An in-depth look at the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Jingu Stadium, the Central League, and Japanese Pro Baseball
Kozo Ota is a third-generation Swallows fan that grew up on Montreal Expos baseball. When he's not at Jingu, he works as a freelance translator/interpreter to make enough money to go to Jingu.
May 18th, 2013 Chiba Lotte Marines 3 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5 Last 5: LLLWW Streak: Won 2 (Jingu Stadium) The Swallows sweep their two game series against the Marines at Jingu in a bizarre series of plays that should’ve seen the Swallows win comfortably, but ultimately lead to a cardiac-inducing game. If I had told [...]
Today, the Swallows added 23 year-old right-hander Takeaki Tokuyama to the 70-man roster and assigned him number 62. Tokuyama was chosen by the Swallows out of Ritsumeikan University in the 2011 ikusei draft. As an ikusei player, Tokuyama has appeared in 18 Eastern League games over the last season and this season. Tokuyama has also [...]
May 11th, 2013 Hanshin Tigers 11 Tokyo Swallows 7 Streak: Lost 3 Last 5: WWLLL (Botchan Stadium - Matsuyama) Rookie Yasuhiro Ogawa took to the mound to try to avenge his drubbing from last week. Unfortunately despite an OK start, Ogawa and the Swallows’ pitching served up enough meatballs that the Swallows’ offense was never [...]
May 4th, 2013 Tokyo Swallows 6 Hanshin Tigers 7 Streak: Lost 4 Last 5: WLLLL (Koshien) Another first inning meltdown contributed to a a Swallows loss. Ogawa was tagged with the first loss of his young pro career. The Swallows tried to crawl back and made the game interesting, but ultimately they came away with [...]
April 25th, 2013 Hiroshima Carp 7 Tokyo Swallows 8 Streak: Won 2 Last 5: LLLWW (Meiji Jingu Stadium) The Swallows win back-to-back for the first time since April 3rd in a rollercoaster game that was not good for the heart. The game clocked in at five hours and two minutes, and went for 12 innings. [...]
After some speculation in the Japanese media, English sources are now reporting that the Swallows have signed Canadian RHP Chris Leroux. Leroux is a Canadian who was born in my hometown of Montreal, although it appears he went to high school in Ontario. He was a member of the 2009 and 2013 Canadian WBC teams. [...]
April 18th, 2013 Chunichi Dragons 6 Tokyo Swallows 3 Streak: Lost 2 Last 5: LLWLL (Meiji Jingu Stadium) To say that the Swallows are slumping right now would be an understatement. The Swallows lost their fourth series in a row in a game which would’ve been funny if we weren’t Swallows fans. Luckily for [...]
April 11th, 2013 Tokyo Swallows 1 Chunichi Dragons 4 Streak: Lost 1 Last 5: LWLWL (Nagoya Dome) The Swallows lost their second series in a row as they dropped the rubber match against the Dragons. Tonight, the Swallows lost to the 1-2 punch of Daniel Cabrera and Hector Luna. On the Swallows side, it [...]
If you’re a nerdy Swallows fan like me, you occasionally scan through ni-gun boxscores to see who’s been playing on the farm. If you’re such a baseball nerd that you proudly display it in your handle, as Deanna “Marinerds” Rubin does, you GO to Toda to see who’s been playing on the farm. Deanna has [...]
Hopefully this won’t have to be a regular feature, but with a lot of key injuries recently it seemed like a good idea to provide a summary of the Swallows’ key player injuries. Shohei Tateyama: The biggest injury bombshell came this morning as Tateyama held a press conference to announce that he was going to [...]
