An in-depth look at the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, Jingu Stadium, the Central League, and Japanese Pro Baseball
We posted a poll on the 25th asking you some general questions about the state of affairs with the team. Aoki’s gone, and there are some question marks hanging over the team as spring camp gets under way down in Urasoe, Okinawa. We here at Tsubamegun tend to see these question marks as opportunities, and [...]
While reading all the off-season and spring training news that can be found about NPB and MLB, I came across some tidbits on former Tokyo center fielder, Norichika Aoki. A tracking poll conducted last week over at Brew Crew Ball found that 94% of respondents were in favor of the contract that Aoki signed with [...]
**The poll is now closed. Click here to see the results of the vote. Here’s a poll to keep your mind off of what you should actually be doing at work. You will be asked for your opinions on topics such as who should get the most starts at third, and whether or not the [...]
The Milwaukee Brewers announced that the team signed Norichika Aoki, Tokyo’s star 30-year-old outfielder, to a multi-year deal. Congratulations to both Aoki and the Brewer community! We here at Tsubamegun hope that it truly is a match made in Milwaukee heaven. Details are sketchy at this point, but it seems like the two sides were [...]
We’re still waiting on the Aoki decision. And there’s a fearsome mountain of contingencies riding on the outcome, so we still can’t make any educated guesses about the opening day lineup. But there’s a lot of other stuff going on in Tsubamegun-land. Here are a few goodies for your perusal while keeping an eye out [...]
Yakult, Tokyo’s parent company, surprised many when it decided to post Norichika Aoki after the 2011 season. Why? Aoki won’t have the service time to earn international free agency until partway through the 2013 season, so most Tokyo fans were expecting another year at Jingu Stadium for the team’s perennial Golden Glove, Best Nine and [...]
On this day in 1982, Norichika Aoki was born in Miyazaki Prefecture. He was acquired by the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in the fourth round of the 2003 amateur draft after a standout tenure playing for Waseda University. Aoki went on to make an immediate impression in the minors during his rookie year, and he became [...]
Norichika Aoki (29), Tokyo’s decorated center fielder, will now have 30 days to negotiate with the team that recently bid the highest through the posting system. The winning bid, which was immediately accepted by Tokyo, was $2.5 million. The name of the winning team, which has exclusive negotiating rights, has not been divulged. The bidding [...]
Bio Norichika Aoki hails from Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan, and is one of the most-loved players on the Tokyo Swallows roster. After helping Waseda University win the Tokyo Big6 Championships four semesters in a row, Aoki was drafted fourth by Tokyo in the first round of the 2003 draft. The outfielder didn’t see much first team [...]
