Dae-sung Koo

Koo Dae-sung (born August 2, 1969) is a Korean former professional baseball pitcher.

A left-handed pitcher, Koo formerly played for the Hanwha Eagles in the KBO League, as well as the New York Mets of Major League Baseball and the Orix BlueWave of Nippon Professional Baseball.

Koo began his professional career in 1993 with the Hanwha Eagles of the KBO League.

In 1996, he won both a Gold Glove Award and the MVP of the KBO with a 1.88 earned run average, 18 wins, 24 saves and 183 strikeouts in 139 innings pitched.

Koo played for the South Korean national Olympic team in the 2000 games.

He led his team to a bronze medal in 2000 by pitching a 3-1 complete game victory over Japan.

In 2001, Koo joined the Orix BlueWave of the Japanese Pacific League.

Though he was a reliever throughout his professional career, he became a starter for the team in 2002, recording the second best earned run average on the team.

The Orix BlueWave merged with the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes in 2004, and he took the opportunity to announce his decision to play in the major leagues.

In 2005, the New York Mets signed Koo as a free agent.

He pitched well as a reliever during spring training and was selected for the Mets' active roster as the season began.

Despite his 35 years of age, and 12 years experience in Korea and Japan, he was considered a rookie by Major League Baseball in his first year.

He made his Major League Debut on April 4, 2005 against the Cincinnati Reds, and pitched a perfect 8th inning, in the process collecting his first big league strikeout.

Koo's most memorable moment as a Major Leaguer occurred on May 21, 2005, when he recorded his only major league hit, a double off of Randy Johnson of the New York Yankees.

This came right when Fox TV analyst Tim McCarver commented on how Koo's plate appearance was "the biggest give-up at-bat".

Koo had taken two pitches and struck out looking on four pitches in his first at-bat, leading everyone to believe that he was ready to go up just to sit down again.

On a 1-and-1 count, Koo crushed a deep line drive right over Bernie Williams's head one hop off the wall in right-center field.

Upon reaching second base, the home crowd and his teammates in the dugout cheered and chanted "KOOOO!"

When asked about what he thought about the hit, Koo responded, "Other people say that I swung my bat with my eyes closed. But, of course I saw it — I hit it! It has been 18 years since I batted last — when I was in high school. Occasionally I went to the batting cages and swung the bat a couple of times. But, there really wasn’t any difference."

A slow runner with little base running experience, Koo advanced to third base on a sacrifice bunt dropped by the following hitter, José Reyes.

However, after Koo slowed down approaching third base, he re-accelerated and ran towards a vacant home plate left uncovered as Reyes was getting thrown out at first base.

Yankees' catcher Jorge Posada promptly ran towards home in a foot race with Koo.

Upon retrieving the thrown ball from first base, Posada applied the tag onto Koo's left shoulder as he slid head first towards home plate on a close play.

Home plate umpire Chuck Meriwether called Koo safe on the play, extending the Mets' lead to 3-0.

With that, the home crowd once again cheered and chanted his last name.

His teammates enthusiastically greeted him, with celebrations ranging from his teammates brushing the dirt off his uniform to Doug Mientkiewicz fanning him with a towel.

On his reception by his teammates, Koo said, "They said a lot of things. I just couldn't understand what. I think they were saying 'Good job.'" It was his final Major League at-bat.

Unfortunately, it was later revealed that Koo suffered a shoulder injury during this play while sliding into home plate.

His stats suffered as well as a result thus forcing him to return to South Korea.

On March 2, 2006, Koo rejoined the Hanwha Eagles when the Mets sold his contract to them.

He announced his retirement from Korean baseball on August 15, 2010.

He last played for Geelong-Korea in the Australian Baseball League.

Koo is a left-handed pitcher despite being born right-handed.

As a child, he broke his right arm, an injury so bad that it forced him to become left-handed.

Koo attended Hanyang University.

In a press conference on August 22, 2010, Koo revealed he was to play for the Sydney Blue Sox in the Australian Baseball League.

Koo made his debut in the opening game of the 2010–11 Australian Baseball League regular season.

With his team up 1–0 against the Canberra Cavalry, he recorded the final out by striking out Nick Kimpton to earn the first save in the Australian Baseball League.

He finished the season with 12 saves, 1.00 earned run average and .144 opposition average against.

Owing to this performance, Koo was named Reliever of the Year.