Koji Uehara
As a senior at Korea University in 1997, Kim competed for the South Korea national baseball team in the Asian Baseball Championship. In the round-robin tournament, Kim smacked two home runs off Koji Uehara in the 3-2 loss to Japan. In the final game, Kim hit two home runs off Koji Uehara again to lead South Korea to a 9-8 victory over Japan and win the Asian Championship. In the tournament, Kim batted .538 with an astonishing 9 home runs and 19 runs batted in in only 26 at-bats. Kim finally won the Most Valuable Player award in near-unanimous vote.