Lee Dae-ho (41) visited the Softbank Hawks home stadium for the first time in eight years.
His old colleague who greeted him most warmly was Yana Kita Yuki (35, Softbank), a Japanese hitting master.
Lee Dae-ho played an active part in Softbank in 2014 and 2015, contributing to the team’s two consecutive years of winning the championship. He appeared in 144 games in 2014, posting a batting average of 0.300, 19 home runs, and 68 RBIs for an OPS of 0.816. In 2015, he had a batting average of 0.282, 31 home runs, and 98 RBIs with an OPS of 0.892 in 141 games. In particular, Lee Dae-ho won the MVP in the 2015 Japan Series with a batting average of 0.500, 2 home runs and 8 RBIs.
Lee Dae-ho will stand in front of Japanese fans on the 28th after a long time. Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) Softbank and Chiba Lotte Marines attend a Softbank club event prior to the match. Before the game, Lee Dae-ho throws the first pitch at a ceremony commemorating the 85th anniversary of Softbank.
Lee Dae-ho visited the Fukuoka PayPay Dome, the home ground of Softbank, the day before the club event. Before the Softbank-Chiba Lotte match, Lee Dae-ho was reunited with familiar faces. During his first year at Lee Dae-ho, he talked with former Softbank head coach Koji Akiyama, who led Softbank, and Softbank hitting coach Yuya Hasegawa, a former teammate of Lee Dae-ho.
Lee Dae-ho and his former teammates who enjoyed the glory of winning are still on the ground in Softbank uniforms. Yanagita and Akira Nakamura, who now lead the team as veterans, welcomed Lee Dae-ho’s visit and shook hands. Lee Dae-ho delivered a message of encouragement with a bright smile.
What caught my attention was the conversation between Lee Dae-ho and Yanagita. Yanakita is a Softbank ‘one-club man’ and a star with 20 homers for three consecutive years and a batting average of 30% seven times. Last year, during the Lee Dae-ho All-Star Game retirement tour, Yanakita sent a congratulatory video.토토사이트
Yanakita is also widely known as Kiwoom Heroes’ role model Lee Jung-hoo. Recently, Lotte Giants prospect Kim Min-seok said that he watched many videos of Yanakita.
Lee Dae-ho asked Yanagita’s long hair, “Did you grow your hair?”, and Yanagita replied, “Korean style” and laughed. Lee Dae-ho and Yanagita had a good time chatting for a while.