MLB's Choo breaks record for most homers by Asian-born player
Saturday was full of milestones and records for Shin-Soo Choo as his Texas Rangers prevailed over the Kansas City Royals 4-3.
With the game deadlocked at three apiece in the 10th inning, Choo came to the plate looking for his first hit of the day. Not only did he get a hit, but he launched one over the left-center field wall for a walk-off victory.
With Shin-Soo Choo’s 176th career HR, he passes Hideki Matsui to become the all-time home run leader for players born in Asia. pic.twitter.com/GJUTpWItJZ
— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) May 26, 2018
Choo, born in South Korea, also moved out of a tie to claim sole possession of first place on MLB’s all-time home runs list for Asian-born players.
Choo passed Hideki Matsui, who hit his 175th and final home run in 2012. Ichiro (117 home runs) is the only other Asian-born player with at least 100 career MLB homers.
When he hit a homer on Friday, Choo said he didn’t realize that he tied Matsui with the shot. But he’ll remember this one.
“My dad told me when I was young, ‘Always first. You need to be first. In sports, people think about the first person,'” Choo said. “I remembered that.”
That walk-off dinger by Choo wasn’t just a home run record, but it was also a hit milestone for the 35-year-old. It represented the 1,400th hit of his MLB career, which ranks second among Asian-born players, trailing only Ichiro’s 3,089.
If that wasn’t enough, Choo also recorded a first with his 10th inning shot off Kevin McCarthy. Choo’s 176th home run of his MLB career was also his first career extra inning home run.
It was the third walk-off home run of his career, but the previous two came in the ninth inning.
Even with all of his accomplishments in one game, Choo says he doesn’t really keep track of his stats and is just focused on winning.
“I care about it, but like I said earlier this morning, I’ve played a long time in the big leagues, played healthy, played hard, those numbers are coming,” Choo said. “I’m not really a home run hitter, in my career. I never think that way, I always try to stay healthy, try to help the team win the World Series.”
Choo’s historic day took the spotlight away from Bartolo Colon, who was going for his own feats of history in the game.
Colon turned 45 on Thursday and was attempting to become just the fourth pitcher since 2000 to win a game at 45 or older. The others are Jamie Moyer, Randy Johnson and Jesse Orosco.
Colon was also going for his 243rd career win, which would have tied Juan Marichal for most wins by a Dominican-born pitcher.
He fell short, but he’ll get another chance to reach those two milestones on May 31 when he takes on the Mariners in Seattle.
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