Sadaharu Oh: The Real Home Run King of Baseball

On September 3rd, 1977, Sadaharu Oh hits his 756th home run in the NBL in Japan, becoming the all-time leader in the world for home runs, passing his friend Hank Aaron, and continues a career where he still holds the record for the most home runs in professional baseball in the world. Today we're going to dive into how he did this and his unique story that's often forgot about outside of Japan. Today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Rees, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day. And today's trivia question is, what home run hitter from Major League Baseball did Sadaharu Oh face off against? Now, Sadaharu Oh was born in 1940 in Japan. His father was Chinese and his mother was Japanese. This was very hard on him at the time because World War II was going on and Japan was a major player on the Pacific battlegrounds. So they were often bouncing from place to place. And his father was also detained multiple times as he was Chinese and they thought he may be a spy. But luckily through all this, him and his family were able to come out of all this and he was able to get into Japan what became the most popular sport in Japan, baseball. And in Japan, professional baseball didn't start until the 1930s, just a little bit before he was born. But it had a huge boom, especially after World War II, because their pro league started to develop more and more. And they actually started to get more Americans to come over and play. And this helped boom the sport to now it is over twice as popular as the second most popular sport, which is sumo wrestling. And part of this boom was because of O. Now, a little understanding about sumo. baseball in Japan, especially in the 1950s and 60s and 70s when O was playing. It's huge. And just imagine if you're in America, Texas, what do we know about Texas? Texas high school football and college football is number one. And that's what it's like in Japan, except for baseball. So high school baseball and their national tournament for high schoolers is very, very popular. And O had the opportunity to pitch in this. He actually started out as a pitcher, just like Babe Ruth and many other players. And he was a very good pitcher. He led his team to the championship his junior year of high school. And unlike baseball today, back then, you pitched as much as you could. And he pitched four consecutive complete games in a row and helped lead his team to the championship. And after high school was over, He had the option to go to college and play, but he chose to play for his hometown team, the Yumiuri Giants, where he initially signed as a pitcher, but as they got through his development, they noticed his pitching wasn't on par, but his hitting was so good, they moved him to first base so he could get a chance to play behind a veteran where he could learn and become a great hitter. And he struggled his first year. His rookie year, he batted 161. But every year, he got better and better. His second year, he batted 270. And eventually, he worked his way to hitting over 300 for the rest of his career. And what really led to his change was his second season, they got a new hitting coach that really worked on his hitting and changed his stance. from being a normal stance that we see today to a very unique stance we don't see very often, which is called a flamingo stance. It's called that because he regularly stands on one leg. He was a left-handed batter, and so he would stand with his right side towards the pitcher, and as the pitcher was getting ready to throw the ball, he would lift his right leg up almost to a 90-degree angle and then step into his swing, and this created momentum. a great way for him to not lunge and to keep his timing through every pitch. And it helped him so much that it led him to be one of the greatest hitters. It is one of the most iconic poses that you see all the time. And he would practice this all the time, balancing on that one leg. He would do it even with a samurai sword as he worked on this. And it really was something he wanted to work on because he wanted to be a baseball player and he wanted to be great. As in his first three years, he hit 37 home runs total. But in his fourth year, he hit 38 home runs. And in 1964, he hit 55 home runs. And from 1963 to 1974, he would hit over 40 home runs every year but one, where he hit 39. And this consistency may remind you of a previous home run king we talked about in Hank Aaron, who would never get huge numbers every year, but was consistently getting around 40 home runs every year. That's exactly what O was doing as well. And they were actually kind of battling each other to see who could possibly break Babe Ruth's record, as it was around the same time they were playing each other. And in 1974, the Atlanta Braves actually came over to Japan, where they actually faced off against the Umari Giants. And they held a mini home run derby between Hank Aaron and O, where Aaron would win out. 10 to 9. But they always respected each other and would call each other friends. And many times they would hold these exhibition games in the 60s and 70s where they would bring MLB teams over here and they would have actual competitive battles. And this really showed that he wasn't just hitting in an underground league. He was a good player. And Hank Aaron would say that himself. And he started his career in 1959. And it would go all the way till 1980. When at the age of 40, he would finally retire with a career batting average of 301, having finished third all time in the Japan League in hits with 2,786. And would finish his career with 868 home runs, which is still the record all time. for the most home runs by a professional baseball player. Now, many people say, well, the Japan League isn't as good as the Major League Baseball, especially back then. And maybe there's a little bit of difference, but it shows he was good. And he faced off against good hitters and good players throughout his career as they would hold exhibition games in America, hold exhibition games in Japan, and they would face off against each other. He got praises from players after players saying he was one of the best players in the world. And it wasn't until more recently that we've been getting players from Japan regularly. As many players in Japan love to play for their hometown teams, love to play in their home country. But there is more money in America and in Major League. But we've seen successes in players like Ichiro Suzuki, Hugh Darvish, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and more recently, Shohei Otani. We see that these players are having great success. And there's been way more. And the problem is you have to pay money just to sign these players. And then you have to pay their players. So it's a lot of money to get these players from Japan. But they're a great league. And it's honestly even better than the minor league system. Just below what the major league system is. If not right on par. It's very close. As we've seen these players come over and have major success in the major leagues. And that's because they're doing great in Japan just as well. So even though it's in a different league in a different country, doesn't mean he's not a great player. As he won 11 Japan championships, was named MVP nine times, was the Triple Crown winner in back-to-back seasons, and was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994. He was a great player. And even though if you're in America, you probably don't know much about him. He was a hitter, and he is, without controversy, the best. Home run king of the world. I want to thank you for listening to today's daily sports history. If you like this, please hit subscribe wherever you're listening. That way you do not miss a single episode because we'll be back tomorrow for more daily sports history and you won't want to miss out. And the answer to today's trivia question, what home run hitter from Major League Baseball did Sadaharu Oh face off against? And the answer is Hank Aaron, who won the Home Run Derby 10-9.