TOKYO -- Czechia catcher Martin Červenka is known as “Barry” by his teammates, a nickname he picked up as a child because of his love for watching Barry Bonds. While Bonds owns the Major League home run record with 762, before the start of Czechia’s must-win contest against Chinese Taipei on Saturday, Červenka and his teammates got a chance to meet Sadaharu Oh, the worldwide professional home run champ.
Oh, who smashed 868 home runs across a 22-year career in Japan’s NPB, also started the World Children’s Baseball Fair with Hank Aaron in 1990 to promote the growth of the sport around the world. While he may have the worldwide home run record, the mark he cares most about is the impact he made on baseball’s growth and development among children around the world.
"There's nothing that makes me happier," Oh told MLB.com at the Tokyo Series last year. "I've always thought that as soon as kids learn to embrace baseball, you find something enjoyable about yourself and baseball. I feel that this is something that was a dream, not just from myself, but Hank Aaron, too. I feel happy about this, and I feel Hank Aaron would also be very happy about where we are right now. I'm more than excited about where baseball is right now."
Červenka, third baseman Martin Červinka, and catcher Martin Zelenka all took part in the WCBF as children – the event playing an important role in their growth as baseball players in a country that, until recently, was not known for the sport.
“It’s special,” Červenka said. “Any time you get to meet great players from all over the world – obviously everybody follows Major League Baseball – but Sadaharu Oh means a lot to Japanese people and worldwide. Meeting a legend like this, it's a special moment in Tokyo. It's unreal what you're able to get to with baseball. I really do appreciate it.”
“I’m surprised by how big all of the players got,” Oh joked. “I’m very proud of them for representing their country, but most of all I’m happy that they have continued to play baseball for all these years and have continued their career. I hope they will pass it on to the future generation of kids in Czechia and continue in areas like coaching and developing baseball in the country.”
Oh wasn’t the only Japanese baseball legend to visit with the Czech team, though. Former Samurai Japan manager Hideki Kuriyama – himself a former NPB player and Shohei Ohtani’s manager for the Nippon-Ham Fighters – came out to see Chadim. The two became close after the 2023 World Baseball Classic, with Kuriyama even visiting the Czech manager at his home and neurology office in Brno. With Kuriyama’s help, Czechia and the Japanese national team made an official partnership, with Japan sending a college team to Prague Baseball Week and the Czechs coming out for exhibitions against the Samurais.
It’s one of the reasons why Chadim, who usually wears No. 13, switched to Kuriyama’s No. 89. The other is the Velvet Revolution that ended Communist rule in the country, soon opening the doors to baseball coaches from around the world.
"89 is the number of my mentor, of my favorite manager from the WBC, and I wanted to show respect to Mr. Kuriyama, to respect Japan, respect Japanese fans, respect for all the support that we feel,” Chadim said. “And our lives changed in 1989 when there was the Velvet Revolution, and it meant so much for us, that we could play baseball like a normal sport. We cannot hide ourselves.”
The Czech coaching staff is a current reflection of this international collaboration: Chadim is from Czechia, while the team’s pitching coach is Australian, and its hitting coach American. They worked with a Korean hitting specialist over the winter and have a Japanese coach on staff.
“I think all of the baseball world needs a little bit of Europe, because we can connect everything,” Chadim said. “That's why I'm so happy that I have knowledge from Australia, I have knowledge from Japan, I have knowledge from Korea, I have knowledge from USA. It's great to collect all views of baseball and find the best.”