By This really is a great baseball season for this Korean born player:
Choo Shin-soo of the Cleveland Indians on Sunday became the first Asian player in Major League Baseball to have a 20-20 season, meaning 20 home runs and 20 steals. With the Indians down 4-10 against the Boston Red Sox, the 27-year-old outfielder, third in the line-up, stepped to the plate with a runner on first and no outs and knocked his 20th homer into the left field seats of Boston’s Fenway Park. With already 21 steals, Choo became the eighth Indian in the team’s history to go 20-20.
Reaching 20-20 takes both strong hitting power and fleet feet. As of Sunday, only 12 MLB players have reached the milestone this season. Among them, only three including Choo have a batting average of 0.300 or more. Choo is touted as a “five tool” player who excels at hitting for average, hitting for power, base-running skills and speed, throwing ability, and fielding abilities. Even Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners, an iconic figure with lauded careers in both Japanese baseball and the MLB — most notably nine consecutive seasons with over 200 hits and the highest ever number of hits in a season (262 in 2004) — has never managed enough homers to make a 20-20 season. [Chosun Ilbo]
I just love how the Chosun Ilbo had to throw Ichiro into the article. Ichiro is not a power hitter and has never hit more then 15 homers in a season. So of course he would never have had a 20-20 season.
10:32 pm on October 6th, 2009 1
Pretty lame for them to include that Ichiro line. He is, after all, considered among the best players in baseball, and he’s said a bunch of times that he could hit HRs if he wanted to, but that it’s strategically better to get on base rather than getting put out 75% of the time.
This was a good quotation, too:
http://eastwindupchronicle.com/baseball/quote-of-the-day/
“Chicks who dig home runs aren’t the ones who appeal to me…I think there’s sexiness in infield hits because they require technique. I’d rather impress the chicks with my technique than with my brute strength. Then, every now and then, just to show I can do that, too, I might flirt a little by hitting one out.”
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11:01 pm on October 6th, 2009 2
I’d like to see Choo, or anyone get 263 hits in a single season.
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1:19 am on October 7th, 2009 3
Choo couldn’t hold Ichiro’s jock. Ichiro is a first ballot hall of famer. What about Choo? Doubtful.
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5:10 am on October 7th, 2009 4
hahaha. This article made me laugh so much. Choo? Who the heck is Choo? I had to google that very much middle of the road player. I cannot believe they even had the odacity to compare him to ICHIRO. 20/20 isnt even that impressive of stat. especially when you are barely at 20/20. What a joke!!
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