An in-depth look at the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Jingu Stadium, the Central League, and Japanese Pro Baseball
The team reported that it would likely use the US$2.5 million dollars if received from the Milwaukee Brewers to help improve the farm team facilities. It was not reported whether all or part of the posting fee would be put towards stadium improvements. There is also a rumor flying around that Hatakeyama has requested a [...]
October 2nd, 2011 Tokyo Swallows 4 Yokohama BayStars 3 Streak: Won 1 Last 5: WWLLW (Yokohama Stadium) After watching its young pitchers get knocked about the park for the past two days, Tokyo looked to salvage a bit of pride against the recently very feisty BayStars. Tokyo opened the scoring on a solo Hatakeyama [...]
September 6th, 2011 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 8 Yokohama BayStars 3 Streak: Won 1 Last 5: WWWLW (Yokohama Stadium) If Tokyo have any pretensions of taking the Central League title this year, then they need to win a majority of their six games with Yokohama in September. And tonight they made a pretty good start on the road [...]
August 17th, 2011 Yokohama BayStars 10 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 10 Streak: Tied 1 Last 5: LWLWT (Jingu Stadium) Tokyo is certainly in the entertainment business. I was prepared to ponder Kawabata’s batting third and to make up for my discounting of Shichijo’s previous outing, which was solid. Instead, I find myself thinking more of [...]
After taking a bit of a hiatus because of the All Star break and subsequent personal vacation, the Monday Review is back! A lot has happened since the last Monday Review, the team has come back down to earth despite seeing many key players return from injury. The team is 5-10-3 since the All Star [...]
August 13th, 2011 Tokyo Swallows 8 Hanshin Tigers 2 Streak: Won 1 Last 5:LWLLW (Jingu) After the last few dismal performance, the Swallows finally figure out the Tigers. Line-ups Yakult Aoki CF Tanaka 2B Kawabata SS Hatakeyama LF Whitesell 1B Miyamoto 3B Balentien RF Aikawa C Yoshinori P Hanshin Murton RF Hirano [...]
August 7th, 2011 Tokyo Swallows 2 Hanshin Tigers 5 Streak: Lost 4 Last 5: DLLLL (Kyocera Dome) The Birds try to salvage at least one win against the 2nd place Tigers, before riding the shinkansen south to Hiroshima. Tokyo: 1. Kawashima (SS) 2. Aoki (CF) 3. Hatakeyama (LF) 4. Whitesell (1B) 5. Takeuchi (RF) [...]
August 4th, 2011 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1 Chunichi Dragons 2 Streak: Lost 1 Last 5: DDWDL (Nagoya Dome) Tateyama pitched eight solid innings of two run baseball, but the Swallows bats couldn’t get anything of substance going against Chunichi starter Soto or the Dragons’ bullpen as they fell in the final game of the [...]
August 2nd, 2011 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1 Chunichi Dragons 0 Streak: Won 1 Last 5: LWDDW (Nagoya Dome) Ishikawa managed to keep the Dragons off the board for 8 innings while Lim just about managed to hold it together in the 9th to give Masanori his first win since June. And unlike last week’s [...]
July 31st, 2011 Yomiuri Giants 6 Tokyo Swallows 6 Streak: Tied 2 Last 5: WLWDD (Meiji Jingu Stadium) Tokyo got off on the wrong foot to start this contest, the third and final of a crowded weekend series at home against the team’s arch rivals from across town. Actually, to be fair, it was mostly [...]
