Rhodes' Final Stats

Well, Rhodes made a go at it, and came up even with Oh. He did get a chance 4 of his last 5 games, and fans were out in large numbers hoping to see him break this long standing record. No matter what can be said of certain coaches and the media, there was no descriminiation in the stands.

Date	vs	Pitcher	Count	Result
9 24	Seibu	Matsuzaka " " " "	2-2 0-2 1-1 2-2 2-3	8-F 7-F 9-HR K K
9 26	Orix	Kitagawa " " Ohkubo	2-3 0-0 0-0 1-2	9-H 6-G 4-G 3-G
9 29	Lotte	J.Watanabe " " " N.Shimizu	0-1 2-1 2-2 0-0 2-3	1-G 5-F HBP 8-SF BB
9 30	Daiei	Tanoue " " "	0-3 2-3 1-0 2-3	BB BB 6-F 4-G
10 2	Orix	Kitagawa " Kaneda "	2-3 1-2 1-0 2-2	9-F 9-H 8-F K
10 5	Orix	Ogura " Kood "	2-0 0-0 0-1 1-1	6-G 2-F 5-F 8-F

Nikkan Sports had a run down of Rhodes' final 6 games as shown on the right. [8-F: Center fly, 4-G: Ground out to second, 8-SF: Sac. fly to center; The count is written in strikes-balls order.]

Note, the final two outs against Daiei on 9/30 were Rhodes hitting bad pitches.

On 9/25, after Rhodes tied Oh for the record, Nikkan Sports had a full page (plus some) dedicated to Rhodes' accomplishment. One thing that they did was compare Rhodes' 55 to the 55 that Oh hit. Looking at the two individually, one can see how amazing Rhodes' bid for the title was. Some things include:

Rhodes hit over half of his home runs toward center (27) whereas Oh pulled 85 % (47) of his 55 to right.

Rhodes hit 28 home runs without a strike on him, of which 13 were first pitiches. Oh, on the other hand, only hit 13 home runs without a strike, showing that Rhodes is tougher early in the count.

Oh hit 28 of his home runs with runners on, whereas Rhodes hit 35.

Rhodes hit double digits in home runs against 4 of the other 5 teams whereas Oh mainly hit against two teams, concentrating mostly on Kokutetsu with 17.

Rhodes hit home runs against 40 different pichers whereas Oh hit his 55 off of 32.

Rhodes hit 23 of his 55 home runs at home (Osaka Dome) and 32 on the road. Oh hit a mirror image 32 at home (Korakuen) and 23 on the road.

Then there is the matter of stadiums:

Korakuen Stadium, like many stadiums in 1964, was only 90 meters down the lines compared to the current standard 100 meters. However, the home runs that Oh hit that year were over 100 meters for the most part, which allows for some comparison.

It has been proposed that the dry conditions of today's domes adds a great deal to the balls' ability to carry, whereas Oh's home runs had to battle the elements. I'd be very interested in a scientific study to that effect.

Nonetheless, when you look at how each batter did in comparison to his peers, Oh's accomplishment stand out quite a bit more:

In 1964, the player with the second most home runs to Oh's 55 was Cress (sp?) of the Taiyo Whales
(now Yokohama BayStars) with 36 for a difference of 19 round trippers. Second to Rhodes this season was Seibu's Cabrera with 49.That's a difference of just 6. Furthermore, team mate Nakamura hit 46 home runs and Daiei's Kokubo hit 44, making it 3 people within 11 home runs of him. CFiJ-san had suggested that the ball is livlier this year, and this evidence supports that hypothisis.

Let's take the above "comparing to ones peers" a step further. In 1964 there were a total of 724 home runs hit in the Central League, of which Oh's 55
made up 7.6 percent of them. There were 1,021 home runs hit in the Pacific League in 2001, of which Rhodes' 55 make up just 5.4 percent.

Oh was far and away the walk leader back in 1964, so his home run average (AB/HR) was a home run in every 8.6 at bats. Rhodes, with Nakamura batting
behind him, didn't get quite as many free passes, so the control term for him was 550 at bats, giving him one home run every 10 at bats.

Also of note, Rhodes led both leagues in runs scored, crossing the plate 137 times. It was Nakamura bringing him home very often, driving in 132 runs in all, 1 more than Rhodes' 131 for the title. Rhodes also takes the slugging percentage title with a .662 average, and finish 4th in batting average hitting .343.

Defensively, Rhodes committed just 3 errors in left and should be up for consideration for his first Golden Glove and perhaps 3rd Best Nine Award. Some things to look forward to this off season.