Hak Ju Lee was one of my favorite Durham Bulls players when I first started writing on this blog. He was a great defensive shortstop with some potential on offense. In 2013, he was the best player in the International League for the first half of April. Hak Ju Lee played his usual great defense while hitting .422 with a .600 slugging percentage. It was like a combination of Ted Williams and Ozzie Smith.
Then Travis Ishikawa slid into him at second base and tore up his knee.
It happens.
Former first overall draft pick Tim Beckham repleaced Hak Ju Lee while he was out with the knee injury. Beckham played well during his first year in Durham and helped spark the team to an International League Championship providing fans with one of the most memorable base running plays of the 2013 season.
Hak Ju Lee was never quite the same when he returned to the Bulls. He got some at-bats, but was never promoted to the Rays. Lee became a fan favorite of sorts around Durham when he returned. It's easy to love a scrappy middle infielder who is trying to overcome a major injury and make it to the Majors. I really enjoyed collecting his cards and picked up quite a few nice ones back in the day.
His time with the Rays ran out and Hak Ju Lee became a Minor League free agent. Lee signed with the Giants before 2016 season and managed to play part of the season for their Triple A team. Then, he just disappeared.
Seriously.
I was looking for him, but he was nowhere to be found.
Well, it turns out that Hak Ju Lee went home to Korea. He sat out a few years, but reappeared in 2019 with the Samsung Lions. He's pretty popular, appearing in a video on YouTube that refers to him as the religious sect leader of the team.
I love Hak Ju Lee too, but maybe something was lost in the translation there. Maybe there's not.
Anyway, way back at the start of the pandemic, I made a list of some Durham Bulls cards that I would like to track down for my collection. The list included a few Hak Ju Lee cards. I was able to find one of them a few weeks back.
This card is from the 2013 Topps Heritage Minors set.
The serial number is in the bottom left corner, only 96 copies of this card produced. The back of the card also mentions his .422 average for the first 15 games of the season in 2013 with the Bulls.
Dang. Seeing that injury is a total bummer. Always gonna wonder what could have been. Glad to hear he revived his career in Korea. Watching that video made me smile. It's awesome that fans in Korea (and Japan) are so involved and interact with the game. I know it happens in the states too, but it seems that across the Pacific they're on a different level of enthusiasm.
ReplyDeleteI wish baseball games in this country had a little bit more of the vibe that games in Asia and the Caribbean have at times. Give me some chants, cheers, musical instruments, etc.
DeleteNever heard of him (big surprise, I know!). Like Fuji said though, it is nice to know that he was able to get back on the field, even if it might not be where he wanted to end up. Do they make cards in SK? If so, maybe you'll be able to find one of his from over there at some point.
ReplyDeleteThere are cards of the KBO. One of the guys on Twitter makes a set every year. I don't want to buy the whole set though, so I will wait until a single pops up on COMC.
DeleteI loved Lee. Thought he was going to be sort of like Iwamura with spark plug hitting and better defense. I was stoked when we got him from the Cubs.
ReplyDeleteI thought he was going to be a Major League player. Bummed out that he never made it.
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