Professional baseball player Choi Jeong (38) of the SSG Landers has reached the milestone of 500 career home runs, the first in the KBO League.

On the 13th, Choi achieved the first 500 home runs in KBO League history by playing as the designated hitter in the match against the NC Dinos in the '2025 Shinhan Bank SOL Bank KBO League' at Incheon SSG Landers Field, recording 1 hit, 1 home run, 2 RBIs, and 1 run in 4 at-bats.

In the bottom of the 6th inning with 2 outs and a runner on first, SSG trailing 0-2, Choi lifted a slider thrown by right-handed starter Riley Thompson at 135 km/h for a game-tying two-run home run, finally achieving his 500th career home run. Choi's home run tied the game at 2-2, and SSG eventually secured a comeback victory, winning 6-3.

In a post-game interview, Choi said, "I'm relieved and happy that the home run came out quickly. My hitting was fine, so I could get hits, but if I hadn't hit home runs, I would have felt stressed. However, since my hitting wasn’t that great, I didn’t feel stress about hitting home runs. I was craving hits, so I felt really good that it turned out to be a home run. It's twice as good because the team won, and I got to celebrate in a good atmosphere."

NC Dinos manager Lee Ho-jun, who had vowed to face Choi head-on, praised him despite being an opposing team player. Having watched Choi start his professional career at SK (now SSG) during Lee's playing days, the manager noted in a pre-game interview, "It's really amazing. A player who I've known since he was a kid has become a home run hitter. I never imagined it would happen. At first, I thought he would be a mid-range hitter with a .300 batting average and hit around 20 home runs. But he has already hit 500 home runs," expressing admiration.

"If my memory serves me right, I think he created his own batting form," Lee said, adding, "Despite having coach Kim Seong-keun, he didn’t follow what he was told and instead combined the famous batting styles of players from the U.S. and Japan to create his own. When coach Kim was around, he followed instructions, but when he was in games, he hit according to his own mind. But since the results were good, coach Kim eventually stopped saying anything to him," he laughed.

Choi said, "I followed the batting forms of Manny Ramirez and Miguel Cabrera a lot. In particular, Cabrera impressed me when he would hit lightly while performing well, hitting home runs and sending balls far. It looked so smooth, beyond just strength, that I thought, let's try to do that. Among Japanese players, I admired famous third basemen like Murata Shuichi from Yokohama and Iwamura Akihiro."

"The moment when my current batting form was perfected was when I faced Kang Yoon-koo during the 2012 Nexen (now Kiwoom) game," Choi recalled. "At that time, I hit a home run with a touch I had never felt before while playing baseball. Not wanting to lose that feeling, I continued to practice, and since then, I think the ball has been flying well and going over."

Choi, known as Korea's top home run hitter, was once rumored to be going overseas but ultimately played only in Korea, allowing him to build the achievement of 500 home runs. When asked if there are any players who will challenge for 500 home runs in the future, Choi responded, "These days, if you do well, don’t you go overseas? It won’t be easy. However, I think there are several players who can achieve that if they don’t go abroad. Someday, it might be broken."

When asked about going overseas, Choi candidly admitted, "I do have regrets. I had opportunities back then, but I thought it was too big of a wall. At that time, there weren’t any Korean players playing in Major League Baseball. It felt like it was someone else's story. I did try to go, but I couldn’t due to various issues, and now I regret it. Nowadays, everyone is taking on challenges, and the players who are playing now are impressive. If I were younger, I would try to take on that challenge again; it's a shame."

Following the achievement of 500 home runs as the first in the KBO League, Choi, who aims for 600 home runs, stated, "I have no desire for 600 home runs. However, it is a record I want to achieve. I think it wouldn’t be good if I'm injured like this year and have many gaps. Even if I can’t, I need to keep playing for opportunities to come. I’ve felt that I must take better care of my body. I can consistently hit 20 or 30 home runs until I retire. I want to hit 600 home runs," committing to continue showing good performance.

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