Koji Uehara

Boston Red Sox closer Koji Uehara comes in to pitch the ninth inning against the Detroit Tigers in a baseball game at Fenway Park in Boston, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

BOSTON — Fourteen years later, there was no need for a young pitcher's tears in Japan.

Nippon Professional Baseball has evolved since Red Sox closer Koji Uehara's rookie year in Japan, and the closer believes for the better.

Wladimir Balentien of the Yakult Swallows on Sunday hit his 56th and 57th homers of the year, breaking the single-season home run record shared by legendary slugger Sadaharu Oh.

"Records are meant to be broken," Uehara said Sunday.

Some of his NPB peers seemed to feel differently for a long time.

Oh's record of 55 was set in 1964, and had been matched since — but never broken. That, it has always seemed, was by design.

From The Japan Times:

" ... fans stood and cheered after Balentien’s first homer, a far cry from the environment that met previous challengers to the record. Those players, Randy Bass, who hit 54 in 1985, (Tuffy) Rhodes and (Alex) Cabrera, faced resistance by those who didn’t want a foreign player to break one of Japanese baseball’s hallowed marks."

Uehara was a rookie in 1999, pitching for the Yomiuri Giants. It was late in the season when he faced Roberto Petagine, a Venezuelan player on the same club that Balentien plays for now, Yakult.

Petagine — who played 18 games for the 2005 Red Sox — was making a bid not for Oh's record, but for the season home-run crown.

Petagine had 42 home runs at the time, while a teammate of Uehara's on the Giants, an outfielder named Hideki Matsui, had 41 home runs.

Uehara didn't have a choice. He walked Petagine, kicking the dirt and tearing up after he delivered ball four in an image JapaneseBaseball.com described as "indelible." According to The Japan Times, Petagine was 0-for-16 off Uehara at the time, and the incident led to a national debate.

"It was a little bit different because it wasn't for the record, but it was for the home-run king (of the season)," Uehara said. "It's a little bit of a long story."

Petagine won the Central League batting title with 44 home runs to Matsui's 42.

So why the change now, with Oh's record in the balance? Why was Balentien pitched to? Uehara had a couple ideas, but no matter the reason, he was pleased.

"It could be that there were more games left on the schedule," Uehara suggested. "I feel that it's a good thing that they pitched to him. I think it was just the fans' need or want — that they wanted one-on-one, more aggressive competition I think."

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