“Hello Mr. Bonds, allow me to introduce myself. You may call me Oh.”

5 08 2007

Ok… dealing with the fact that Barry Bonds has equaled Hank Aaron’s 755. Not at all happy about it.

Not.

One.

Bit.

Sadaharu Oh & Hank AaronTherefore, I’m dismissing it. I feel totally at ease doing this, given I live in Japan – Barry Bonds, meet Sadaharu Oh. Mr Oh holds the professional baseball home run record.

How many? That would be 868. Yes, there have been times when I’ve been dismissive of that record, given it was attained in Japan, but that was before I realised the essence of yakyu, and now that Japan’s proven itself to be of major-league-quality, well… I feel justified in being dismissive of Mr Bonds attaining 755. Hank Aaron? Well, he did his feat with out … ummm… ‘chemical assistance’. Far more impressive.

Sadaharu Oh played for the Yomiuri Giants from 1959 until 1980, retiring at the age of 40. He initially started out as a pitcher, but that was somewhat unsuccessful… and he moved to first base. In the 31 years he played, Oh led the league in home runs 15 times (including 13 consecutive seasons), leading in RBIs 13 times. During his time, the Giants won 11 championships, and was MVP 9 times. He was an All-Star a huge 18 times.

By the end of his stellar career he’d attained 2,786 hits, 2,170 RBIs, a batting average of .301, and 868 home runs.

Barry – you have 113 to go. I don’t think you’re gonna get there.

But A-Rod might.

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Top Sports Stories in Japan… (June 27)

27 06 2007

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Today’s headlines in Japan Sports…