As manager As executive Sadaharu Oh (Japanese: 王貞治, Ō Sadaharu; born May 20, 1940), also known as Wang Chen-chih (Chinese: 王貞治; pinyin: Wáng Zhēnzhì), is a Japanese-born Chinese former professional baseball player and manager who is currently the chairman of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).

[2] He was the manager of the Japanese national team in the inaugural World Baseball Classic, which defeated Cuba for the championship.

Oh was born in Sumida, Tokyo, as the fifth of six children (four daughters and two sons) of a Japanese mother Tomi Oh 王登美 (née Tozumi 當住) and a Chinese father Shifuku Oh [zh] (王仕福 Wáng Shìfú from Qingtian County, Zhejiang.

However, Oh was not a strong enough pitcher to succeed professionally, and soon switched to first base, working diligently with coach Hiroshi Arakawa to improve his hitting skills.

In his autobiography, Sadaharu Oh: A Zen Way of Baseball (ISBN 978-0812911091), Oh said he and Nagashima were not close, rarely spending time together off the field.

Sadaharu Oh retired in 1980 at age 40, having amassed 2,786 hits (third after Isao Harimoto (Jang Hoon) and Katsuya Nomura), 2,170 RBIs, a lifetime batting average of .301, and 868 home runs.

On July 5, Oh announced that he was taking an indefinite leave of absence from the Hawks to combat a stomach tumor.

On three occasions, foreign-born players challenged Oh's single-season home run record of 55 and faced Oh-managed teams late in the season.

In 1985, American Randy Bass, playing for the Hanshin Tigers, came into the last game of the season against the Oh-managed Giants with 54 home runs.

For the most part, the Japanese media remained silent on the incident, as did league commissioner Takeso Shimoda.

[9] In 2001, American Karl "Tuffy" Rhodes, playing for the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes, hit 55 home runs with several games left.

[citation needed] Again, Oh denied any involvement and Hawks pitching coach Yoshiharu Wakana stated that the pitchers acted on his orders, saying, "I just didn't want a foreign player to break Oh's record."

Hawks pitcher Keisaburo Tanoue went on record saying that he wanted to throw strikes to Rhodes and felt bad about the situation.

[9][10] In 2002, Venezuelan Alex Cabrera hit 55 home runs with five games left in the season and his team played Oh's Hawks.

Oh told his pitchers to throw strikes to Cabrera[citation needed], but most of them ignored his order and threw balls well away from the plate.

This was also due to the fact Cabrera was walked by other teams in 2002, as he was likely on steroids after he was caught with Winstrol pills prior to signing with the Lions and was eventually named on the Mitchell Report in 2007.