An Chi-hong (

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The le ...

: 안치홍,

Hanja Hanja (Hangul: ; Hanja: , ), alternatively known as Hancha, are Chinese characters () used in the writing of Korean. Hanja was used as early as the Gojoseon period, the first ever Korean kingdom. (, ) refers to Sino-Korean vocabulary, ...

: 安致弘) (born July 2, 1990) is a South Korean infielder who plays for the

Lotte Giants The Lotte Giants ( ko, 롯데 자이언츠) are a South Korean professional baseball team based in Busan. They are a member of the KBO League. The Lotte Giants are owned by Lotte Corporation, which also owns the Chiba Lotte Marines of Nippon Pr ...

of the

KBO League The KBO League (), officially the Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League, is the highest level league of baseball in South Korea. The KBO League was founded with six franchises in 1982 and is the most popular sports league in South Korea. The Kia Tigers ar ...

. He bats and throws

right-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

Amateur career

While attending Seoul High School in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...

, An was considered one of the top

shortstop Shortstop, abbreviated SS, is the baseball or softball fielding position between second and third base, which is considered to be among the most demanding defensive positions. Historically the position was assigned to defensive specialists wh ...

s in the Korean high school baseball league. As a sophomore, he drew national attention at the President's Cup National High School Baseball Championship held in April 2007, where his team finished runner-up and An won

batting Batting may refer to: * Batting (baseball), the act of attempting to hit a ball thrown by the pitcher with a baseball bat, in order to score runs * Batting (cricket), the act of defending one's wicket with the cricket bat while attempting to score ...

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s and RBI titles.

Professional career

Drafted by the

Kia Tigers Kia Tigers ( ko, KIA 타이거즈) are a South Korean professional baseball team founded in 1982 and based in the southwestern city of Gwangju. Until 2001, they were known as the Haitai Tigers. The Tigers are a members of the KBO League and are ...

in the 2nd round (1st pick, 9th overall) of the 2009 KBO Draft, An made his pro debut on April 4, . On July 2, he became the fourth straight-from-high-school rookie to hit double digit home runs in KBO history, smacking two home runs against the Samsung Lions. An was selected for the Best 10 of the 2009 KBO All-Star Game. He became the first rookie player to earn the All-Star Best 10 honors since Lee Byung-Kyu and

Jin Kab-Yong Jin Kab-yong (Hangul: 진갑용; born May 8, 1974 in Busan, South Korea) is a retired catcher who last played for the Samsung Lions in the Korea Baseball Organization. He batted and threw right-handed. Amateur career In February 1993, while att ...

in . In the All-Star Game in Gwangju on July 25, A hit a two-run home run in the 5th inning, which made him the youngest ever to be named KBO All-Star Game MVP. An finished his rookie season with a

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of .235 (44th in the league) and 14

s. Although An was the only rookie player to be eligible for the batting title in the 2009 season, having 436

plate appearances In baseball statistics, a player is credited with a plate appearance (denoted by PA) each time he completes a turn batting. Under Rule 5.04(c) of the Official Baseball Rules, a player completes a turn batting when he is put out or becomes a runner ...

in 123 games, he failed to make the Rookie of the Year title, losing out to saves champion Lee Yong-Chan of the

Doosan Bears The Doosan Bears ( ko, 두산 베어스) are a South Korean professional baseball team based in Seoul. Founded in 1982, they are a member of the KBO League. The Bears have won six Korean Series titles (1982, 1995, 2001, 2015, 2016, and 2019) and ...

International career

In August 2007, he was selected for the

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

national junior baseball team and participated in the Asian Junior Baseball Championship held in

Taichung Taichung (, Wade–Giles: ''Tʻai²-chung¹'', pinyin: ''Táizhōng''), officially Taichung City, is a special municipality located in central Taiwan. Taichung has approximately 2.8 million residents and is the second most populous city of Ta ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. In , An was selected for the South Korea national junior baseball team again to compete at the

World Junior Baseball Championship The U-18 Baseball World Cup is the 18-and-under baseball world championship sanctioned by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and its successor, the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), and was first held in 1981 in the United ...

, where they claimed their fifth tournament title. In the tourney, he batted .333 (10-for-30) with 8 RBIs and 8 runs, playing in all 8 games as a second and

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

, and was named Best Defensive Player. In 2018, he represented South Korea at the

2018 Asian Games The 2018 Asian Games ( id, Pesta Olahraga Asia 2018 or ''Asian Games 2018''), officially known as the 18th Asian Games and also known as Jakarta-Palembang 2018 or Indonesia 2018, was a continental multi-sport event that was held from 18 Augus ...

Awards and honors

*2009 All-Star Game MVP *2011 Gold Glove second baseman.

References

External links

* Career statistics and player information fro
the KBO official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:An, Chi-hong 1990 births Living people Baseball players at the 2018 Asian Games Asian Games gold medalists for South Korea Medalists at the 2018 Asian Games Asian Games medalists in baseball KBO League second basemen Kia Tigers players South Korean baseball players Baseball players from Seoul