Is Barry Bonds the Real All-Time Home Run Leader?
Sadaharu Oh http://www.baseballlibrary.com/ballplayers/player.php?name=Sadaharu_Oh_1940 Oh’s 868 home runs in Japan set an all-time pro baseball record. The son of a Chinese father and a Japanese mother, he had trouble gaining acceptance with Japanese fans after signing for a $60,000 bonus as a pitcher. Switched to first base, he couldn’t hit the curveball until he took up samurai swordsmanship as a practice method; he adopted a foot-in-the-air stance similar to Mel Ott’s, though he was unaware of Ott’s existence. He was noted for taking 30 to 40 minutes of batting practice a day. In 1965 Oh set the Japanese record of 55 HR in a 140-game season. His record of 54 HR for the revised 130-game schedule was tied by Randy Bass in 1986. He averaged 45 HR a year in winning 13 consecutive HR titles. On the dominating Yomiuri Giants, Oh batted third and Shigeo Nagashima hit clean-up as Japan’
