Lee Seung-yeop, heir to Yomiuri's No. 4 hitter lineage, mourns Jang Hoon as 'legend and reliable sunbae'

Lee Seung-yeop, 49, the Yomiuri Giants hitting coach who inherited the Japanese team's No. 4 hitter lineage, posted a tribute to the late baseball commentator Jang Hoon.

Lee wrote on his Instagram account Thursday, "I will long remember my sunbae's encouragement to keep a strong heart during my time playing in Japan, and the warmth with which he looked after his junior."

"Jang Hoon sunbae, who racked up 3,085 hits over his career, was a legend and a reliable sunbae to Korean baseball," Lee added. "May he rest in peace."

Jang Hoon and Lee share a connection through Yomiuri's line of No. 4 hitters.

Jang Hoon was the team's 39th No. 4 hitter, while Lee took on the role as the club's 70th No. 4 hitter after transferring to Yomiuri in 2006.

Jang Hoon reportedly offered generous advice on hitting and mindset to the junior player as he took on the challenge of an unfamiliar stage.

Meanwhile, Jang Hoon died Wednesday at age 86.

The Meikyukai, an organization of current and former Nippon Professional Baseball players, said Thursday that Jang Hoon died Wednesday morning at a hospital in Tokyo, Yonhap reported.

Jang Hoon was born in 1940 in Hiroshima, Japan, as a second-generation ethnic Korean resident of Japan. From 1959 to 1981, he starred as a left-handed-throwing, left-handed-hitting left fielder in Japanese professional baseball. He debuted with Toei, the predecessor of the Nippon-Ham Fighters, and went on to wear the uniforms of Nippon-Ham, the Yomiuri Giants and the Lotte Orions, finishing with 3,085 hits — the most in NPB history. He remains the only player to have topped 3,000 hits while playing exclusively in NPB.

That total is nearly 100 hits ahead of Katsuya Nomura, who ranks second with 2,901.

After retiring, Jang Hoon spent more than 20 years as a commentator for Japan's TBS television network, from 1982 to 2006.

Jang Hoon also maintained active ties with Korean professional baseball and Korea's sports community. From 1982, when Korean professional baseball launched, until 2005, he served as a special adviser to the commissioner of the Korea Baseball Organization. In 2007, he received South Korea's Mugunghwa Order of Civil Merit.