Sadaharu Oh

Sadaharu Oh (王 贞 治Chinese, Pinyin Wáng zhenzhi, Hepburn: Ō Sadaharu, born May 20, 1940 in Sumida, Tokyo ) is a former player and manager in Japanese baseball. Most recently, he was from 1995 to 2008 Manager of the Hawks in the Pacific League.

Oh became famous in the 1960s and 1970s as a player of the Yomiuri Giants. From this time still be valid professional world record result of 868 homeruns. As manager of the Japanese national team, he won the 2006 first World Baseball Classic.

Life

Oh the son of a Japanese mother and a father from Zhejiang, Republic of China (now China ). He, like his three daughters, the nationality of the Republic of China, but has by its Japanese parent residence in Japan. After damaligem nationality law, the Japanese nationality could only be purchased through a Japanese father.

Playing career

High school baseball

During his high school days Oh played several times as a pitcher Waseda Handelsoberschule (早 稲 田 実 业 高等 部, Waseda Jitsugyo Kōtō - bu) in the Koshien tournament, where he however suffered some heavy defeats. Then at Spring Koshien 1957 he was the best pitcher in his team. Just before the tournament, he drew two severe blisters on the throwing hand to who would be able to heal only by a break. Oh but his team did not want to let them down and hid his injury his teammates except the catcher. In the first game he pitched his team to victory with a Complete Game, which he repeated the next day. The injury was very painful and had become inflamed, but Oh she held further secret. To win the championship, he had to pitch on consecutive days two more games. After another victory by a Complete Game Oh received a surprising visit from his father, who had seen the game in Tokyo 350 km away on TV and noticed the injury. The father treated his son with Chinese herbal medicine, and Oh pitched the fourth full game in four days. The result was a narrow victory with a run and winning the championship, the Oh for the first time made ​​known nationwide.

Oh today is the only pitcher who has pitched in a Koshien tournament a no-hitter over nine innings.

Professional baseball

1959 Oh signed his first professional contract more than 15 million yen for the Yomiuri Giants. Since he could not compete on a professional level as a pitcher, he soon moved to the position of the first baseman. Together with his coach Hiroshi Arakawa, he worked on his qualities as a hitter and developed the characteristic " flamingo " leg shock.

After he had played 94 games in the first year, Oh belonged from 1960 to his retirement in late 1980 the main cast of the Giants with at least 120 games per season. Oh and teammate Shigeo Nagashima, usually as " ON- gun " (ON炮, hō ) at position three and four of the lineup the Giants, were among the dominant Hittern the League: Oh fifteen times scored the most home runs, was five times the batter with the highest average and won the Triple Crown in 1973 and 1974. On 31 August 1977, he presented with his 755th home run the previous world record of Hank Aaron, even though in the Japanese professional baseball around 30 games are completed less per season than in the major leagues and the Japanese game in general less of Power Hitting ( homeruns and extra base hits ) dependent than in America. Oh hit his last home run 868 on 12 October 1980.

1994 Oh was inducted into the Japanese baseball Hall of Fame.

Manager career

After the end of his playing career in 1981 Oh first assistant manager of the Yomiuri Giants. In 1984, he was the successor of Fujita Motoshi as a manager. With the Giants he remained until 1988, as measured by the claims of the Giants but with limited success: only 1987, he won with his team the league title, but lost then the Nihon Series against the Seibu Lions. Ohs was succeeded by his former teammate Shigeo Nagashima.

In 1995, the Fukuoka Daiei Oh as a manager Hawks in the Pacific League. After three years through adult, he managed the Hawks from 1998 to 2007 always in the top three and thus in the playoffs (since 2006: Climax Series) to bring. 1999 and 2003 he was able to win the championship in each of the Nihon Series. 2000 played his team the series against the Giants, who were still managed by Nagashima; the encounter between the two was stylized by the media as "ON Manager Showdown" (ON监督 対 决, ON Kantoku - Taiketsu ). The Giants Hideki Matsui won 4-2 games.

In September 2008 Oh announced his intention to end his career as a club coach after the season. But he did not rule out a future role in professional baseball.

Japanese national team coach

2006 World Series of baseball was with the World Baseball Classic (after several failed attempts ) first created, at the start the teams with their best players. Oh was selected as Manager of the Japanese team; with the pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka (3-0 record, 1.38 ERA ) and Koji Uehara (2-0, 1.59) and above all the best batting average of the tournament ( .311 ) Japan won the title. In a play on words with his name (王means king ) was Oh by the public as " King of the World " (世界 の 王, Sekai no Ō ) celebrated after he had already been designated as a player as a home-run king.