There is an opening. Yesterday, Terry Collins announced his resignation as manager of the Orix Buffaloes, formerly the Orix Blue Wave, and the original team of Ichiro Suzuki. Pitching coach Mike Brown and batting coach John Debus also resigned. An interim managed has been named from within the coaching staff.
Collins led the […]

[Read more →]

In American baseball the number 42 is revered and April 15th is a historic day because of one man, Jackie Robinson - he wore number 42 on that date back in 1947 when he was the first man of color to play for a Major League Baseball team in the United States. 2008 marks […]

[Read more →]

Today Sports Illustrated announced the retirement of Masumi Kuwata, one of the top pitchers in Japanese baseball history and a major leaguer for the first time last season at age 39.  As a baseball fan living in Japan the story caught my eye but as I read through the article what touched me the most […]

[Read more →]

Yesterday was the opening day for the Eastern League (one of two minor leagues in Japan). The Chiba Lotte Marines faced the Nippon Ham Fighters in Kamagaya and the Marines got off to a good start only to be beaten by a final score of 11-7. The game was good but the Marines […]

[Read more →]

On Monday a new statue of Colonel Sanders was unveiled at the Koshien Stadium branch of Kentucky Fried Chicken and the Hanshin Tigers are hoping that this will eradicate a curse that started back in 1985. “What!”, you say. How does Colonel Sanders have anything to do with baseball and how could erecting […]

[Read more →]

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending my first baseball game of the year in Japan (or anywhere for that matter).  The Chiba Lotte Marines beat the Orix Kintetsu Buffaloes by a score of 4-1.   All of the scoring was the result of three home runs.  Koichi Hori, and Naotaka Takehara each hit  solo blasts, […]

[Read more →]

Now that we are getting closer to the start of exhibition games in Japan I thought it would be a good time to educate everyone with some Japanese Baseball Terminology.
Let me start by saying that in Japan you will hear the term Pro-Yakyuu a lot. This is short for Professional Yakyuu with Yakyuu meaning baseball.
One […]

[Read more →]

Spring Training for Japanese professional baseball has been underway since February 1st and for the first time in many years all of the teams will remain in Japan for Spring Training. This is a full two weeks ahead of MLB where most teams pitchers and catchers reported today.In the MLB spring training is divided […]

[Read more →]

This post is the second in my weekly series on Japanese baseball. The first post was an overview of the Nippon Professional Baseball League and this post will provide you with some information on the minor league system.
We hear a lot about the major leagues in Japan but relatively little about the minor leagues […]

[Read more →]

Baseball was imported to Japan from the Unites States as early as 1872 but wasn’t organized until 1934 with the creation of the Greater Japan Tokyo Baseball Club. The Japanese Baseball League was formed in 1937, consisting of eight teams, played until 1949 (except 1945, presumably because WWII). Starting in 1950, the Japanese Baseball […]

[Read more →]