Nippon Pro Baseball League..... - Revolution42's Blog

Revolution42's Blog

Nippon Pro Baseball League.....

Posted on April 20, 2009 at 02:14 PM.

(0)

......some misc. Japanese baseball info....I am finding it interesting to read about their league and players....

Central League

Team City Stadium Capacity Chunichi Dragons Nagoya, Aichi Nagoya Dome 38,414 Hanshin Tigers Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Koshien Stadium 50,454 Hiroshima Toyo Carp Hiroshima, Hiroshima MAZDA Zoom-Zoom Stadium Hiroshima 30,350 Tokyo Yakult Swallows Tokyo Meiji Jingu Stadium 37,933 Yokohama BayStars Yokohama, Kanagawa Yokohama Stadium 30,730 Yomiuri Giants Tokyo Tokyo Dome 45,600
[edit] Pacific League

Team City Stadium Capacity Chiba Lotte Marines Chiba, Chiba Chiba Marine Stadium 30,200 Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks Fukuoka, Fukuoka Fukuoka Yahoo! Japan Dome 35,773 Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters Sapporo, Hokkaidō Sapporo Dome 40,572 Orix Buffaloes Osaka and Kobe, Hyōgo Kyocera Dome Osaka(main)/Skymark Stadium(semi) 36,477/35,000 Saitama Seibu Lions Tokorozawa, Saitama Seibu Dome 35,879 Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles Sendai, Miyagi Kleenex Stadium Miyagi 23,000

Prior to 1950, professional baseball in Japan was the Japanese Baseball League. Before the 1950 season, the team owners reorganized into the NPB.
From 1973 to 1982, the Pacific League employed a split season with the first half winner playing against the second half winner in a mini-playoff to determine its champion. Then in 2004, the Pacific League played five fewer games than the Central League teams during the regular season and used a new playoff format to determine its champion. The teams in third and second place played in a best two of three series (all at the second place team's home ground) with the winner of that series going on to play the first place team in a best 3 of 5 format at its home ground. In the end, the Seibu Lions finished in second place, defeated Nippon Ham 2 games to 1, went on to take 3 of 5 games in Fukuoka against the Daiei Hawks and then defeated the Chunichi Dragons in the Japan Series, 4 games to 3, capping off their grueling playoff drive with a well-earned championship. The System was proved successful when Pacific League's team continues to win the Japan Series in the following two seasons, until this playoff system was applied to both leagues as the "Climax Series" starting in 2007, which Chunichi Dragons from Central League beat Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters from Pacific League in Japan Series.
The two leagues began interleague play in 2005, with each team playing two 3-game series (one home, one away) against each of the six teams in the other league. This was reduced to two 2-game series in 2007. All interleague play games are played in a 7-week span near the middle of the season. Currently Pacific League's teams won all the interleague titles.
Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called Puro Yakyū (プロ野球), meaning Professional Baseball. Outside of Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation of the Greater Japan Tokyo Baseball Club (大日本東京野球倶楽部 ,Dai-Nippon Tōkyō Yakyū Kurabu?) in 1934 and the original Japanese Baseball League. NPB was formed when that league reorganized in 1950.
Some notable Japanese players who have gone on to play in the United States' Major League Baseball include Hideo Nomo, Kazuhiro Sasaki, Ichiro Suzuki, Tadahito Iguchi, Kenji Johjima, Hideki Matsui, So Taguchi, Hideki Irabu, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hideki Okajima, Kazuo Matsui, Hiroki Kuroda, Akinori Iwamura, and Kosuke Fukudome.

Nippon Professional Baseball consists of two leagues, the Central League and the Pacific League. There are also two secondary-level professional minor leagues, the Eastern League and the Western League, that play shorter schedules.
The season starts in late March or early April and ends in October with two or three all star games in July. In recent decades, the two leagues each scheduled 130, 135 or 140 regular season games with the best teams from each league going on to play in the "Nippon Series" or Japan Series.