Bum-Ho Lee

I'm going to start trying to catch up on posts I postponed doing as I was doing posts on the cards I got on my trip to Japan (even though I still have a lot of other posts to do about the trip).  One of these postponed posts was for the retirement of KBO star (and brief Fukuoka Softbank Hawk) Bum-Ho Lee.

Lee was a second round pick of the Hanwha Eagles in the 1999 draft out of Daegu High School and made his debut with the team playing shortsop in April of 2000.  His breakout season was 2004 when he hit .308 with 23 home runs and 74 RBIs.  Hanwha moved him to third base in 2005 and he responded by winning Golden Glove awards the next two seasons.  He was named to the Korean National Team for the World Baseball Classic in both 2006 and 2009.

He left Hanwha as a free agent following the 2009 season and signed a two-year contract with the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks.  He didn't have a very good season in NPB, hitting just .226 with 4 home runs in 48 games although he did hit .277 with 10 home runs in 45 games with the ni-gun Hawks.  I'm not sure but I think it was a mutual decision between him and Softbank to let him out of his contract after just the one season and he returned to the KBO for the 2011 season, spurning his old team to sign with the Kia Tigers.

Injuries slowed him down his first two seasons in Gwangju but he led the team with 24 home runs in 2013 and was named team captain for the 2014 season.  His best overall season came in 2016 when he hit .310 with 33 home runs and 108 RBIs.  The highlight of his career, however, was in the 2017 Korean Series when he hit a grand slam in the fifth and deciding game of the Series to help the Tigers to a 7-6 victory (and a 4 games to 1 Series win).  It was his only KBO Championship - he had played in the 2006 KBO Series when Hanwha lost to the Samsung Lions in six games (including one tie).

He announced his retirement in mid-June and played in his last game on July 13th.  He finished his career with 329 home runs which I think is fifth highest in KBO history (although Jeong Choi of SK currently has 328).  He also holds the record for most home runs in the playoffs with 7 and most career Grand Slams (with 17 I think).

His first card is from the "Rookie" insert set of the 2000 Teleca set.  That and his card in the 2005 Hanwha team issued set are the only known cards of him with the Eagles.  He has two cards with the Korean WBC team in the 2009 Konami WBC Heroes set - his regular card and a card for him making the All Tournament Team.  I only know of three Japanese cards for him, all from 2010 - a card in Bandai's Owners League 02 set and BBM's 1st Version and Hawks team sets.  He has another card depicting him with the Hawks in the 2010 KBO Game set.  He's appeared pretty consistently in the KBO sets that have come out since 2014.  Here's the list of his cards from TradingCardDB.com.

Here's a selection of his cards:

2009 Konami WBC Baseball Heroes #W09R130

2010 BBM 1st Version #306

2014 Ntreev Duael Super Star Season 3 #SBC03-017-SS

2015 Ntreev Duael Super Star Season 1 #SBC1501-134-N

2016 SMG Ntreev Baseball's Best Players Forever Ace #PA03-KI004

2017 SCC #SCC-01-KA19/N

2018 SCC KBO Collection 2 Black #SCCR-02B/016 

2019 SCC #SCCR1-19/096