Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks chairman Sadaharu Oh, whose 868 home runs are the most by a professional baseball player, said Friday he has married for a second time.
"This is the 10th year we've been living together, so it's time to draw the line and make this public," Oh said at Yafuoku Dome a day after his marriage was registered.
"It will be great looking after each other's health and being good companions," he said of his 60-year-old bride, whose name was not made public.
It is said that in 2006, his bride visited him in a Tokyo hospital, where he had surgery to remove his stomach due to cancer.
The 78-year-old Oh's first wife, with whom he had three daughters, died in 2001 of the same illness.
Oh spent his entire playing career with the Yomiuri Giants, whom he joined straight out of high school. After he retired in 1980, he remained with the Giants until 1988, first as a coach, then as a manager.
Following his election to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994, Oh was lured to Fukuoka to manage the Hawks in 1995. Under Oh, the Hawks won three Pacific League pennants and two Japan Series.
In 2006, Oh's cancer was diagnosed soon after he led Japan to victory at the inaugural World Baseball Classic. He retired from managing in 2008 and took over as the club's chairman.
According to a Hawks source, Oh has taken a keen interest in weight training in recent years, and has resumed playing in old-timers games.