In a year in which Barry Bonds and Ichiro Suzuki are threatening the single season homer and rookie hits marks, Ex-Cub Tuffy Rhodes is quietly looking to set a record of his own in Japan.
Tuffy Rhodes continues to challenge Sadaharu Oh's 1964 mark of 55 homers in a season, as he launched a solo blast, his 54th longball of the 2001 campaign, to center in the bottom of the first inning at Osaka Dome Wednesday to get the Kintetsu Buffaloes off to a 1-0 lead on the way to an 8-3 mastering of the Chiba Lotte Marines. The homer to center was Rhodes 27th of the season to that part of the park. Too, as it was in his 128th game, he tied former Hanshin Tigers first baseman Randy Bass for fastest to that number. Bass won a Triple Crown that season as he took the Tigers to a Japan Series win.
Rhodes later had an RBI single to right in the sixth to tie the club record of 129 RBIs in a season, which had previously been held by now Cleveland Indians skipper Charlie Manuel in 1980. Rhodes also tied Lotte Orions great Hiromitsu Ochiai's 1985 Pacific League record for total bases in a season with 351. The Japan total bases record is held by the old Shochiku Robins' Makoto Kozuru, who ran up 376 TB in 1950.
When Rhodes clobbered his 53rd Sunday, he set a new Pacific League single season homer record, eclipsing that of Nankai Hawks catcher Katsuya Nomura, who went the distance 52 times in 1963. Kintetsu's team high had been 49 in 1989 by ex-Dodgers outfielder Ralph Bryant, who had 49 and got a PL MVP for that effort. Bryant also owns the pro baseball world record for a season of whiffing, piling up 204 whiffs in 1993 in 497 at bats.
Incidentally, Rhodes' wife Sonia is a flight attendant, but she had a day off Tuesday, so she avoided any possibility of being hurt in one of the hijacking incidents. As a tribute to his country, Rhodes inscribed "USA" on his cap before going out for today's game.
Rhodes was intentionally walked in the eighth inning, annoying Kintetsu slugger Norihiro Nakamura, who said he was muscling up because he felt insulted that they would walk Rhodes to get to him. Nakamura then crushed a running fastball on a low line, wrapping it around the leftfield foul pole for a two run homer, his 44th of the year and second for that game.
With all the fireworks, the Buffaloes are back in first by half a game over the Daiei Hawks, who were handcuffed by Orix hurler Ed Yarnall in a complete game victory. Yarnell has beaten the heavy hitting Hawks three times this season.
The Buffaloes front office is making plans as to how they will reward the fan who catches Rhodes record breaking 56th homer ball, saying that they will be guided by "common sense" in making that decision.
Since Kintetsu travels today to Kobe Green Stadium to play the Orix Blue Wave, they are asking for the cooperation of Orix in retrieving the ball. "We consider that ball our property," a Kintetsu official says. Ultimately, the ball is expected to be enshrined in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.
When asked about the possiblity of breaking Oh's 37-year-old standard, Rhodes commented, "if I break it, I break it, if I don't, I don't. I just want to win the pennant."
» Gary Garland contributes occasional articles to the Japanese Baseball website. http://www.japanesebaseball.com
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Copyright © 2001 by Gary Garland. Posted September 14, 2001.
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