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There was one thought flashing through Jeong Choi¡¯s head as he rounded the bases after hitting his 468th career home run, breaking the mark held by Korean baseball legend Seung Yuop Lee: I wish I did this at home.

¡°The realization sunk in as I was rounding the bases: I finally got the record and now I can solely focus on the team performance versus my home run record,¡± Choi said through MLB Korea's Sunjae Song, who interpreted. ¡°The one thing that was a little bit difficult was the fact that I was away. I would have loved to hit that home run when I was home in Incheon. That's what was in my mind. Even though it was an away game, I heard all the cheering that the fans did for me, and I was very appreciative of that.¡±

The location where the record-breaking home run would be hit was a clubhouse conversation as Choi approached the mark. Amidst all the buzz and media attention, Choi¡¯s Landers teammates let him know where he should have saved his record-breaking swing.

¡°Teammates were joking that for the record-breaking home run, I had to hit it at home and not while we¡¯re on the road,¡± Choi said. ¡°Even the team¡¯s front office was briefing me for what would happen once the record was broken.¡±

Choi admitted that the chase and all the pressure around it did weigh on him as he drew closer to the record.

¡°Sometimes I couldn't concentrate while I was at bat because I was thinking about hitting a home run versus actually focusing on that at-bat,¡± Choi said. ¡°There was a lot of pressure, there was a lot of buzz around. But thankfully, I was able to hit the home run sooner than later.¡±

Fortunately for Choi, tying the record removed most of that pressure -- something that was fortunate given that he missed nearly a week¡¯s worth of games after being hit by a pitch from former Pirates pitcher Wil Crowe the day after he tied Lee¡¯s mark.

¡°Tying the record was actually more pressure for me,¡± Choi noted. ¡°When I got hit by the pitch and missed a few games, I was more so worried about the rhythm that I was on and losing that feeling versus not being able to hit the home run.¡±

Of course, Choi owns more than just the home run mark: The slugger, who has appeared in three World Baseball Classic tournaments for Korea, also leads the KBO in runs (1,390 as of May 7) and holds the all-time professional baseball hit-by-pitch record with 332. That smashes Hughie Jennings' MLB record of 287 HBP and easily surpasses Craig Biggio¡¯s more modern mark of 285.

¡°A lot of pundits will say that the reason why I get hit so much is because I'm close to the plate and I'm standing over the plate," Choi said. "Maybe there is a little bit of that, where I am kind of close. But I think it's more so that I approach the game right and a lot of pitchers will challenge me inside. I'm not doing anything different. The balls that I get hit by are balls that anyone would have gotten hit by, so I don't particularly think of the record much.¡±

Still, a record is a record and Choi won¡¯t shy away from it:

¡°Obviously I'm not proud of it, but as a record holder, it should be in the Guinness World Records,¡± Choi joked.

Though Choi didn¡¯t originally grow up dreaming of becoming the home run king -- his first favorite sport was actually soccer -- he still has plenty of goals ahead of him.

¡°Every year, my personal goal is to hit double-digit home runs,¡± Choi said about his approach that has seen him reach double-digits every year since 2006. ¡°But now that I have the record, I¡¯m certainly looking forward to hitting 500 -- and even 600 after that.¡±