It’s the Heyday of Hitting Catchers

Offensive-minded catchers are gaining popularity these days.

At the center of the rising trend of power-hitting catchers, who make fans go wild, stands SK’s “Police Chief,” Park Kyoung-wan.

Park slammed 3 homers in the weekend’s two games to place first in the race for the homerun title. He also leads the league in slugging percentage (.820) and ranks second in RBIs (40), runs (35), and on-base percentage (.481). His batting average ranks sixth in the league with .352. He paid too much attention to lead pitchers and went partially bald, but he motivates himself at the plate.

New bridegroom Hong Seong-heun (Doosan), who got married at the end of last year, secured his batting order as a fifth hitter. He averages .333 with 48 hits in 144 at bats and has six homers and 35 RBIs. Hong can’t help smiling to himself as he is having his best season since his debut in 1999 through the warm assistance of his 4-year-older wife.

Under a franchise tying-record of 9 streaking losses, Samsung has the solace of Jin Kap-yong’s clean up activities. He was a low-ranking batter, but was put into the lineup as cleanup this season because of the leave of Lee Seung-yeop and Ma Hae-young, and has put up a .301 batting average, 19 RBIs and 5 homers.

Hanhwa’s Lee Do-hyoung is averaging .271 with 5 homers and 19 RBIs, and Chamsil Stadium’s homerun king from last year (19), LG’s Cho In-seong, is averaging .261 with 3 homers and 13 RBIs.

Catchers dissipate their physical strength more compared with other positions because they have to wear heavy protective equipment and squat down behind the plate all the time. Nevertheless, hitting catchers keep their hot batting sense thanks to strong weight training and tough physical training during the winter season.

The syndrome of offensive-minded catchers is also striking Japanese baseball. Abe Shinoske of the Yomiuri Giants now leads the league in homers with 21 over 37 games and places first in RBIs (45), batting average (.368) and slugging percentage. (.875)

Breaking most homerun records as a catcher recently with 352, New York Mets catcher Mike Piazza, 35, has taken off his mask and frequently played as a first baseman.

Jong-Seok Kim kjs0123@donga.com