Austin Dean (32), a foreign hitter for professional baseball's LG Twins, is challenging to become the first home run king in the club's history and the last home run king at Jamsil Stadium.
Austin hit his 20th home run of the season in a visiting game against the KIA Tigers in the 2026 KBO League held at Kia Champions Field in Gwangju on the 16th, maintaining a joint lead in home runs with KIA Kim Do-young, who hit his 20th home run in the same game.
With this home run, Austin achieved a record of 20 home runs for four consecutive seasons since 2023, his debut season in the KBO League.
Austin's performance this season has been overwhelming.
In 66 games, he ranks high in major batting indicators, recording a batting average of 0.356 (3rd), 64 RBI (2nd), slugging percentage of 0.667 (1st), and on-base percentage of 0.428 (5th).
If he maintains his current pace, he can aim for not only his third Golden Glove Award following 2023 and 2024, but also the regular season Most Valuable Player Award (MVP).
LG has yet to produce a regular season MVP, including during its predecessor, MBC Blue Dragon.
In addition, there was no home run king.
This is largely due to the fact that Seoul's Jamsil Stadium, which has the longest distance from the home plate to the outfield fence among the 10 teams' home stadiums, was used as the home stadium.
The highest home run record in a season among LG batters is 38, set by foreign batter Roberto Ramos in 2020. At the time, Ramos ranked second in most home runs after Mel Rojas Jr. (47), who played for KT Wiz.
Austin, who is aiming to become the first home run king in LG club history, can easily break Ramos' club record if he maintains his current pace.
Austin has hit 20 home runs in 299 at-bats this season, producing 0.067 home runs per at-bat.
If he gets the opportunity to play at the level of the 2024 season (604 at-bats) when he was healthy and played full time, the expected number of home runs will exceed 40.
Among the players from clubs that used Jamsil Stadium as their home, all of the players who won the home run title in the regular season belonged to the Doosan Bears (including the predecessor OB).
Sang-ho Kim (25) in 1995, Tyrone Woods (42) in 1998, and Jae-hwan Kim (44, currently SSG Landers) in 2018 received the honor.
This year is even more meaningful as it is the last time Seoul Jamsil Stadium is used.
Jamsil Stadium, which opened in July 1982, is scheduled to be demolished at the end of the 2026 season, and a new dome stadium will be built on the same site.
LG and Doosan will use the temporary baseball stadium built at Jamsil Main Stadium as a temporary home for five years during the construction period.
If Austin becomes the home run king, he will leave a symbolic record as the first home run king in LG club history and the last home run king at Jamsil Stadium.
The variable is competition with Kim Do-young. Kim Do-young is hitting 0.07 home runs per at-bat this season, showing slightly higher home run production than Austin.
However, Kim Do-young will participate in the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, which will be held from September 19 to October 4, and will be absent during the national team activity period.
It is considered another variable in the competition for the home run king this season.
