Jung Soo-Keun (; born January 20, 1977, in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, South Korea) is a retired South Korean

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player who played for the

Doosan Bears The Doosan Bears () are a South Korean professional baseball team based in Seoul. Founded in 1982, they are a member of the KBO League. The Bears have won six Korean Series titles (1982, 1995, 2001, 2015, 2016, and 2019) and play their home game ...

and

Lotte Giants The Lotte Giants () are a South Korean professional baseball, professional baseball team based in Busan. They are a member of the KBO League. The Lotte Giants are owned by Lotte Corporation. From 1982 through 1985, they played at Gudeok Baseball ...

of the

Korea Baseball Organization The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO; ) is the Sport governing body, governing body for the professional leagues of baseball in South Korea. The KBO was founded in 1981 and has governed two leagues: the KBO League () and KBO Futures League ( (F ...

. Jung won four consecutive

stolen base In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base unaided by other actions and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe or out ...

s titles (-) in the

KBO The KBO League () is a professional baseball league in South Korea. The league comprises ten teams. The KBO League was founded with six franchises in 1982 and is the most popular sports league in South Korea. The Kia Tigers are the most success ...

league. Over his career he compiled 474 stolen bases, a .280 batting average and 866 runs in 1544 games. His 474 stolen bases rank 4th behind Jeon Jun-Ho,

Lee Jong-Beom Lee Jong-beom (; born August 15, 1970) is a former South Korean professional baseball player who played for the Kia Tigers (formerly the Haitai Tigers) in the KBO League and the Chunichi Dragons in Japan from 1998 to 2001. He is nicknamed "Son ...

, and Lee Dae-hyung.

Professional career

In , Jung was part of the

South Korea national baseball team The South Korean national baseball team (), also known as the Blue Wave (), is the national baseball team of South Korea. It has participated in every edition of the World Baseball Classic (WBC), reaching the finals in 2009, and won the WBSC Pre ...

which won the bronze medal in the baseball tournament of the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Notable international careers

Legal troubles

In February 2003, Jung was arrested in

Honolulu Honolulu ( ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the Pacific Ocean. It is the county seat of the Consolidated city-county, consolidated City and County of Honol ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

, on charges of battery after slashing two men in a Korean restaurant when he was joining the

spring training camp. On July 26, 2004, Jung was arrested on assault charges for hitting a man with a baseball bat in Haeundae-gu, Busan. He was arrested again on July 16, 2008, for allegedly punching two security guards and a policeman in Busan. On August 31, 2009, Jung was involved in an altercation at a

Karaoke is a type of interactive entertainment system usually offered in nightclubs and bars, where people sing along to pre-recorded accompaniment using a microphone. Its musical content is an instrumental rendition of a well-known popular song. I ...

club in

Busan Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economi ...

. The police was dispatched to the site after receiving a report that he was half-naked, intoxicated and swearing in a karaoke room, but Jung was not arrested. However, due to the controversy, he was released from the

on September 1, 2009. On September 15, 2009, Jung made an official announcement as to his retirement. At approximately 4:40 a.m. on June 13, 2010, Jung was involved in a car crash at the intersection in front of Renaissance Seoul Hotel in Seoul where his

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

car crashed into another car. Because his breathalyzer test revealed a blood alcohol level of 0.12 percent, authorities arrested Jung at the scene for misdemeanor drunk driving.

External links

* Career statistics and player information fro
the KBO official website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jung, Sookeun Baseball players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for South Korea Olympic baseball players for South Korea Lotte Giants players Doosan Bears players KBO League center fielders 1977 births Living people Olympic medalists in baseball Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Baseball players from Seoul