FanHouse SadaharuOh

We're a week or so into spring training here, the winter meetings have long come and gone, and Barry Bonds is still unemployed. No one seems to want to take a chance on him. San Diego seemed to be the most logical destination, but still, nothing.

So if no MLB teams aren't going to take a chance with the 43-year-old slugger, his agent said he might take his services overseas.

"He's not retiring," Bonds' agent, Jeff Borris, told Metro yesterday. "He intends to play somewhere. If a door doesn't open for Barry in the major leagues, as unbelievable as that possibility sounds, then Japan certainly is an option."

Borris, remarkably, has been driving from training camp to training camp in Florida, hoping to persuade a general manager of some major-league club to give Bonds a new opportunity.

It would be a bit odd, but perhaps fitting last chapter for a man that -- PEDs or not -- is going to go down as one of the best hitters of all time. Although, this could make it easier for him to take down Sadaharu Oh now, right?

HT: Larry Brown Sports

This Sadaharu Oh dude has always seemed mythic in nature to me. Hitting 868 home runs over 22 seasons -- even with smaller stadiums and lesser competition in Japan -- is rather remarkable, let alone somewhat hard to fathom. (Watching footage of the guy only perpetuates these feelings. Although, I guess Hank Aaron doesn't really "look" like a home run hitter compared to today's sluggers.)

Anyways, Oh seems to be a pretty big fan of Alex Rodriguez. So much so he think A-Rod's got a shot at launching 1,000 home runs by the time it's all said and done.

"I think the 868 record will be broken," Oh said Monday. "Nobody in Japan is close, but I think Alex Rodriguez could do it, he has the ability to hit 1,000."

Not to take anything away from A-Rod -- because I do enjoy his game -- but there's no way he's hitting 1,000 home runs. He'd have to average about 48 homers a year for the next ten years to get to 1,000. I just don't see it. At this point, Oh's record is perhaps equally as daunting and reaching Barry Bonds' record certainly isn't a given. But hey, we can all get behind Oh's enthusiasm about this, no?