Veteran KBO infielder Hwang Jae-gyun announces retirement

Hwang Jae-gyun, an All-Star infielder in the Korean baseball league who also had a cup of coffee in the majors, announced his retirement Friday at age 38. The KT Wiz, the last team in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) for Hwang, said the veteran decided to call it a career after 18 seasons at home and one brief stint with the San Francisco Giants in 2017. Hwang made his KBO debut with the now-defunct Hyundai Unicorns in 2007. He then spent the next two seasons with the Woori (currently Kiwoom) Heroes, a new franchise that joined the KBO after the Unicorns folded. Hwang was traded to the Lotte Giants in July 2010 and remained with the Busan-based club until 2016. He won the 2012 All-Star Game MVP award while with the Giants. He appeared in only 18 games for the San Francisco Giants in 2017 and returned to the KBO by signing with the Wiz in November 2017. He spent the rest of his KBO career there, helping them win their first Korean Series title in 2021 as team captain. The year before that, Hwang earned his first and only Golden Glove award at third base as the best overall player at h