Park Yong-taik

Park Yong-taik (; born April 21, 1979) is a South Korean outfielder who played his entire career for the LG Twins in the KBO League. With 2,504 career hits, he was the all-time career hit leader in the KBO. He batted left-handed and throws right-handed.

Amateur career Park attended Whimoon High School in Seoul, South Korea. In , he was selected for the South Korea national junior team that finished in fourth place at the World Junior Baseball Championship in Havana, Cuba.

Upon graduation from high school in , Park entered Korea University instead of turning pro directly.

In , his sophomore year at Korea University, he made his first appearance for the South Korea national baseball team in the Intercontinental Cup held in Sydney, Australia.

In , Park competed in the Asian Baseball Championship in Taiwan. South Korea won the silver medal, and Park was selected to the All-Star team as an outfielder.

Notable international careers YearVenueCompetitionTeamIndividual noteWorld Junior Baseball Championship 4thIntercontinental Cup 7thAsian Baseball Championship Image:Silver medal icon.svgAll-Star (OF)

Professional career Signed by the LG Twins, Park made his KBO League debut on April 2. In the 2002 KBO season, he batted .288 which was the highest batting average among the rookie players.

In , He had a .300-plus batting average for the first time (.300), amassing 16 home runs and 58 RBIs.

Park was well known as a base-stealing cleanup hitter. While batting fourth in the order of his team since his rookie season, he stole 40-plus bases in two seasons ( and ), and won the stolen base title with a career-high 43 in 2005. and hit 18 home runs. On December 11, 2009, he won the Golden Glove Award as an outfielder.

In 2012, Park received another Golden Glove award.

From 2009 to 2018, Park hit over .300 every season. From 2013 and until 2017, and despite playing in his mid- to late-thirties, Park batted over .320 and reached at least 150 hits in each season, and was widely regarded as one of the best contact hitters in the KBO. With 2,439 career hits at the end of 2019, he is the all-time career hit leader in the KBO,

Strongest Baseball