"The Tigers Have Finally Broken a 44-Year Curse!" KIM Do-young Crushes His 40th Homer—First Korean-Born 40-Homer Season in Franchise History

[Financial News] The “immortal territory” that no one had been allowed to enter in the Tigers’ 44-year history, dating back to the Haitai era, has finally opened. KIA Tigers star KIM Do-young, 22, planted his flag atop the 40-home-run plateau, shaking up not only the franchise record book but the entire landscape of the KBO League.
KIM Do-young led off the top of the sixth inning in the road game against the Samsung Lions at Daegu Samsung Lions Park on the 8th, with his team trailing 1-4. He took the first pitch, a fastball from Samsung’s second pitcher Satoshi Miyamori, without hesitation. The ball followed a powerful trajectory and sailed over the left-field wall at Daegu. It was his 40th solo home run of the season, coming seven games after his 39th homer against Lotte on the 26th of last month.
Although the date difference meant he narrowly missed breaking the KBO League record for the youngest player to hit 40 home runs, held by Lee Seung-yuop, now a coach with the Yomiuri Giants, the significance of KIM Do-young’s 40th homer is even greater.
The brightest milestone is a new chapter in the Tigers franchise. Tracy Sanders, a foreign slugger who hit 40 homers in 1999, had been the only player in Tigers history to surpass 40 home runs in a single season. It was a plateau that even legendary hitters such as Kim Seong-han, Lee Soon-chul, Lee Jong-beom and Hee-seop Choi had never reached. Twenty-seven years after Sanders, KIM Do-young became the franchise’s second player to achieve the feat—and the owner of the unprecedented distinction of being the first purely domestic Korean batter in Tigers history to hit 40 home runs.
The achievement is historic even from the broader perspective of the KBO League. The last time a Korean player hit 40 home runs in a season was in 2018, when Kim Jae-hwan of the Doosan Bears hit 44, Byung-ho Park of the Nexen Heroes hit 42, and Yoo-seom Han of the SK Wyverns hit 41. After eight years of a shortage of power hitters, KIM Do-young’s feat signals the arrival of a genuine Korean-born power slugger in the KBO League.
He has also moved a major step closer to winning the first home-run title of his career. With his 40th blast, KIM Do-young widened his lead over hard-charging second-place Austin Dean of the LG Twins, who has 36 homers, to four and strengthened his grip on the race.
KIM Do-young blew away the intense pressure and frustration of being stuck one homer short of a major milestone with one emphatic swing. Having broken through the Tigers’ limits and rewritten league history, his bat is opening the door to a new era of Korean baseball.


[email protected] Jeon Sang-il Reporter