The amateur draft took place last night, but the media only picked up the fact that Yomiuri landed a big-hitting kid by the name of Taishi Ota out of Tokaidai Sagami High School as their first pick. Anyway, while it may come as a surprise to the media that 11 other teams were present at [...]
Tokyo center fielder, Norichika Aoki, and starting pitcher, Masanori Ishikawa, were named the top defensive players at their respective positions yesterday. Aoki won his third Golden Glove in a row, and third overall, in the outfield. For Ishikawa, 2008 is the first time in his professional career that he has snagged the top spot.
This has nothing to do with baseball, but might be of interest to some of our readers: Although there’s less than a week until Election Day in the US, it is not too late to vote absentee, even if you have never registered to vote. This is true for civilians and military personnel alike, regardless [...]
Rob Fitts, author of Wally Yonamine: The Man Who Changed Japanese Baseball and the biography’s subject, baseball legend Wally Yonamine, the first American to play in Japan after WWII, the man who brought hustle and hard sliding to Japanese Pro Baseball, will be giving a reading of the book at the Tokyo American Club at [...]
OK, this really looks like it’s for real. I held off posting until enough mainstream media outlets picked up the story that I could be sure I was not reporting rumors. After Senichi Hoshino reiterated his refusal to lead Japan’s team again, Sadaharu Oh, NPB Commissioner Ryozo Kato, and the rest of the crew flipped [...]
Due to the World Series, there are quite a few folks happening by our humble site in search of information on Swallow-turned-Ray Akinori Iwamura. The big search over the past couple of days (aside from just his name) has been for stats, so to help out where we can, we present you with:
Call this one a straight up rant. Tonight’s playoff game, Climax Series game, part of a best of seven series, ended in a 5-5 draw. A draw. A tie. All even. Call it what you will, it makes no sense whatsoever. It’s flat out stupid.
Akinori Iwamura, second baseman for the Tampa Bay Rays (and former Tokyo Swallows third baseman), went three-for-four with an RBI double in the first game of the 2008 World Series. But it wasn’t enough as the visiting Phillies took the first game of the series, 3-2.
October 23rd, 2008 Chunichi Dragons 2 Yomiuri Giants 11 (Tokyo Dome) That hurt. Yomiuri regained its swagger tonight and walked all over Chunichi’s pitching on way to an 11-2 rout of the defending Japan Series champions.
