An in-depth look at the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Jingu Stadium, the Central League, and Japanese Pro Baseball
Something to read while remembering to keep your hands in your pockets. Swallows of the Week Week 3 Last week’s vote saw the strong performances by Hiroyasu Tanaka (2B), Lastings Milledge (LF), Katsuki Akagawa (P), and Kyohei Muranaka (P). 28 people cast their vote this week, and here’s what they decided: Congratulations to Beavis, a [...]
Tsubamegun got one hell of a shout out from fellow Japanese baseball watcher, NPB Tracker. Thanks, Patrick! Tokyo batting coach, Takao Ise, has been selected as one of the six coaches representing the nation as part of this year’s Samurai Japan team. One coach was selected from each of the top three teams in the Central [...]
Well, the festive season is over and the 2010 baseball season can be spotted lurking on the horizon, just waiting to take over our lives again. Here’s a round up of what’s been going on in SwallowsLand so far this offseason that hasn’t been covered elsewhere on the site: The Swallows made only their second ever [...]
It was reported that Ryota Igarashi, long-time set-up and closer out of the Tokyo bullpen, will be spending the winter training in the United States as he works through the process of signing with a team there. A couple of teams have apparently
The 2009 WBC final will be between Japan and Korea after Japan rolled over a lackluster USA team in the second semi-final at Dodger Stadium. A five run 4th inning did the bulk of the damage for the Japanese, damage from which the USA never recovered despite a late attempt at a comeback. Daisuke Matsuzaka [...]
A day after being brushed aside so easily by Korea, Japan had to pick themselves up to face the Cubans for the second time in four days. This time however, there were no second chances, the loser would be heading home. Japan rode to victory three days earlier on the back of six innings of five hit [...]
This one did not start well for Yu Darvish and team Japan. Darvish threw far more balls than strikes in the first inning of this game. His first three pitches were balls above the strike zone, and his first two pitches to Korea’s second, third and fourth batters were outside the zone. Behind in the [...]
Japan announced their arrival in the second round of the 2009 WBC with a comprehensive victory over the much fancied Cubans in San Diego on Sunday afternoon. The victory was based around strong pitching, with a majestic start from Daisuke Matsuzaka. The Japanese ace pitched 6 innings of five hit ball, striking out eight and walking [...]
