Choo Shin-soo of the Cleveland Indians on Sunday became the first Asian player in Major League Baseball to have a 20-20 season, meaning 20 home runs and 20 steals. With the Indians down 4-10 against the Boston Red Sox, the 27-year-old outfielder, third in the line-up, stepped to the plate with a runner on first and no outs and knocked his 20th homer into the left field seats of Boston's Fenway Park. With already 21 steals, Choo became the eighth Indian in the team's history to go 20-20.

Reaching 20-20 takes both strong hitting power and fleet feet. As of Sunday, only 12 MLB players have reached the milestone this season. Among them, only three including Choo have a batting average of 0.300 or more. Choo is touted as a "five tool" player who excels at hitting for average, hitting for power, base-running skills and speed, throwing ability, and fielding abilities. Even Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners, an iconic figure with lauded careers in both Japanese baseball and the MLB -- most notably nine consecutive seasons with over 200 hits and the highest ever number of hits in a season (262 in 2004) -- has never managed enough homers to make a 20-20 season.

Choo's MLB career got off to a rough start. He was signed by the Mariners after being selected MVP of the 2000 World Junior Championship, but with Suzuki playing the same position he had few opportunities to play in the big league. He spent six years in the minor leagues before being traded to the Indians in 2006. Just when he thought his shot at the big league had come, he was benched for a season and a half with an elbow injury. In the 2008 season Choo's MLB hopes finally started to come true. He came off the disabled list in the second half of the season, and thanks to some strong playing he became a starting member of the Indians' lineup. This season Choo has been leading the team's offense as the cleanup hitter.