Sadaharu Oh
08/09/2007 @ 7:30 pm
Now that Barry Bonds has surpassed Hank Aaron on the all-time home run list, pundits are again talking about who is the true home run king and which records really “count”. Here is a pretty good article that discusses the career and home run hitting achievements of Sadaharu Oh.
Good article, and right on when it comes to why Nagashima is more popular than Oh.
Oh was undoubtedly a great player, and he probably would’ve excelled had he gotten the chance to play in the majors, but his home run record in Japan can’t be compared to the Major League record. Oh played in stadiums with smaller dimensions than MLB ballparks. He used compressed bats throughout most of his career, which were banned in MLB. And the fact that the Giants won 9 consecutive championships between 1965-1973 shows how the talent base in Japanese baseball at the height of Oh’s career was skewed in favor of Yomiuri.
Oh, however, remains one of the greats, no matter what side of the Pacific he played. As for his home run record, Alex Rodriguez is on pace to hit 935 home runs by the end of his career, so the questions of Bonds vs. Aaron and Bonds vs. Oh could be settled in a few years’ time.
August 9th, 2007 at 11:51 pmSadaharu Oh would have hardly hit 700 home runs in MLB. Not only stadiums in Japan were smaller than MLB ballparks, the pitchers over there threw more difficult balls to contact to make home runs than in NPB. When you see the case of Hideki Matsui, you may think you got to reduce 30 % of the home run numbers in NPB for MLB. Actually, Matsui hit 50 homers a year in Japan, but hit only 31 until now in MLB(this year he might make 35 or more).
So we(including Bobby Valentine) know Oh isn’t recognized in north America, since Oh’s record is made in NPB. Otherwise, his record is great and Japanese believe Oh’s home runs record is the world record.
The similar story is about Lee Seung-Yeop（イ スンヨプ）. He hit 56 home runs in 2003 in south Korea, which is the Asian record. But Japanese stadiums today are bigger than Korean ones. Since 2004 He has been playing in Japan, but he hit only 41 homers a year until now.
Anyway, I am a little curious whether Americans will refer to Oh’s record when Alex Rodriguez hit 868 home runs. @_@
August 10th, 2007 at 11:32 am“Anyway, I am a little curious whether Americans will refer to Oh’s record when Alex Rodriguez hit 868 home runs.”
They might. Sachio Kinugasa’s mark of 2215 consecutive games played received some attention when Cal Ripken, Jr surpassed him (on the way to 2632 games). Of course it was nothing like when Ripken broke Lou Gehrig’s record of 2130 games, but Kinugasa’s accomplishment was noted in the American media.
August 10th, 2007 at 4:44 pmThe most shocking fact of all in that article is the notion that Sadaharu Oh has no stomach! I kinda assumed that was an organ the human body could not do without.
August 11th, 2007 at 10:53 am