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GV Oh walking out to baseball pitch in Tokyo.
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CU PAN UP TO Oh preparing to strike.
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GV Oh hitting ball into crowd.
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TOP VIEW Oh cheered by crowd as he runs around pitch and is congratulated by team mates.
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5.
CU Scoreboard showing 756 runs.
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TV Oh continues to run and is congratulated by team mates and receives floral pendant before acknowledging crowd as fireworks go off.
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Initials



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: Japan's most famous baseball batter, Sadaharu Oh of the Yomiuri Giants won the world record for the number of home runs with a massive hit in Tokyo on Saturday (3 September). He smashed his 756th home run to beat the previous record set by Hank Aaron of the United States.

SYNOPSIS: It was a fitting climax to Oh's 19 year career, during which he has played 2,428 professional ball games. The 37-year-old batter hit his historic shot off Yakult starter Korjiro in the bottom of a third inning.

The capacity crowd at the Korakoen Stadium went crazy. It is his home ground and where he scored the first home run of his career in 1959. He has played with the Giants for his entire career.

Messages of congratulations flooded in after the match -- including one from Prime Minister Takeo Fukuda. The government is to decorate him with the newly-created National Medal of Honour.

Play stopped for more than five minutes while Oh received the congratulations of the crowd and his team mates. Watching in the stands were his parents. His father is a Tokyo restaurateur, born in Taiwan and Oh still retains his Taiwanese citizenship, although he was born in Japan. As he scored his winning home run, fireworks burst into the air and confetti and tape cascaded from the stands.