NC Dinos Son Ah-seop.
In 2024, the Year of the Dragon, 36-year-old ‘Dragon’ Son Ah-seop (NC Dinos) takes on the challenge of creating a new history in professional baseball. Considering last year’s ‘rejuvenation’ overcoming concerns about aging, it is expected to be a not very difficult task.
Son Ah-seop played in 140 regular season games in professional baseball last year, recording a batting average of 0.339, 5 home runs, 65 RBIs, and 187 hits. He became the batting champion for the first time in his life at the age of 35, and also enjoyed the honor of winning his 6th Golden Glove Award.
It was an extremely meaningful year for Son Ah-seop personally.
After completing the 2021 season and qualifying as a second free agent, he took off his beloved Lotte Giants uniform and made a new home in NC. NC also showed its expectations for Son Ah-seop by giving him a large sum of 6.4 billion won over four years.
However, in 2022, his first season as a free agent, Son Ah-seop recorded his poorest performance since his debut. He had a batting average of 0.277, 4 home runs, 48 RBIs, an on-base percentage of 0.347, and a slugging percentage of 0.367. It wasn’t a bad performance, but considering the expectations placed on Son Ah-seop, it was disappointing.
The stigma that aging had begun, coupled with the high salary, meant that people had no choice but to suffer a lot.
However, it rebounded perfectly in 2023. As a result of switching to designated hitter and focusing only on hitting, the sharp bat he used to have has returned. Last year, NC’s Nos. 1 to 3, led by Son A-seop, Park Min-woo, and Park Geon-woo, were the strongest in the league, and it started with Son A-seop.
NC, which was evaluated as last-place before the season, also overturned the public’s opinion by placing 4th in the regular season and advancing to the playoffs in the postseason. ‘Super Ace’ Eric Peddy played a big role, but the role of Son Ah-seop, who was the focal point both inside and outside of the game, could not be left out.
Son Ah-seop, who is fiercely confident, proved everything with his performance after the end of the 2023 season. He received his first Golden Glove in 6 years since 2017 and his first batting title. He himself went so far as to say, “It was the best year of my baseball life.”
For him, 2024 will be another monumental year. This is because we are about to set a great record that will leave a mark in the history of professional baseball.
Son Ah-seop, who added 187 hits last year, became second with the most hits in his career with a total of 2,416 hits, surpassing ‘Yangshin’ Yang Jun-hyuk (2,318 hits).
It is very likely that he will become ‘number one’ in this category in the 2024 season. The gap with Park Yong-taek (2,504 hits), who is currently in first place, is 88, and if Son Ah-seop hits 89 hits, he will be in first place alone.
Son Ah-seop has never recorded less than 100 hits since 2010, when he took over the starting position. Accordingly, if Son Ah-seop continues the season in good health, breaking his record is virtually certain. 카지노사이트랭크
In this case, Son Ah-seop is expected to be able to maintain the title of ‘King with the most hits’ for the time being.
Choi Hyung-woo (KIA, 2,323 hits), who is currently ranked 2nd in this category, is 5 years older than Son A-seop, with a difference of nearly 100 hits, while Kim Hyun-soo (LG, 2,236 hits), who is currently ranked 3rd, is the same age as Son A-seop, but is challenging the big league. There is a gap, so the gap is close to 200 hits.
If he continues to accumulate hits, he is on pace to become the first player in KBO League history to reach 3,000 hits.
Son Ah-seop is also not hiding his desire for great records. He said, “I am motivated by the opportunity to put my name at the top in the history of the KBO League next year. Since I have come this far, I want to take first place.” 섯다
