His skills and personality... Where else is he
His skills and personality... Where else is he
Blog Article
LG Twins foreign hitter Austin Dean (32) is being applauded both inside and outside the ground.안전놀이터
In his third year in KBO league baseball, Austin has posted a batting average of 0.350 (14 hits in 40 at-bats) with five homers and 11 RBIs in 11 games through Sunday. He is the top scorer (14 hits) with home runs. His OPS is the combined slugging percentage (0.800·first) and on-base percentage (0.460·7th), ranking first in the entire league with 1.260. He is listed in the top 10 in all batting categories except for stolen bases.
Notably, Austin set a new record by hitting home runs in four consecutive games starting with the NC Dinos game on April 28 and the KT Wiz game on April 3. It is the fifth LG team to achieve this after Park Byung-ho (currently Samsung Lions in 2010), Jung Sung-hoon (2012), Carlos Peguero (2019) and Roberto Ramos (2020).
Austin got off to a much better start to the season than last year when he hit .30-30 with 100 RBIs for the first time in the history of LG. Austin had a batting average of .319 with 32 homers and 132 RBIs last year.
Austin is considered the best foreign hitter in LG's history. LG, which uses Jamsil Stadium in Seoul as its home ground, has selected a good number of foreign pitchers, but has ruined most of the foreign hitter farming. Until Austin wore the striped uniform, LG looked envious of the outstanding foreign hitters of Doosan Bears, its "Jamsil rival." Now, the two teams are in opposite positions.
Austin was awarded the Golden Glove (GG) in 2023 for the first baseman. It was the first time in 29 years since Seo Yong-bin (currently the power reinforcement coordinator) was awarded the honor as LG's first baseman. Austin, who became the first team to win the RBI title in the history of LG last year, embraced the golden glove for the second consecutive year.
LG parted ways with Casey Kelly (73 wins), the highest winning pitcher in the team's history, in July last year. At the time, Austin told this newspaper, "I want to be remembered as a player like Kelly. I will inherit his legacy." And he is keeping his promise one by one.
The true value of Austin can be seen even outside the stadium. He gets along so well with his teammates that it is hard to believe that he is a foreign player. He respects and enjoys Korean culture to the extent that he loves ssamjang.
He was the only one among four foreign players to attend the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) Golden Glove Awards held on Dec. 13 last year. It was the first time in five years that a foreign player had attended the GG Awards since Josh Lindblom in 2019. "If I win the Golden Glove again this year, I will definitely attend it," he said to fans before the 2024 season, keeping his promise.
When a female spectator in her 20s who was being treated for head injuries died in a recent crash at Changwon NC Park, Austin posted a condolence message on his social media (SNS) saying, "I express my deepest condolences to the bereaved families of Changwon who have lost their tragically loved ones. I know that there are no words to relieve the pain you are experiencing. While enduring this unimaginable time, I pray that God will be with you and give you comfort and peace."