Robert Whiting wrote about the remarkable equalizing power of athletes such as Matsui, Ichiro, and Matsuzaka in the FCCJ.
A choice selection from the article:
Then there was also the fact that every year during spring training, Matsui took the Yankees-beat writers out to dinner, perhaps the only Yankee in the history of the franchise [...]

October 19th, 2009

Tokyo Swallows 4

Chunichi Dragons 7

Series: Chunichi 2-1 Tokyo
(Nagoya Dome)
Chunichi was definitely the better team today, but they should never forget that they had the flu and a little bit of Takada on their side. Either way, the season came to an end for the Swallows while the Dragons now inherit the unenviable task [...]

October 8th, 2009

Hanshin Tigers 0

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5

Streak: Won 3      Last 5:  WLWWW
(Jingu Stadium)
The birds rode a complete game shutout by starter Tateyama to their third win in a row and reclaimed third place in the Central League in the process.

September 30th, 2009

Hanshin Tigers 7

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 1

Streak: Lost 2     Last 5:  WWWLL
(Jingu Stadium)
The birds outhit the Tigers 12-10 but still got annihilated. Yuki pitched six rather solid innings but got roughed up a little in the seventh. Takada factored a bit in this one as well.

September 29th, 2009

Hanshin Tigers 8

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 2

Streak: Lost 1     Last 5:  WWWWL
(Jingu Stadium)
Well, no blisters were involved, but that still sucked.

July 22nd, 2009

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 5

Hanshin Tigers 0
Streak: Won 3     Last 5:  WLWWW
(Koshien)
After yesterday’s rainout, two thirds of Tsubamegun were in attendance at the tiny, heavily-guarded visitor’s section in Koshien Stadium for an attempt at taking the series from the fifth place Tigers.
In case you’re wondering, this third of Tsubamegun is not at [...]

July 20th, 2009

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 3

Hanshin Tigers 2
Streak: Won 2     Last 5:  WWLWW
(Koshien)
Yuuki hung in there just long enough to get his third win of the season, and the Swallows survived the Hanshin counter-attack to take the first game of the series.

April 17th, 2009

Hiroshima Toyo Carp 1
Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6
Streak: Won 2     Last 5: WLLWW
(Jingu Stadium)
A two homerun night from D’Antona and seven decent innings from Ishikawa propelled Tokyo to victory in their first matchup with the Carp of the season.
Ishikawa went 7 innings, and while the Carp found him fairly easy to hit racking [...]

April 8th, 2009

Chunichi Dragons 4
Tokyo Yakult Swallows 8
Streak: Won 1    Last 5: LWWLW
(Jingu Stadium)
After yesterday’s game, we’d seen the 2009 Tokyo starting rotation begin to take shape. Ishikawa, Yoshinori, Kawashima and Tateyama made up the first four spots. So tonight saw the initial No.5 slot taken up by a quite unlikely candidate. Eleven years [...]

April 4th, 2009

Tokyo Swallows 5
Hanshin Tigers 1
Streak: Won 1     Last 2:  LW
(Kyocera Dome)
Tokyo put it’s first win of 2009 on the board at the second attempt as they beat the Hanshin Tigers on Saturday afternoon.
The win came off the back of a quality start from the 19 year old Yoshinori, who pitched six innings of [...]