Sadaharu Oh
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Sadaharu Oh (王貞治 Ō Sadaharu, also known as Wáng Zhēnzhì, born May 20, 1940) was a professional baseball player and manager. He is one of Japan's most revered sports heroes, although he has never had Japanese citizenship and holds a Republic of China passport.
Oh was born in Tokyo, Japan, was the son of a Chinese father and a Japanese mother. In 1959 he signed a contract to pitch for the Yomiuri Giants. He was a weak pitcher and switched to first base. In those early seasons, Oh worked with coach Hiroshi Arakawa to improve his batting stance. This led him to developing a unique stance, in which he raised his right leg high, flamingo-style, in anticipation of the pitch. It took Oh a few years to blossom, but he would go on to dominate baseball in Japan for the next twenty years.
Oh led his league in home runs 15 times, 13 of which were consecutive, and drove in the most runs in 13 seasons. More than just a power hitter, he also won the batting title five times. Twice in his career Sadaharu Oh won the batting triple crown, led his team to eleven championships. Oh was named his league's Most Valuable Player 9 times, and voted to the All Star team eighteen times.
In 1980, Sadaharu Oh retired at age 40 having a record of 2,786 hits, 868 home runs, 2,170 runs batted in and a .301 lifetime batting average out of 9,250 at bats in 2,831 games. His 868 career home runs surpassed America's Hank Aaron, making him professional baseball's all-time home run king.
Oh's outstanding totals have led baseball fans in many countries to speculate how well he could have done had he played in the American major leagues. His hitting exploits benefited from the fact that for most of his career, he batted #3 in the Giants' lineup, with Shigeo Nagashima, a dangerous hitter in his own right, batting behind him. The fences in the ballparks Oh played in were shorter than in the U.S. (about 300-320 feet down the foul lines), and many Japanese teams in his time used only three starting pitchers, often leaving them exhausted. On the other hand, the Japanese season is shorter than the American season by 32 games, and veteran American players who observed Oh's play firsthand compared his strength and skill to Aaron and Ted Williams. All told, there is little doubt among baseball scholars that Oh could still have been a superstar even if had he played for an American team instead of the Yomiuri Giants.
Following his retirement, Oh was hired to manage his Giants team in 1984. He was manager until 1988 when he and the also retired Hank Aaron teamed up on a campaign to increase the popularity of baseball by working with youngsters.
In 1994 Sadaharu Oh was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. The following year he returned to baseball as the manager of the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks . He coached the Hawks to the Japanese championship in 1999. The Hawks also won the 2000 Pacific League Pennant but lost the Japan Series to the Yomiuri Giants.
He was married to Kyoko Oh, who died of stomach cancer in December 2001 at age 57. In December 2002, the ashes of his wife were stolen from their family grave. The reason for this theft is still unclear.
Ō is the Japanese spelling of a common Chinese surname Wang, which means the king. As Oh is the all-time home run king, the name is fitting.
External links
- Oh for Cooperstown? Part I by Jim Albright (http://baseballguru.com/jalbright/analysisjalbright12.html)
- Oh for Cooperstown? Part II by Jim Albright (http://baseballguru.com/jalbright/analysisjalbright13.html)
- Oh Sadaharu @A Trivial Encyclopedia of Japan (http://homepage3.nifty.com/kadzuwo/triviana/oh.htm) (with links in multiple languages)
- Japanese Baseball Data Archive at The Baseball Guru (http://baseballguru.com/jalbright/stats.html)ja:王貞治