Lee Tae-Won (; born March 17, 1986, 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 South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

) is a South Korean former

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the catc ...

for the

NC Dinos The NC Dinos () are a South Korean professional baseball team based in Changwon. They are a member of the KBO League. Since 2019, their home stadium is Changwon NC Park. NC Dinos are owned by video game developer NCSoft Corporation. History On ...

in the

KBO League 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 ...

. He bats and throws

right-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to and causing it to be stronger, faster or more Fine motor skill, dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dext ...

Amateur career

Lee played baseball at Choongam High School in Seoul from 2002 to 2004. Prior to graduation, he was selected in the 2nd round (47th overall) of the 2005 KBO draft by the LG Twins, which was the second-highest pick as a high school catcher. Although Lee was willing to play in the KBO without going to college, his mother opposed his decision strongly, and that conflict led him to give up baseball temporarily. After sitting out the whole 2005 season, Lee eventually came back in 2006, deciding to play college baseball at Dongguk University. During his four-year college years, Lee was recognized as one of the best amateur catchers nationwide, becoming a fixture in the team's starting lineup in his freshman year and helping his team to win the national championship twice (in 2006 and 2008). Lee made his first appearance on the international stage when he was selected for 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 ...

that would play in the

2006 Intercontinental Cup The 2006 IBAF Intercontinental Cup was held in Taichung, Taiwan from November 9 through the 19th. Eight countries contested the tournament, which was played at Taichung Baseball Field and the newly built Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium ...

. In 2009 Lee was called up to the South Korean national team and competed in the

Asian Baseball Championship The Asian Baseball Championship is the main championship tournament between national baseball teams in Asia, governed by the Baseball Federation of Asia (BFA). It is held every other year in odd-numbered years and since 1983 it also functions ...

where he was named to the All-Star team, playing in all the games as a starting catcher and batting a team-leading .556.

Notable international careers

Professional career

Lee was selected in the 5th round (33rd overall) of the 2010 KBO Draft by the

LG Twins The LG Twins () are a South Korean professional baseball team based in Seoul, South Korea. They are a member of the KBO League. The Twins play their home games at Jamsil Baseball Stadium, which they share with their rivals, the Doosan Bears. ...

. In the 2010 season, Lee played with the Twins' second-tier team but received criticism after batting below .200 and making critical errors behind the plate. After the 2010 season, Lee joined the Sangmu Baseball Team to do a two-year mandatory military service. He played sparingly for the

in 2013–2014, mostly as a late-inning defensive replacement. He finishing his career with a total of 20 hits in 148 at-bats for a batting average of .135.

External links

* KBO League career statistics fro
Koreabaseball.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Tae-Won NC Dinos players 21st-century South Korean sportsmen Dongguk University alumni 1986 births Living people LG Twins players Baseball players from Seoul Chung-am High School alumni