Hyung-woo Choi

Hyung-woo Choi (김원형)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 10", Weight 190 lb.
• High School Jeonju High School

• Born December 16, 1983 in Jeonju, North Jeolla South Korea

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Hyung-woo Choi began his professional baseball career as a catcher in 2002 with the KIA Tigers, going 2 for 5 with 2 runs. He appeared in two games in 2004 and did not bat. He was released following that year.

Choi played for the South Korean national team in the 2007 Baseball World Cup. As a DH-PH-RF, he went 1 for 13 with a walk and 4 strikeouts. He joined the Samsung Lions for 2008 and blossomed, hitting .276/.364/.487 with 19 homers and 71 RBI in 126 games. He won the Korea Baseball Organization Rookie of the Year award despite being older than that year's MVP, Kwang-hyun Kim.

He went on to have a tremendous career in spite of his humble beginnings, playing for Samsung until 2016, and then for the KIA Tigers. In 2023, he collected his 1,500th RBI to become the all-time leader in the category in KBO history, moving past Seung-yeop Lee.

Primary Source

• KBO player page
• IBAF

Further Reading

• Michael Clair: "Once cut from a KBO team, now he's a record breaker. Hyoung-Woo Choi went from vowing revenge to becoming the Korean league's RBI leader", mlb.com, November 8, 2023. [1]