868 blasts in Oh's past

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Before Hideo Nomo was throwing no-hitters in the big leagues . . . before Ichiro Suzuki was winning batting titles and Hideki Matsui was torturing the Red Sox . . . before the World Baseball Classic championship game in San Diego . . . before a posting fee of $51 million and 14 million Japanese fans got out of bed to watch Boston College's Johnny Ayers step up to the plate at City of Palms Park at 8 a.m. (Tokyo time) . . . before Daisuke Matsuzaka mania in Red Sox Nation . . .

There was Sadaharu Oh. The Babe Ruth of Japan.

He was born in 1940, and like Ruth, made his baseball bones as a lefthanded pitcher. He wound up playing first base for the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants (the Yankees of Japan) and in 22 seasons hit 868 home runs, 113 more than Hank Aaron hit for the Braves and Brewers. Oh compiled a career average of .301, won nine MVP awards, a couple of Triple Crowns, and led his team to 14 championship series, winning 11 times, including a Celtics-like nine straight from 1965-73. He inspired several generations of Japanese baseball players.

Here in the States we saw an occasional video clip of the lefthanded slugger who lifted his right leg before sweeping his bat through the strike zone like a man wielding a sword. In the 1970s, touring major leaguers returned to the States with tall tales of the home run exploits of the legendary Oh, but it was never possible for us to imagine what he meant to Japanese baseball or how good he would have been if granted the opportunities afforded Ichiro and Matsuzaka.

After retiring in 1980, Oh went on to become the Giants' manager and his legend grew when he called the shots from the dugout at Petco Park as Japan won the inaugural WBC one year ago.

"He is huge over there," said Red Sox outfielder Alex Ochoa, who played four seasons in Japan. "Sadaharu Oh is like Michael Jordan. Big time. When they won the Baseball Classic, they were ecstatic."

Oh, 66, had to stop managing last summer when he was treated for stomach cancer, but he's back in the dugout with the Fukuoka Hawks for the 2007 season.

"When he got sick and had the cancer, people were depressed," recalled Ochoa.

Yoshitaka Katori, who pitched for Oh's Giants in the 1980s and served as Oh's pitching coach at the WBC, said, "Fame has been a little hard for him, but it was amazing to see players from around the world, including major leaguers from Team USA, asking for his autograph at the WBC [Oh often adds the word "doryoku" -- Japanese for "effort" -- when he signs]."

Japanese fans first discovered Oh when he was a 17-year-old lefthander pitching Waseda Jitsugyo to the Koshien tournament high school championship in 1957. As it was with Matsuzaka some 40 years later, Oh competed in high school tournament games played before more than 50,000 spectators. Games were broadcast nationally on radio.

Oh was not permitted to represent Tokyo in National Athletic Games in 1957 because he was the son of a Chinese father, but he joined the Giants as a first baseman in 1959 and developed his unique swing under the watchful eye of Hiroshi Arakawa, a martial arts instructor who first worked with Oh when the slugger was 14.

Oh's leg lift was reminiscent of Mel Ott's, a slugger for the New York Giants who hit 511 homers, but his vicious swing was a product of samurai training. Designed to prevent Oh from losing balance and committing too soon on off-speed pitches, it was a technique that no doubt would have dazzled hitting gurus Walt Hriniak and Charlie Lau.

"It was disconcerting to pitch to him," said Hall of Famer Jim Palmer, who pitched for the Orioles in an 18-game exhibition tour of Japan after appearing in the 1971 World Series. "He looked like a flamingo. You're supposed to be concentrating on the catcher's glove, but you'd go into your windup and you'd notice that leg coming off the ground. It was very distinctive and it took away your focus. He hit an absolute bomb off me -- about 440 feet to right-center. He had tremendously strong legs and hit the ball very high, like Boog Powell used to hit them for us."

In March 1971, Oh and the Giants toured America and played a spring training game against the Kansas City Royals at Terry Park in Fort Myers. Oh singled in five at-bats.

When major league players toured Japan in 1974, future Hall of Famer Tom Seaver said of Oh: "He sure hit. He was a superb hitter. He hit consistently and he hit with power. Had he played in America, Sadaharu Oh could easily have been a lifetime .300 hitter, averaging 25-30 home runs a year."

There was a memorable broadcast back to the states during that tour. CBS sponsored a home run-hitting contest between the 40-year-old Aaron and the 34-year-old Oh. CBS paid the sluggers to engage in a 20-swing duel Nov. 2, 1974, and Aaron beat Oh, 10-9. The event was held at Korakuen Stadium in front of 50,000 fans. Aaron won $50,000 while Oh took home $20,000 from CBS. Brent Musburger made the call for CBS.

On Sept. 3, 1977, Oh hit home run No. 756 to surpass Aaron. Katori has no doubt that Oh could have done the same thing in the major leagues.

"It is something that Japanese pro baseball can be proud of," said the former pitcher. "I think if he had played major league baseball, he would have hit about the same number of home runs. I don't know if it's fair to compare him to Babe Ruth, but in Japan he is thought of at the same level."

Palmer isn't certain the 5-foot-11-inch, 173-pound Oh would have hit as many home runs in the major leagues.

"Those parks in Japan were a little smaller and the mounds were much flatter," said the three-time Cy Young Award winner. "They didn't rub the balls up for the pitchers. It was pretty much a hitter's league. I think if you put him in today's era, with the smaller ballparks we have now, he'd have hit a lot. Put him in Camden Yards and he'd hit a lot of homers."

Oh is not a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, but there's an exhibit of Japanese baseball featuring Oh in the "500 Home Run Room" at Cooperstown.

The Giants had another slugger in Shigeo Nagashima, and Oh and Nagashima were recognized as the Ruth and Gehrig of Japan. Nagashima also later managed the Giants, and Red Sox lefthander Hideki Okajima pitched on two of Nagashima's championship teams.

"I know the records are there but to me Nagashima was a greater Giant," Okajima said.

Like Ted Williams and a number of other great hitters, Oh went through a period of adjustment when he first started managing. His strict style didn't play well with some of his players and it was difficult for him to understand why his players could not do what he did so easily.

"He struggled at the beginning," Katori said. "But he experienced a lot and he became a great manager. He is kind and caring, and when it comes to baseball he is strict when he needs to be, but he is a kind man inside. Never bossy and very down to earth."

Oh had the good sense to start Matsuzaka in the WBC championship game against Cuba last spring and the righthander was named the tournament MVP.

It turns out that Matsuzaka and Oh share more than WBC glory. According to a New York Times article by David Picker, Matsuzaka and the home run king both have Type O blood. Theodore Bestor, a professor of Japanese studies at Harvard, told the Times, "In everyday life in Japan, blood type is used as a kind of social lubricant, a conversation starter. It's a piece of information that supposedly gives you some idea what that person is like."

Type O's are considered warriors.

Matsuzaka is the man of the moment. But in Japanese baseball, Oh is forever first.

Daigo Fujiwara of the Globe staff contributed to this report.