"The country is very hard, but I still want our baseball fans to be happy when the players play."

The 'highest golden glove winner' was different even from his acceptance speech.

Kia Tigers' Choi Hyung-woo was named the designated hitter at the "2024 Shinhan SOL Bank Golden Glove Awards" held at the COEX Auditorium in southern Seoul on Tuesday. He garnered 137 votes out of 288 valid votes, winning 47.6 percent of the vote, beating over KT's Kang Baek-ho (91) and Doosan's Kim Jae-hwan (60 votes). He also broke the record of being the oldest winner of the Golden Glove award with 40 years, 11 months, and 27 days as of Thursday. The previous record was 40 years, 5 months, and 18 days for Lee Dae-ho (former Lotte Giants).

Three of them were outstanding enough to get at least 60 votes. Although Choi played in 116 games due to his injury, he succeeded in winning the honor by boasting of his solver ability with a batting average of 0.280 with 22 homers and 109 RBIs, and a batting average of 0.331 in scoring areas. Kim Jae-hwan, ranking third, had a batting average of 0.283 with 29 homers and an OPS of 0.893 in 136 games. He also had nearly 30 homers while using Jamsil Baseball Stadium as his home ground. Kang, ranking second, had a batting average of 0.289 OPS of 0.840, as he played in 144 games. He had 26 homers and 96 RBIs.

Standing on the podium, Choi Hyung-woo said, "As you know, I would like to thank the people who voted for me, who made me come to this event even though I am an old player. I think I had a perfect year. I think I achieved good results by mixing with the players and KIA fans. Thank you for your passionate support. I thank and love my wife who tries not to get stressed at home, and my children who are stressed out. Lastly, the country is struggling a lot, but baseball fans want me to be happy when the players play."

The final sentence drew attention. The award ceremony for designated hitter was the first order of the event, where Choi mentioned the aftermath of emergency martial law. Kim Do-young also mentioned the current state of affairs indirectly, saying, "I hope cold winter will pass soon and I will have a warm year-end."

It was also a word that could be said to be the "biggest baseball player" who overcame the difficulties. Since the declaration and lifting of the emergency martial law on the 3rd, few people in the sports world have expressed their intention under their name. It was considered an unwritten rule in the sports world, but Choi Hyung-woo was willing to come forward.

Even after the award ceremony, Choi was confident. When he said, "I prepared but couldn't finish it, so I just talked to the right extent and finished it. I thought a lot about it." He added, "I'm just saying what it is. As you know, our country is having a hard time. Let's all cheer up while watching baseball." 먹튀검증

Meanwhile, Choi, who was the winner of the designated hitter category in 2020, did not come to the award ceremony as he was confident of winning the award. "I would never have imagined that I would come here again. I am nervous whenever I come and it is an amazing occasion. I didn't expect to win the award, but I did think it was a good idea. There is a possibility. And it is my first time coming here with my kids (to attend)."