#Shortstops: Powerful shoes to fill

762 and 755. These numbers represent the records for the most, and second-most, home runs ever hit during the career of a single Major League Baseball player.

Both of these marks, however, fall well short of another record. That record belongs to Japan’s home run king, a 5-foot-10, 173-pound slugger who launched 868 career home runs over the course of his career.

Sadaharu Oh is widely regarded as the best hitter in the history of Japanese professional baseball. He played 22 seasons in the Nippon Professional Baseball League, from 1959 to 1980, for the Yomiuri Giants as a first baseman. Oh was a left-handed hitter with prolific power and a unique approach to hitting.

Although he became the greatest professional home run hitter of all time, his path to the top was far from easy. Oh was born on May 20, 1940, in Japan to a Chinese father and Japanese mother. His lineage officially made him Chinese, which led to him being a victim of racial prejudice during his career. Perhaps a bigger obstacle for Oh, however, was the challenge of convincing his father that his baseball career was more of a reality than a dream.

Oh’s father saw baseball as a distraction from more important aspects of Sadaharu’s life, such as his education. Finally, in 1957 during a high school baseball tournament in which Oh pitched four complete games, his father realized his potential.

Not long after, in 1959, Oh was offered a contract by the Nippon Professional Baseball’s Yomiuri Giants as a pitcher. After initially struggling on the mound, the Giants soon realized Oh’s true potential was at the plate and converted him to a first baseman.

The transition to first base allowed Oh to focus on making what would become the turning point in his career. This was his development of a distinctive swing that became known as “the flamingo leg kick”. The swing was created by Oh and the hitting coach of the Giants, Hiroshi Arakawa, who happened to be an accomplished samurai swordsman. Together they combined elements of martial arts, Zen principles and baseball mechanics to create a brand new style of swing, specifically tailored to Oh.

Oh’s new swing and sensational power were first on display in 1960, when he blasted 17 home runs in his first full season. He then continued to showcase his power by hitting more than 30 home runs in every season from 1962 until he retired following the 1980 season. Upon his retirement, Oh had set baseball’s all-time home run record of 868, while also compiling 2,786 hits, 2,170 RBIs and a lifetime .301 batting average.

Twenty-six years following his retirement, Oh returned to the spotlight as the manager of team Japan in the 2006 World Baseball Classic. The tournament played host to 16 teams including squads from the United States, Cuba, Puerto Rico, The Dominican Republic and Japan. Oh’s Japanese team was headlined by superstar Ichiro Suzuki and played to a 3-3 record in the first two rounds. After narrowly qualifying for the semifinals, the team defeated South Korea 6-0 and then defeated Cuba 10-6 to win the championship. Oh’s shoes from the 2006 WBC are now preserved at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.