han | 65 | ||
| 6. | Jim Tatum | 2000-04-05 | LG Twins | Seoul | 2 | X | X | Lotte Giants | Hyung-kwang Joo | 4 | |
| 7. | Won-guk Song | 2001-06-23 | Doosan Bears | Seoul | 9 | X | X | SK Wyverns | Won-hyeong Kim | 6 | |
| 8. | Il-sang Heo | 2002-04-16 | Lotte Giants | Busan | 8 | Hyundai Unicorns | Jun-ho Jeon | 2 | |||
| 9. | Mendy López | 2004-07-20 | Samsung Lions | Daegu | 1 | Hanwha Eagles | Chang-sik Song | 3 | |||
| 10. | Jun Heo | 2006-10-02 | Hyundai Unicorns | Suwon | 9 | X | Samsung Lions | Byeong-ho Jeon | 4 | ||
| 11. | Young-jin Kwon | 2008-07-08 | SK Wyverns | Incheon | 8 | Samsung Lions | Hyun-keun Cho | 1 | |||
| 12. | Jeong-lip Hwang | 2012-09-14 | Kia Tigers | Gwangju | 12 | X | Lotte Giants | Young-sik Kang | 2 | ||
| 13. | Sung-woo Jo | 2013-03-30 | SK Wyverns | Incheon | 7 | X | X | LG Twins | Sang-yeol Lee | 4 | |
| 14. | Woong-bin Kim* | 2016-07-13 | Nexen Heroes | Seoul | 3 | KT Wiz | Si-hwan Jang | 19 | |||
| 15. | Tae-yeon Kim* | 2007-06-21 | Hanwha Eagles | Daejeon | 2 | X | Nexen Heroes | Jae-young Shin | 27 | ||
| 16. | Baek-ho Kang* | 2018-03-24 | KT Wiz | Suwon | 3 | X | Kia Tigers | Héctor Noesí | 121 | ||
| 17. | Christian Bethancourt | 2019-03-23 | NC Dinos | Changwon | 1 | X | Samsung Lions | Deck McGuire | 8 | ||
| 18. | Yoon-hoo Shin* | 2019-05-15 | Lotte Giants | Busan | 8 | LG Twins | Jung-rak Shin | 4 | |||
| 19. | Jae-yong Lee | 2022-05-06 | NC Dinos | Changwon | 5 | X | LG Twins | Jin-sung Kim | 1 | ||
| 20. | Young-woong Kim* | 2022-09-13 | Samsung Lions | Daegu | 3 | NC Dinos | Myung-gi Song | 31 |
*Players active in 2024.
**Stats through 2024 KBO season.
Sources
The author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Mykbostats.com, and Statiz.Sporki.com.
Photo credits: Kyung-hwan Cho, Tyrone Woods, Tom Quinlan, Baek-ho Kang, Trading Card Database.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Jim Bulley and Dan Kurtz for their research support.