TAIWAN – Japanese baseball legend Sadaharu Oh arrived in Taiwan on Monday for a six-day visit to the small island nation. Oh has a close relationship with Taiwan’s baseball community and has contributed his services to the sport’s development.

The son of a Chinese father and a Japanese mother, Japan’s all-time home run leader has Republic of China citizenship. He is known as Wang Chen-chih in Taiwan and is widely popular in baseball circles in all parts of the country.

Oh visited the grave of long-time friend Wang Yung-ching, the late founder of the Formosa Plastics Group, at the Taoyuan County grave a few hours after his plane landed. He was scheduled to visit Taiwan last month at the CTBA’s invitation but cancelled the trip due to the death of his older brother.

The 69-year-old, who will meet with President Ma Ying-jeou and visit the Cabinet-level Sports Affairs Council and the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association (CTBA) for talks on the development of local baseball, stepped down as the Hawks’ skipper at the end of last season due to stomach cancer.

The former Yomiuri Giants slugger finished his career in Japanese league with 868 home runs to establish a world record. He retired at the age of 40 and has managed the Giants and the Softbank Hawks franchises in the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).

Photo courtesy of Encyclopedia Britannica

Tags: Taiwan