Re: Oh`s Home Run Record Chase

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Posted by Gary Garland on October 28, 19102 at 08:44:28:

In Reply to: Oh`s Home Run Record Chase posted by John Lenihan on October 13, 19102 at 01:06:04:

Hi John:

Sadaharu Oh broke Nankai Hakws catcher Katsuya Nomura's record of 52, set in 1963. Oh and Nomura (who was 100% Japanese, btw) played in different leagues. The previous Central League record was held by Shochiku Robins outfielder Makoto Kozuru with 51 in 1950. Shochiku was later merged with the Taiyo Whales. AFAIK, Oh wasn't
subjected to the same sort of nonsense that Bass was.

As for the movie "Mr. Baseball," which I thought was pretty bad even while there are things in there that did indeed happen to various foreign players, there was a recent discussion about it on the Japanese Baseball.com site
(http://www.japanesebaseball.com) and you should look at that, as it pretty throughly covers the issues surrounding that film. Btw, Robert Whiting, whose books I would reccommend over the movie, sued the people who made "Mr. Baseball"
successfully over something they appropriated from one of those books.

Nowadays, the only people who are scrupulous about preventing the breaking of Oh's record are the Daiei Hawks, for obvious reasons. Both Tuffy Rhodes and Alex Cabrera had ample opportunity
to eclipse who, but both men muscled up and that always results in reduced bat speed and thus less distance on the flight of the ball. Cabrera was homerless in his last 23 at bats over a five game stretch and crowds packed in to both Kobe Green Stadium and Chiba Marine Stadium hoping to see history.

As for contacting the Dragons, call their public relations office and see what you can arrange. There is no email address that I know of that would be effective in getting what you want. You might even contact Chunichi Sports, since the Chunichi media firm owns the team and they might want to do a story on your class as well as one of their players lecturing there.

In the short term, I don't know how available they will be since the Dragons will be travelling to Cuba to play a friendship series there.

Take care,

Gary Garland
Japanese baseball writer
Baseball Guru.com

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: Hi John: : Sadaharu Oh broke Nankai Hakws catcher Katsuya Nomura's record of 52, set in 1963. Oh and Nomura (who was 100% Japanese, btw) played in different leagues. The previous Central League record was held by Shochiku Robins outfielder Makoto Kozuru with 51 in 1950. Shochiku was later merged with the Taiyo Whales. AFAIK, Oh wasn't : subjected to the same sort of nonsense that Bass was. : As for the movie "Mr. Baseball," which I thought was pretty bad even while there are things in there that did indeed happen to various foreign players, there was a recent discussion about it on the Japanese Baseball.com site : (http://www.japanesebaseball.com) and you should look at that, as it pretty throughly covers the issues surrounding that film. Btw, Robert Whiting, whose books I would reccommend over the movie, sued the people who made "Mr. Baseball" : successfully over something they appropriated from one of those books. : Nowadays, the only people who are scrupulous about preventing the breaking of Oh's record are the Daiei Hawks, for obvious reasons. Both Tuffy Rhodes and Alex Cabrera had ample opportunity : to eclipse who, but both men muscled up and that always results in reduced bat speed and thus less distance on the flight of the ball. Cabrera was homerless in his last 23 at bats over a five game stretch and crowds packed in to both Kobe Green Stadium and Chiba Marine Stadium hoping to see history. : As for contacting the Dragons, call their public relations office and see what you can arrange. There is no email address that I know of that would be effective in getting what you want. You might even contact Chunichi Sports, since the Chunichi media firm owns the team and they might want to do a story on your class as well as one of their players lecturing there. : In the short term, I don't know how available they will be since the Dragons will be travelling to Cuba to play a friendship series there. : Take care, : Gary Garland : Japanese baseball writer : Baseball Guru.com

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