The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) held the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO Awards at the Grand Volume of the Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul on the 27th of last month. Hanwha Moon Dong-ju was selected as the best rookie award among rookies. Moon Dong-ju won the Asian Games gold medal and the Rookie of the Year award.
In the 2023 season, Moon Dong-ju did not fill the regular innings (144 innings), but he clearly made his name known to the KBO League. In the game against the KIA Tigers in April, he threw 160.1 kilometers and became the first Korean pitcher to record more than 160 kilometers in the first division at the same time as breaking the record for a Korean pitcher in the KBO League. He also played in the All-Star Game in July.
This season, Moon Dong-ju recorded eight wins, eight losses and a 3.72 ERA in 118 ⅔ innings in 23 games. He has the most wins among Korean starters in Hanwha's team. Foreign pitcher Felix Peña is the only player who has recorded more wins than Moon Dong-ju in Hanwha. He also experienced the international stage, including the gold medal at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games and the Asian Professional Baseball Championship (APBC) 2023.
Moon Dong-ju, who performed well, was in his second year of debut because he took the professional stage in 2022, but he was shortlisted in accordance with the rookie award regulations. In the end, Moon Dong-ju beat KIA Tigers Yoon Young-chul and won the Rookie of the Year award. This is the first rookie award produced by Hanwha in 17 years since "Korean Monster" Ryu Hyun-jin. In response, Hanwha planned a commemorative product to celebrate Moon Dong-ju's Rookie of the Year.
And the popularity of Moon Dong-ju's Rookie of the Year commemorative products, which had the best year, is soaring. Hanwha said on the 1st, "The Moon Dong-ju Rookie of the Year commemorative product, which started pre-ordering on the 29th of last month, consisted of five items, including uniforms, commemorative equipment, medals, rings, and photo cards, and recorded more than 200 million won in sales on the first day of pre-order, the highest sales of the club's commemorative products in a day."
He added, "The online shop of Hanwha Eagles, the purchaser, attracted more than 10,000 people immediately after opening, and the server was paralyzed for more than an hour."
More than 1,000 fans and citizens gathered at the Moon Dong-ju fan signing event held at Hanwha Galleria Time World in Dunsan-dong, Daejeon, on the 29th of last month, showing a hot enthusiasm even offline. The pop-up exhibition section of commemorative products with the concept of "Daejeon Prince's Room" will be operated on the first floor of Hanwha Galleria Time World until the 5th.
Starting with Moon Dong-ju, Hanwha plans to launch a "player brand" for Hanwha's major players and strengthen its products, and thanks to this offline opening, it plans to continue its efforts to strengthen customer service and grow together with Galleria. Memorial products can be pre-purchased until midnight on the 5th at Hanwha Eagles online shop, and details can be found on Hanwha SNS or online shop.
Meanwhile, Moon Dong-ju won two Rookie of the Year awards at the 2023 Professional Baseball Sports Seoul Awards held at the Eliena Hotel Imperial Hall in Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul on the 30th of last month. Moon Dong-ju said, "I would like to thank Coach Choi Won-ho for trusting and using me for one season. I think I wasn't good enough this year, but it's good to get the Rookie of the Year award. "I will work hard, knowing that it means to work harder," he said.