Japanese Baseball
Baseball was introduced to Japan in 1872 by Horace Wilson, and the first formal team was established in 1878, and it has been a popular sport since. It is called ?? (????; yaky?) in Japanese, combining the characters for field and ball.
In 1913 and in 1922, American baseball stars visited Japan and played games against university students. They also held clinics on technique. A retired major league player, Herb Hunter, made eight trips to Japan from 1922 to 1932 organizing games and coaching clinics.
It is played at all age levels but most widely in junior high schools and senior high schools. In March and August, two tournaments are held in Koshien Stadium for senior high school teams that win a prefectural tournament.
The highest level of competition is Nippon Professional Baseball, started in 1920. It is called Puro Yaky? (????), meaning Professional Baseball.
In 2005 the Japan Samurai Bears began play in the Golden Baseball League, becoming the first Japanese team in an American professional baseball league.
Baseball Teams Based in Tokyo
Tokyo Yakult Swallows
The Tokyo Yakult Swallows is a professional Tokyo baseball team in the Japan Central League.
The Swallows are named after their corporate owners, the Yakult Corporation. From 1950 to 1965, the company was owned by the former Japan National Railways (known as “Kokutetsu” in Japanese) and called the Kokutetsu Swallows; the team was then owned by the newspaper Sankei Shimbun from 1965 to 1968 and called the Sankei Atoms.
Yakult purchased the team in 1970 and restored its original Swallows name in 1974. Then it was renamed the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in 2006.
Yomiuri Giants
The Yomiuri Giants (Yomiuri Jaiantsu) is one of the popular Central League Baseball teams based at the Tokyo Dome in Bunkyo city in Tokyo, Japan. The team is often called the “Tokyo Giants” in the American press, but like the Hanshin Tigers and Orix Buffaloes, the team is officially known by the name of its corporate owner rather than the name of the city it plays in.
The team’s owner is the Yomiuri Group, a media conglomerate which includes two newspapers and a television network. They are regarded as “The New York Yankees of Japan” due to their past dominance of the league.
The Giants are the oldest professional team in Japan. They won nine Japanese Baseball League titles before the establishment of the two league system in 1950. Starting in 1965, the Giants won nine consecutive Central League pennants and Japan Series titles.
Japanese Baseball Cards: 2010 BBM All Star set
Publish Date: December 31, 1969
It’s a 67 card box set featuring 58 cards of the players on the All Star teams (29 for each league), six cards for the managers and coaches, 2 cards featuring the MVPs of the two 2010 All Star games (Shinnosuke Abe and Yasuyuki Katoaka) …
Why did the Japanese choose the simple easy game of baseball over …
Publish Date: December 31, 1969
They had to wait until the US forced them to accept unconditional surrender terms in 1945, ending WWII. They got lucky and started the Japanese Leagues and baseball has thrived in Japan and other parts of Asia ever since. …
Augie Globalog ยป Okonomiwhat?
Publish Date: December 31, 1969
We returned to the big island of Honshu and quickly hopped the tram towards Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium to see the Hiroshima Carp take on the Hanshin Tigers in what turned out to be a big game in the Japanese baseball league’s playoff race. …