Sadaharu Oh, president of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks baseball team, will appear on the year-end special of the news and information program "Udo Times" (TV Asahi, Sunday 8:56 pm) broadcast on December 29th. He will appear in "Legends & Stars," a segment where MC Yumiko Udo approaches legends who have made great achievements in various fields and stars who are currently active at the forefront of the industry. The 84-year-old world home run king will reveal the untold story behind the birth of his "one-legged batting style."
In the studio, Oh appeared with the bat that he used for 18 years, from the time he started batting with one leg until his retirement, as well as his uniform from his time as a player and manager. The interview started with Oh saying, "I loved the sound of this bat... I don't know how many times I swung it, but this bat was my 'life.'"
Oh hit a total of 868 home runs, a world record that has yet to be broken, but there was a senior star who followed in his footsteps. He was Shigeo Nagashima, also known as "Mr. Giants," who supported the Giants' V9 era together. The two exchanged a firm handshake at a fan exchange event held at the Tokyo Dome in November this year.
When Udowaki asked, "What does Nagashima mean to you?" Oh replied, "He has taken up residence in my heart. Nagashima is Nagashima." He spoke of Nagashima's absolute presence, revealing the feelings he has had for Nagashima since his playing days.
He also touches on the background of the birth of the one-legged batting style that produced 868 home runs. The one-legged batting style was born from a fateful meeting with Hiroshi Arakawa, the Giants' batting coach at the time, and his passionate coaching, and Oh explains the mechanism behind it. He goes on to say that Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Dodgers in Major League Baseball "uses the same ingenuity in a different way" when batting.
The conversation then turned to the "BEYOND OH! PROJECT," an initiative that Oh started this year. The project has the theme of "creating a global hero who will surpass Shohei Ohtani," but we asked Oh about his thoughts as he looks to the future of baseball 50 or 100 years from now.
