An in-depth look at the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Jingu Stadium, the Central League, and Japanese Pro Baseball
MARK YOUR CALENDERS! SAVE THE DATE!! The Swallows management has announced the two nights in which fans can consume adult beverages at half price. The nights are July 12 (Friday) and August 27 (Tuesday). The July 12th game is against Hiroshima and the August 27th game is against Chunichi. Attending the July 12th game will [...]
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 [...]
This is the first .gif that I’ve ever made in my life, and I think that it may be the first one that’s ever been featured on this site. This is my tribute to those who made it to yesterday’s game and stayed all the way through the 12th inning.
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. [...]
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 [...]
Read that headline carefully folks… That is MASAHIKO Tanaka of the Marines, not Masahiro Tanaka of the Eagles. The Swallows did not add a super ace to the roster, instead they acquired a third string catcher at the low low price of a third string catcher. Ryohei Kawamoto will be headed the other way to [...]
Michael Westbay of JapaneseBaseball.com interviewed me for his new video podcast, Pro Yakyu Report. We discuss the past and present Swallows that are going to play for the Brazillian national team at this year’s World Baseball Classic. If anyone has any questions about the Brazil-Swallows connection or about any of the players leave them in [...]
Tomorrow is Labour Thanksgiving Day in Japan, and with many people getting the day off the Swallows will be holding their annual Fan Appreciation Day at Jingu. The annual event gives the team a chance to shill its sponsors, look back on the previous season, and give players a chance to be a bit goofy. [...]
Well we knew they were coming, but the Swallows have unveiled their “new” uniforms that will be used in battle from the 2013 season onwards. The uniforms are a return to the colour scheme used during the organisation’s most successful period, the 1990s, with the red pinstripes returning for the home uniforms, along with the [...]
