Sadaharu Oh: The Real Home Run King of Baseball

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: on September 3, 1977. Sadaharu Oh hits his 756th home run in the MBL in Japan, becoming

[00:00:12] [SPEAKER_00]: the all-time leader in the world for home runs passing his friend Hank Aaron and continues

[00:00:20] [SPEAKER_00]: a career where he still holds the record for the most home runs and professional baseball

[00:00:25] [SPEAKER_00]: in the world. Today we're going to dive into how he did this and his unique story that's often

[00:00:30] [SPEAKER_00]: forgot about outside of Japan, today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History,

[00:00:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm Ethan Reese your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day. And today's trivia

[00:00:48] [SPEAKER_00]: question is what home run hitter from MBL did Sadaharu Oh face off against? Now Sadaharu Oh was

[00:00:59] [SPEAKER_00]: born in 1940 in Japan. His father was Chinese and his mother was Japanese. This was very hard on him

[00:01:06] [SPEAKER_00]: at the time because World War II was going on and Japan was a major player on the Pacific battle

[00:01:12] [SPEAKER_00]: grounds so they were often bouncing from place to place and his father was also detained multiple

[00:01:17] [SPEAKER_00]: times as he was Chinese and they thought he may be a spy. Luckily through all this,

[00:01:23] [SPEAKER_00]: him and his family were able to come out of all this and he was able to get into

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_00]: what became the most popular sport in Japan, baseball. And in Japan professional baseball

[00:01:33] [SPEAKER_00]: didn't start until the 1930s just a little bit before he was born but it had a huge boom especially

[00:01:38] [SPEAKER_00]: after World War II because their pro league started to develop more and more and they actually

[00:01:43] [SPEAKER_00]: started to get more Americans to come over and play and this helped boom the sport to now it is

[00:01:49] [SPEAKER_00]: over twice as popular as the second most popular sport which is sumo wrestling. And part of this

[00:01:54] [SPEAKER_00]: boom was because of Oh. Now a little understanding about baseball in Japan especially in the 1950s

[00:02:02] [SPEAKER_00]: and 60s and 70s when Oh was playing it's huge and just imagine if you're in America Texas what do we

[00:02:09] [SPEAKER_00]: know about Texas? Texas high school football and college football is number one and that's what it's

[00:02:15] [SPEAKER_00]: like in Japan except for baseball so high school baseball and their national tournament

[00:02:20] [SPEAKER_00]: for high schoolers is very very popular. I know how the opportunity to pitch in this he actually

[00:02:26] [SPEAKER_00]: started out as a pitcher just like Babe Ruth and many other players and he was a very good

[00:02:31] [SPEAKER_00]: pitcher he led his team to the championship his junior year of high school and unlike baseball

[00:02:37] [SPEAKER_00]: today back then you pitched as much as you could and he pitched four consecutive complete

[00:02:43] [SPEAKER_00]: games in a row and helped lead his team to the championship and after high school was over

[00:02:49] [SPEAKER_00]: he had the option to go to college and play but he chose to play for his hometown team the Yumiori

[00:02:55] [SPEAKER_00]: Giants where he initially signed as a pitcher but as they got through his development they noticed

[00:03:00] [SPEAKER_00]: his pitching wasn't on par but his hitting was so good they moved him to first base

[00:03:06] [SPEAKER_00]: so he could get a chance to play behind a veteran where he could learn and become a great

[00:03:11] [SPEAKER_00]: hitter and he struggled his first year his rookie year he batted 161 but every year he

[00:03:17] [SPEAKER_00]: got better and better his second year he batted 270 and eventually he worked his way to hitting over

[00:03:23] [SPEAKER_00]: 300 for the rest of his career and what really led to his change was in his second season they

[00:03:28] [SPEAKER_00]: got a new hitting coach that really worked on his hitting and changed his stance from being a

[00:03:33] [SPEAKER_00]: normal stance that we see today to a very unique stance we don't see very often which is called

[00:03:37] [SPEAKER_00]: a flamingo stance it's called that because he regularly stands on one leg he was a left-handed

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_00]: batter and so he would stand with his right side towards the pitcher and as the pitcher was getting

[00:03:48] [SPEAKER_00]: ready to throw the ball he would lift his right leg up almost to a 90 degree angle and then step

[00:03:54] [SPEAKER_00]: into his swing and this created a great way for him to not lunge and to keep his timing

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_00]: through every pitch and it helped him so much that it led him to be one of the greatest

[00:04:06] [SPEAKER_00]: hitters and is one of the most iconic poses that you see all the time and he would practice

[00:04:11] [SPEAKER_00]: this all the time balancing on that one leg he would do it even with a samurai sword as he worked

[00:04:17] [SPEAKER_00]: on this and it really was something he wanted to work on because he wanted to be a baseball player

[00:04:23] [SPEAKER_00]: and he wanted to be great as in his first three years he hit 37 home runs total but in his fourth

[00:04:30] [SPEAKER_00]: year he hit 38 home runs and in 1964 he hit 55 home runs and from 1963 to 1974 he would hit over 40

[00:04:43] [SPEAKER_00]: home runs every year but one where he hit 39 and this consistency may remind you of a previous

[00:04:50] [SPEAKER_00]: home run king we talked about in Hank Aaron who never get huge numbers every year but was

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_00]: consistently getting around 40 home runs every year that's exactly what oh was doing as well and

[00:05:02] [SPEAKER_00]: they were actually kind of battling each other to see who could possibly break Babe Ruth's record

[00:05:07] [SPEAKER_00]: as it was around the same time they were playing each other and in 1974 the Atlanta Braves actually

[00:05:14] [SPEAKER_00]: came over to Japan where they actually faced off against the umari giants and they held a

[00:05:20] [SPEAKER_00]: mini home run derby between Hank Aaron and oh where Aaron would win out 10 to 9 but they always respected

[00:05:28] [SPEAKER_00]: each other and would call each other friends and many times they would hold these exhibition games

[00:05:33] [SPEAKER_00]: in the 60s and 70s where they bring MLB teams over here and they would have actual competitive

[00:05:39] [SPEAKER_00]: battles and this really showed that he wasn't just hitting in an underground league he was a

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_00]: good player and Hank Aaron would say that himself and he started his career in 1959 and it would go

[00:05:53] [SPEAKER_00]: all the way till 1980 when at the age of 40 he would finally retire with a career batting average

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_00]: of 301 having finished third all time in the Japan League and hits with 2786 and would finish his

[00:06:08] [SPEAKER_00]: career with 868 home runs which is still the record all time for the most home runs by a professional

[00:06:18] [SPEAKER_00]: baseball player now you may now many people say well the Japan League isn't as good as the

[00:06:24] [SPEAKER_00]: major league baseball especially back then and maybe there's a little bit of difference but it

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_00]: shows he was good and he faced off against good hitters and good players throughout his career

[00:06:33] [SPEAKER_00]: as they would hold exhibition games in America hold exhibition games in Japan and they would

[00:06:38] [SPEAKER_00]: face off against each other and he got praises from players after players saying he was one of the

[00:06:42] [SPEAKER_00]: best players in the world and it wasn't until more recently that we've been getting players from

[00:06:47] [SPEAKER_00]: Japan regularly as many players in Japan love to play for their hometown teams love to play

[00:06:52] [SPEAKER_00]: in their home country but there is more money in America and in major league but we've seen

[00:06:58] [SPEAKER_00]: successes in players like Ichiro Suzuki, Hugh Darvish, Daisuke Matsuzaka and more recently

[00:07:06] [SPEAKER_00]: Shohei Otani we see that these players are having great success and there's been way more

[00:07:11] [SPEAKER_00]: and the problem is you have to pay money just to sign these players and then you have to pay

[00:07:15] [SPEAKER_00]: their players so it's a lot of money to get these players from Japan but they're a great

[00:07:20] [SPEAKER_00]: league and it's honestly even better than the minor league system just below what the

[00:07:25] [SPEAKER_00]: major league system is if not right on par it's very close as we've seen these players come over

[00:07:30] [SPEAKER_00]: and have major success in the major leagues and that's because they're doing great in Japan

[00:07:36] [SPEAKER_00]: just as well so even though it's in a different league in a different country doesn't mean he's

[00:07:42] [SPEAKER_00]: not a great player as he won 11 Japan championships was named MVP nine times was the triple crown

[00:07:50] [SPEAKER_00]: winner in back-to-back seasons and was inducted into the Japanese baseball hall of fame in 1994

[00:07:58] [SPEAKER_00]: he was a great player and even though if you're in America he probably don't know much about him

[00:08:02] [SPEAKER_00]: he was a hitter and he is without controversy the home run king of the world i want to thank you

[00:08:13] [SPEAKER_00]: for listening to today's daily sports history if you like this please hit subscribe wherever you're

[00:08:18] [SPEAKER_00]: listening that way you do not miss a single episode because we'll be back tomorrow for

[00:08:23] [SPEAKER_00]: more daily sports history and you won't want to miss out and the answer to today's trivia

[00:08:29] [SPEAKER_00]: question what home run hitter from major league baseball did Sadaharu Oh face off against and the

[00:08:36] [SPEAKER_00]: answer is Hank Aaron who won the home run derby 10 to 9