An in-depth look at the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Jingu Stadium, the Central League, and Japanese Pro Baseball
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. [...]
Yokohama has been bleeding talent like it’s their job. Uchikawa fled to Fukuoka after the 2010 season (and subsequently won a Japan Series Championship), and Murata departed for Yomiuri following another sixth place finish in 2011. DeNA now owns the team, so maybe rosier times are on the horizon. One possible plus is the fact [...]
Just a quick roundup of three recent news tidbits: 1. Rob Smaal, staff writer for the Asahi, recently wrote about the unlikely connection between former Swallows shortstop, Dave Hilton, and one of Japan’s best living authors, Haruki Murakami. Apparently Murakami, a Swallows fan, was at Jingu on Opening Day of the 1978 season, and Hilton’s [...]
June 3rd, 2011 Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 9 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 0 Streak: Lost 1 Last 5: LLWWL (Meiji Jingu Stadium) The Fighters are terrible house guests. They come into your house and beat all hell out of you. Be warned. The Swallows: 1. Aoki (CF) 2. Tanaka (2B) 3. Whitesell (1B) 4. [...]
May 18th, 2011 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 0 Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 3 Streak: Lost 1 Last 5: WWWWL (Sapporo Dome) Tonight’s match-up saw media-darling and Hokkaido ace Yu Darvish take on our boys from Tokyo. The Swallows put the relatively untested youngster Hitoshi Yamamoto, in his third start, up against him. Rangy Swallow-turned-Eagle-turned-Swallow Ryuji [...]
May 17th, 2011 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2 Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 0 Streak: Won 4 Last 5: DWWWW (Sapporo Dome) Tonight’s opening games of the 2011 Inter-League campaign saw all of the Pacific League teams hosting their Central League counterparts. For the CL-topping Swallows, that meant a trip to Hokkaido to face off against the [...]
Tokyo Swallows fans witnessed it all in 2010: the resumption of the 2009 slump which ended up consuming the first two months of 2010; a change in manager; the addition of a cleanup bat; veteran pitchers refinding their form; an authoritative return to winning; and a bit of flirtation with the third and final playoff spot. With any luck, 2011 [...]
June 15th, 2010 Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 10 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2 Streak: Lost 1 Last 5: WWWWL (Meiji Jingu Stadium) Tokyo’s longest winning streak of the season came to a screeching halt at the hands of the Hokkaido Fighters who refused to be swept. In fact, they were so adamant about not being [...]
June 14th, 2010 Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 3 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 8 Streak: Won 5 Last 5: WWWWW (Meiji Jingu Stadium) When this game was originally scheduled to be played (May 23rd), Takada was still at the helm, the birds had just gotten whupped by Chiba 20-4, and the team was in the midst [...]
June 10th, 2010 Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6 Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters 4 Streak: Won 2 Last 5: LWLWW (Sapporo Dome) They finally did it. For the first time since Tokyo beat the Yokohama Baystars on the 2nd and 3rd of April, the Swallows have won back to back games and thus won a series. That’s all [...]
