Well, the festive season is over and the 2010 baseball season can be spotted lurking on the horizon, just waiting to take over our lives again. Here’s a round up of what’s been going on in SwallowsLand so far this offseason that hasn’t been covered elsewhere on the site:

The Swallows made only their second ever free [...]

Yomiuri 4
Hokkaido 3
Series: Hokkaido 0-1 Yomiuri
(Sapporo Dome)
The 2009 Japan Series kicked off tonight in Sapporo with the Pacific League Champions, Hokkaido, hosting their Central League counterparts, the Yomiuri Giants.

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 18th, 2009

Tokyo Swallows 2

Chunichi Dragons 3

Series: Chunichi 1-1 Tokyo
(Nagoya Dome)
The Dragons leveled the series with a come-from-behind win and made sure that both team’s season will survive at least one more day.

October 17th, 2009

Fukuoka Softbank Hawks 1

Tohoku Rakuten Eagles 4

Best of 3 Series: Fukoka 0 – 2 Tohoku
(Kleenex Stadium)
The Eagles rode a solid performance from starting pitcher, Masahiro Tanaka, to sweep the Fukuoka Softbank Hawks and earn a trip to Hokkaido to face the Pacific League champions.

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 season [...]

October 16th, 2009

Fukuoka Softbank Hawks 4

Tohoku Rakuten Eagles 11
Best of 3 Series: Fukoka 0 – 1 Tohoku
(Kleenex Stadium)
The Eagles absolutely destroyed the visiting Hawks in the first game of what could be an abbreviated series up in Sendai.

October 11th, 2009

Chunichi Dragons 3

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 4

Streak: Won 5    Last 5: WWWWW
(Jingu Stadium)
With the Swallows clinching 3rd and a Climax Series place on Friday, this preview matchup between the two teams that will be contesting the first round of the post-season was meant to be a nice quiet game, with both teams having little [...]

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.

October 3rd, 2009

Tokyo Yakult Swallows 6

Hanshin Tigers 4
Streak: Won 1      Last 5:  WLLLW
(Koshien)
With the race for 3rd getting tighter with every day, this was a game that the Swallows simply had to win. A loss tonight and they’d be two games back of Hanshin, a win and they’d be level. For these big [...]