“I really want to do well.”

SSG Choi Jeong (35), who is about to participate in the World Baseball Classic (WBC) next month, is thinking these days. On the 10th (local time), when he met SSG Spring Camp at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex in Vero Beach, Florida, USA, he repeated, “I want to do well.”

This is his fifth international appearance since his professional debut. Considering that he is in his mid-30s, this will be his last time playing for the national team. Choi Jeong-eun said, “I have a big idea that I have to repay what I was selected for and live up to it. He really wants to play well,” he said. He even wrote the expression “I risked my life and death.”

In 2009, when he was in his 5th professional year, he tasted the joy of second place with the Taegeuk mark for the first time as a WBC national representative. Choi Jeong-eun said, “I only have good memories of going to the finals with the national team for the first time. He remembers it as a fun, exciting and uplifting tournament,” he said. He also competed in the WBC in 2013, but suffered the humiliation of being eliminated in the preliminary round. He says he can’t remember how he played.

I will step on the WBC stage again after 10 years. Choi Jeong is the only professional third baseman in the final 30-man roster of the national team. He was with Hwang Jae-gyun (KT) and Heo Gyeong-min (Doosan), who were in the same position in the 2019 Premier 12, the most recent international competition, but now he is alone. Choi Jeong-eun said, “In short-term matches, players in good condition go out. In the past, the three of us, Jaekyun and Kyungmin, said, ‘I think you’re going out today’ or ‘No, you’re going out’, but now whether I’m good or bad, I have to go out first, so it’s a burden.” He said, “They say that (Kim) Ha-seong can be turned into third base, but since I am the only professional third baseman, I want to do well.” 토토사이트

The news that Choi Ji-hoon, a junior SSG fielder, was selected as a substitute for the WBC relieved Choi Jeong’s stress. Choi Jeong-eun said, “I feel lonely when I go alone. (Kim) Kwang-hyeon also goes, but I rarely see him because the pitcher and fielder schedules are different,” he said. He laughed, saying, “I kept telling Ji-hoon, ‘Now go with me every day.'”

If you finish the WBC safely, the KBO League awaits. Choi Jeong-eun won his 8th KBO Golden Glove last year. The goal is to add 2 more golden gloves to make it 10. With the current KBO League total of 429 home runs, Doosan coach Lee Seung-yeop’s record for most home runs in the KBO league (467 home runs) remains at 38. Choi Jeong-eun said, “This year will not be easy, and next year I will have to wake up.” He added, “Director Lee Seung-yeop’s record is a number that excludes the period of overseas expansion, so it is ‘over the top’. I always think of second place.”

What Choi Jeong, the ‘synonymous with consistency’, is more greedy for is a double-digit home run record. Choi Jeong-eun has been recording double-digit home runs for 17 consecutive years since 2006, the year after his debut. In 2021, he reached the record for 16 consecutive years, surpassing Jang Jong-hoon and Yang Jun-hyuk’s record of 15 consecutive years. Now he is writing his own record. Choi Jeong-eun said, “I want to break my record, break it, break it, and continue until I retire.”