Choo finishes 2009 season with career-high batting, home runs

SEOUL, Oct. 5 (Yonhap) -- Cleveland Indians outfielder Choo Shin-soo of South
Korea finished his first full-time Major League season with a career-high batting
average and record number of home runs, the club's homepage showed Monday (Korean
time).

The 2009 season was the first Choo played full-time. The 27-year-old spend most
of his early career in the minor league and had elbow surgery in 2007. He
initially signed with the Seattle Mariners in 2000 after graduating high school
in South Korea. He made his Major League debut in 2005 before being traded to the
Indians in 2006.
Choo hit .300 with 20 home runs, 38 doubles and stole 21 bases in 156 games,
ranking first or second in his team. He also finished first in the team with 86
RBIs, 78 base-on-balls and .489 slugging percentage.
He had a monstrous second half last year with .343 batting average, 20 doubles,
11 homers and 48 RBIs in 58 games.
Choo became the first Asian athlete to record 20 or more homers and stolen bases
in a season, a mark of power and speed. There have been only two other ML players
in the 2009 season who hit over .300 with 20-20.
He also eclipsed the ML record among South Koreans of 15 homers in a season, set
by former Chicago Cubs infielder Choi Hee-seop.
The Cleveland Indians finished fourth in the central division of the American
League with 65 wins and 97 losses, in which the Detroit Tigers and Minnesota
Twins are competing for the last berth for the play-offs.
brk@yna.co.kr
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