Can you help identify this Japanese baseball moment?

[4reals]

Any Japanese baseball specialists? Is this a photograph of a significant Japanese baseball moment? If so, I would be grateful to learn more about it like who is on the mound? Who hit the homer? What teams are represented by the D and the AJ on the scoreboard? Thanks!

[drmiraculous]

Strongly resembles Sadaharu Oh in the home run trot wearing the Giants #1 at Korakuen Stadium. Not sure what the date was, since he hit over 800 homers it might be tough to nail down which landmark this might be!

Korakuen Stadium was home to the Giants before the Tokyo Dome, this pic is from 1956 and shows the batters eye and centerfield stands with similar scoreboard config to what we see in your pic.

[seanofjapan]

It looks like Oh, but its not from a regular season game. From the scoreboard it appears to be a game between an All Japan team versus a team of Americans.

The lineups for each team are on both sides of the scoreboard. I can make our the names “Kennedy” and “Oliver” on the American team, but I’m not sure if it was an MlB team (seems to start with a “D” based on the scoreboard, “AJ” probably stands for “All Japan”).

[seanofjapan]

Actually just to answer my own comment, the Dodgers did a tour of Japan in 1966, and they had both an Oliver and a Kennedy on their roster that year (and Oh hit several home runs against them in the series) so its almost certainly a photo from that tour. The pitcher in the foreground is probably Nick Willhite.

[4reals]

Amazing diagnosis and insight! I was hopeful it had something to do with the Dodgers as the uniform resembled such. Narrowing it down to the year was huge for identifying the pitcher. Thanks so much!

I bet with how amazing AI has gotten with translation there is an app out there that will allow me to upload the image and have the scoreboard translated to English.

How confident are you that it was Oh that hit the homer?


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[seanofjapan]

No problem, its a lot of fun trying to solve puzzles like this!

I am about as sure as its possible to get that it is Oh running the bases, based on:

1) If you zoom in on the runner you can see he has number "1" on his back, which was Oh's number.

2) Oh's name is visible on the scoreboard as being in the lineup (not necessarily that he was at bat, but he was playing)

3) You can't see his face, but everything that you can see is consistent with it being Oh. It just looks like him.

[4reals]

That’s great to hear. I’m keeping this! Thanks for the information!


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[Kevvyg1026]

from https://sabr.org/journal/article/196...turn-to-japan/

This might be game 10 of that tour.


from Game 10: November 5, Tokyo

After a day to reflect, the Japan All-Stars regrouped for an 8-2 win before 34,000 at Korakuen Stadium. Shinichi Eto of the Chunichi Dragons started the parade with a two-run homer in the first. The Giants’ Sadaharu Oh, who had led the Central League with 48 homers, contributed two more round-trippers. Jim Lefebvre’s bases-empty homer was the only protest by the Dodgers. “Too much Eto and too much Oh,” said Alston. “The barnstorming major leaguers never looked more listless,” wrote Pacific Stars and Stripes sports editor Lee Kavetski.