2024-04-26 03:13:05
• Choi Jeong (37, SSG) became the hitter with the most home runs in Korean professional baseball history.
Choi Jeong-eun came to bat in the top of the 5th inning when the team was trailing 4-7 to Lotte in a game visiting Sajik on the 24th with two outs and no runners on base.
And Lotte starting pitcher Lee In-bok (33) hit the slider thrown as the first pitch and went over the left wall.
Choi Jeong hit his 468th home run, surpassing Doosan coach Lee Seung-yeop (48), the ‘Lion King’ who retired with 467 home runs, and became the number one home run hitter in his career.
Manager Lee handed over the title of home run king 10 years, 10 months, and 4 days (3961 days) after becoming the sole leader in this category on June 20, 2013.
• Lee In-bok, in his 11th year as a pro, is the 264th pitcher to allow a home run to Choi Jeong.
Until this day, Lee In-bok faced Choi Jeong 13 times and had 3 hits, but did not give up a single home run or extra-base hit.
The pitcher who hit his first home run in his professional debut in Munhak’s home game on May 21, 2005 was Lee Bo-geun (38), who was with Hyundai at the time.
Lee Bo-geun also hit a home run against Lee Bo-geun in Munhak on April 9, 2013.
Like Lee Bo-geun, there are 103 pitchers who have hit two or more home runs from Choi Jeong.
• The pitcher who gave up the most home runs to Choi Jeong is Ahn Young-myeong (37, retired).
Ahn Young-myeong, who played for Hanwha, KIA, and KT, allowed a total of 8 home runs to Choi Jeong.
The pitcher with the next most home runs is Jang Won-jun (39, retired, 7).
There are four pitchers who gave up six home runs.
Bae Young-soo (43) and Yoon Seong-hwan (43) have long since left the mound, but Park Se-woong (29, Lotte) and Yang Hyun-jong (36, KIA) are active players, so this ranking may change.
• Among the pitchers who hit a home run from Choi Jeong, the first born is Song Jin-woo (58, retired).
Conversely, the latest born player to date is Lee Myung-jong (22, Kiwoom).
The two players, who are seniors and juniors at Sekwang Middle and High School, were born 36 years, 9 months, and 19 days (13,441 days) apart.
The oldest pitcher at the time of hitting a home run was Choi Young-pil (50, retired), who was 42 years, 1 month and 21 days old as of July 4, 2016.
The youngest pitcher is Kim Young-gyu (24, NC), who was 19 years, 2 months and 10 days old on April 20, 2019.
• The opposing team that gave up the most home runs to Choi Jeong was Hanwha (68).
Choi Jeong-eun has experience hitting home runs against pitchers representing Hanwha, including Song Jin-woo, Koo Dae-seong (55), Ryu Hyun-jin (37), and Park Chan-ho (51).
In particular, he stole 4 home runs against Ryu Hyun-jin.
After Hanwha, Samsung is in second place with 63, and Doosan is in third place with 56.
Bae Young-soo, who played for Samsung, Hanwha, and Doosan, hit a home run against Choi Jeong only during his time with Samsung.
• The stadium where Choi Jeong hit the most home runs is, of course, Munhak (253), which is his home stadium.
This is followed by 34 Daejeon, 31 Jamsil, and 26 Sajik.
In Jamsil, he hit 19 home runs against Doosan and 12 home runs against LG.
He also hit home runs against NC (13) and Lotte (1) in Masan, and against KT (14) and Hyundai (2) in Suwon.
Combining Gwangju KIA Champions Field (20), Mudeung Stadium (11), Daegu Samsung Lions Park (15), and Daegu Citizen Stadium (16), 31 home runs were hit in each of the two cities.
• By month, the most home runs were hit in June (91), and by day of the week, the most home runs were hit on Sunday (92). There were 18 home runs hit on Sundays in June.
Based on innings, the most home runs were in the first inning (88), and based on out counts, there were most home runs in the second inning (168). There were 52 home runs hit with two outs in the first inning.
The number of home runs by score was 266 1-run hits, 129 2-run hits, 60 3-run hits, and 13 bases loaded.
Based on the opposing pitcher’s throwing style, there were 302 throws by right-handed pitchers, 188 throws by left-hand pitchers, and 48 underhand pitchers.
It doesn’t mean much because the recorder measured it by eye, but the distance was a total of 54,520m, which is about 6.2 times the height of the world’s highest mountain, Everest (8,848m).
Reporter Hwang Gyu-in kini@donga.com
2024-04-26 03:13:05