Professional baseball player Choi Jeong (38) of the SSG Landers has become the first in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) league to reach the milestone of 500 career home runs.

On the 13th, Choi started as the designated hitter in the game against the NC Dinos in the '2025 Shinhan Bank SOL Bank KBO League' held at Incheon SSG Landers Field.

In his first at-bat in the bottom of the first inning with two outs, Choi grounded out to the second baseman and struck out in the fourth inning with one out. However, in the bottom of the sixth inning with two outs and one runner on first base, he launched a two-run homer to tie the game and finally achieved his 500th career home run.

Prior to the game that day, Choi had recorded a career batting average of .287 over 2,302 games in the KBO league, with 499 home runs, 1,569 RBIs, 1,467 runs scored, 178 stolen bases, and an OPS of .922. With the homer in that game, he finally achieved his 500th career home run.

Choi was drafted first overall in the 2005 rookie draft by SK (now SSG) and recorded only one home run in his first year, appearing in 45 games. However, starting with 12 home runs in 2006, he hit double-digit home runs every year until 2009 and achieved 20 home runs in 2010, marking his first 20-home run season. He also recorded 20 home runs for two consecutive years in 2011, exactly reaching 100 career home runs.

In 2012 (26 home runs) and 2013 (28 home runs), Choi surpassed 20 home runs, but due to injuries in 2014 (14 home runs) and 2015 (17 home runs), he did not achieve 20 home runs. However, in 2016, he achieved 40 home runs for the first time since his debut. That year, he also surpassed 200 career home runs and was crowned the first home run king of his career.

In 2017, Choi achieved a career-high with 46 home runs. He won the home run king title for two consecutive years and set a new record for the most home runs in a single season by a third baseman in KBO history. In 2018 (35 home runs), he surpassed 300 career home runs and recorded 30 home runs for three consecutive years. In 2019 (29 home runs), he narrowly missed 30 home runs, but he returned to 30 home runs with 33 in 2020 and captured his third home run king title with 35 home runs in 2021. He also surpassed 400 career home runs.

Choi, who created consecutive 20-home run seasons in 2022 (26 home runs) and 2023 (29 home runs), recorded his 468th career home run on April 24 last year against Lotte in Busan, surpassing Doosan's Lee Seung-yop (467 home runs) to set the all-time KBO record for most home runs. He finished the season with 37 home runs.

Having sustained a hamstring injury during defensive training in the exhibition games, Choi started the season late. He returned on the 2nd against LG, hitting a home run in his first at-bat. Displaying an impressive pace with 4 home runs in 9 games this season, Choi hit his fifth home run in that game, finally completing the 500-home run milestone.

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