An in-depth look at the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Jingu Stadium, the Central League, and Japanese Pro Baseball
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 [...]
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 [...]
June 19th, 2012 Chiba Lotte Marines Tokyo Yakult Swallows Last 5: LWWLW Streak: Won 1 (Jingu Stadium) The last dose of interleague “joy” will have to wait another day, as tonight’s game has been cancelled due to the impending typhoon(s) due to hit the Kanto region later today. They will try again tomorrow evening. [...]
May 24th, 2012 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1 Chiba Lotte Marines 6 Streak: Lost 5 Last 5: LLLLL (QVC Marine Field) That’s right folks, that’s 5 L’s filling up the ‘Last 5′ field. Another night, another loss, I’m starting to feel like a BayStars fan. The Swallows shake up the line up hard by sending [...]
May 22nd, 2012 Tokyo Yakult Swallows Chiba Lotte Marines Streak: Lost 3 Last 5: LWLLL (QVC Marine Field) This evening’s game fell victim to a day of rain, and will be rescheduled for Thursday 24th at 6:15pm.
It’s that time of year again! When Central League teams face off against their Pacific League counterparts. Things will get started for the Swallows on Wednesday evening at Jingu when they face off against the defending Nippon Series Champion Hawks. The Interleague format hasn’t changed over the last couple of years, and if anyone needs [...]
Tokyo Swallows Wladimir Balentien is having some right elbow issues and hasn’t been able to practice at 100%. It seems like Ogawa is starting to get a little impatient (link in Japanese). Balentien didn’t play in Tokyo’s pre-season game against Hanshin on Saturday. Tokyo beat Hokkaido 3-0 in a practice game on Thursday February 23rd. [...]
Chunichi Dragons Free agent LHP Wei-ying Chen signed with Baltimore. It’s a three-year deal that consequently puts a serious dent in Chunichi’s ability to keep opposing teams off the board. Cheers to that! Yomiuri Giants Sounds like the Giants may be about to sign utility INF/OF John Bowker who was recently released by the Phillies. [...]
Bio Josh was born in Durham, North Carolina on April 14, 1982, and played high school baseball in Rialto, California. He later played college ball for Loyola Marymount University and was a top level student-athlete throughout his time as an amateur baseball player. His freshman year, 2001, ended on a sour and painful note when [...]
Chiba legend, and all-around-good-guy, Bobby Valentine, is reportedly about to assume control of the dugout at Fenway Park. After a ponderous perusal of several possible Terry Francona replacements, Valentine has emerged as the front-runner and looks set to take over once contract terms are settled. We spent a day hanging with Mr. Valentine back during [...]
