Choo Shin-soo, a former major league All-Star who will retire after the upcoming season in South Korea, said Wednesday he would like nothing more than to go out on top. Choo, entering his fourth and final season with the SSG Landers in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO), held a press conference at the team's home park, Incheon SSG Landers Field in the western city of Incheon, on Wednesday -- his first media appearance since announcing his retirement plans on Dec. 14. During a wide-ranging, 35-minute session with about 20 writers, Choo, 41, insisted his personal statistics will be secondary to the team goal of winning a championship. The Landers won their most recent Korean Series title in 2022, Choo's second season in the KBO. "I think it'll be great if I can cap off my career with another title," Choo said. "I don't really care about my own numbers. I just want to stay healthy and lead the team where we should go. The goal this year is to win the championship." That's a bold -- some may say overly a mbitious -- declaration for Choo, considering that the Landers are an aging team that suffered a first-round elimination in last year's postseason. Though the season is still a couple of months away, few pundits as this point would give the Landers much of a shot to even reach the Korean Series, let alone win it at the end. Choo, however, begged to differ. "I am not preparing for the season to finish in second place. I am not traveling all the way to Florida for our spring training just to be the second-best team," Choo said. "If there are players who don't put winning a championship above everything else, then they shouldn't even be here. People can make their predictions all they want, but there are so many variables in baseball that you never know what's going to happen." Given the age of key veterans like himself, 36-year-old third baseman Choi Jeong and 35-year-old starter Kim Kwang-hyun, Choo said the key for the Landers will be to avoid long-term injuries. And in order to help the Landers, Choo sai d he will willingly go down to the Futures League, the KBO's minor league, during the season to make room for talented young players on the rise. "I've decided to stick around for one more season because I wanted to win another championship, not because I wanted to pad my stats," Choo said. "And I don't want to get in the way of what the club wants to do moving forward. I want to help this team become a consistent force for many years. If I am taking up space for younger players, then I will move to the minors." Choo said allowing younger players to push veterans will benefit the Landers in the long term, too. "Veterans like myself won't be playing baseball forever. And it's up to us older guys to identify young talent and develop them for the future," Choo continued. "For us to become a strong team, veterans have to feel their job is threatened by younger players, and those youngsters must have some hope that they can snatch an opportunity from older guys. There has to be more competition internally. We d idn't have that last year, and that's why we faltered in the second half of the season." As driven as he is to win his second title, Choo also admitted he feels more relaxed now than in the recent offseasons, because he no longer has to agonize over his playing future. Choo said his initial plan was to retire after just one season in the KBO. But he had too much fun playing pro ball with teammates who spoke the same language -- "I'd always wanted to be able to joke around in Korean in the clubhouse," Choo said -- that he wanted to come back for another go. Choo had his first opportunity to go out on top in 2022, after the Landers won their Korean Series title. However, the Landers told them they weren't yet ready to lose him and they wanted him to come back. Following the 2023 season, Choo said he was "50-50" when it came to extending his playing career. But when the Landers lost his good friend and fellow 41-year-old Kim Kang-min to the Hanwha Eagles via secondary draft in November, Choo decided to stay put to provide the Landers with some veteran presence. Choo will serve as the team's captain in 2024, and he signed for league-minimum 30 million won (US$22,880), all of which he will donate to charity. "I don't think I am sacrificing anything by playing for free," Choo said. "I knew the tight salary cap situation for the team, and I wanted to offer more flexibility so that we could become an even better team. I didn't come to Korea for money, and I don't think my act should be described as a sacrifice." Choo quipped that his wife wasn't too pleased with the arrangement, even though Choo made an estimated $147.5 million during his MLB career. "I am just happy to be doing something I love," Choo said. "There aren't too many people who can say they truly love what they do. A lot of them do things reluctantly to make a living. But I've made so much money playing baseball." After the Landers fired manager Kim Won-hyong in November, Choo was rumored to be the successor. He said Wednesday he "laughed at those reports" because such speculation "made zero sense whatsoever." "I played in the majors for a long time, but I've never prepared myself to become a manager, nor have I even thought about becoming one," Choo said. "Apparently, I've done something right over my first three years here for some people to think I could become a manager. But I've only been a player, and I will need more time to prepare to do other things." Choo is widely considered the greatest South Korean hitter in MLB history, given his body of work and longevity. Choo owns the record for most career home runs by an Asian-born hitter in the majors with 218. Choo posted three "20-20" seasons, in which he had at least 20 home runs and 20 steals. In 2013 with the Cincinnati Reds, Choo became only the second leadoff hitter ever to put up 20 homers, 20 steals, 100 runs and 100 walks in one season. In 2018 with the Rangers, Choo put together a 52-game on-base streak, the longest for a single season in club history and the longest in MLB since 2007 . In 1,652 games across 16 major league seasons, Choo had a .275/.377/.447 line with 218 home runs, 782 RBIs and 157 steals. In three KBO seasons so far, Choo has put up a .260/.391/.428 line in 361 games, with 49 home runs, 168 RBIs and 46 steals. Mostly as designated hitter in 2023, Choo batted .254 with 12 homers and 41 RBIs in 112 games -- his worst numbers across the board since arriving in South Korea. Source: Yonhap News Agency