While D’Antona and Guiel have been scapegoated by the team, on-air commentators, and media as the main reason why the birds weren’t winning, I had a creeping suspicion that others in the lineup were equally deserving of criticism. And even though I had no numbers to back up my suspicions, I couldn’t help but notice [...]

The regular season ended on Monday when Tokyo came from behind to beat Yomiuri, and the Swallows’ resulting 71-72-1 record earned them praise for a modest improvement over last year and the team’s first ever advancement to the Climax Series. The team’s solid play at the end of 2009 was a refreshing bookend to a [...]

Well, it’s been a rough start to the second half of the season, folks. The birds have only won four of their 12 games that they’ve played since the All-Star Break in late July. The Tokyo Swallows are now 7.5 games behind the first place Giants. A lot of things aren’t clicking at the moment: [...]

We’ve had plenty to be pessimistic about over the last couple months years, so I thought it might be a good idea to talk about one of the positives that the team can claim at the moment. Meet infielder Kazuhiro Hatakeyama. The 26-year-old from Iwate prefecture is currently in his 8th season with the club, [...]