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Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks get green light
Japan Times -- SoftBank Corp. officially became a baseball club owner Friday when the Internet service provider obtained approval for its purchase of the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks from debt-ridden retail giant Daiei Inc.
Like the Daiei Hawks, the new team will use Fukuoka Dome as its home field and play in the Pacific League. Daiei Hawks manager Sadaharu Oh will continue at the helm under the new owner.
December 24: Full Story
Wada in the money after renewing deal
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Seibu Lions outfielder Kazuhiro Wada re-signed Sunday after a second round of talks for an annual salary of 250 million yen -- a 90 million yen pay raise from 2004.
December 26: Full Story
Sasaki clears air, will play in 2005
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Yokohama BayStars closer Kazuhiro Sasaki confirmed a deal worth 500 million yen plus performance incentives Wednesday in his final year of a two-year contract signed last off-season.
December 8: Full Story
Also: Tigers acquire Sheets
Rakuten to open first season versus Lotte
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles will open their first season in
Japanese baseball against the Lotte Marines at Chiba Marine Stadium
on March 26, according to the 2005 Pacific League schedule released
Wednesday.
December 8: Full Story
Carp sign LaRocca for two years
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- The Hiroshima Carp have re-signed infielder Greg LaRocca to a one-year contract with a club option for a second year, a rare multiyear deal involving a foreign player on the Central League team.
LaRocca hit .328 with 40 homers and 101 RBIs in his first season in Japan and has been guaranteed the cleanup spot for the 2005 season.
December 7: Full Story
Also: Veteran right-hander Kuwata accepts huge pay cut
Dragons land home-run king Woods
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- The Chunichi Dragons have acquired Central League home-run king Tyrone Woods, signing the 35-year-old to a two-year deal worth an estimated 1 billion yen.
Woods batted .286 with 85 homers and 190 RBIs in two seasons with Yokohama, which he left after contract talks broke down.
December 2: Full Story
Matsuzaka tells Lions of major desire
Daily Yomiuri -- While accepting the hefty raise that made him the highest-paid pitcher in Pacific League history, Daisuke Matsuzaka broached the delicate subject with the Seibu Lions of being allowed to go to the major leagues in the near future.
December 2: Full Story Related: Seibu shows hard-throwing Matsuzaka the money
Orix needs more than new name
By Jim Allen, Daily Yomiuri -- One hundred and 70 days after Kintetsu announced it wanted to merge its Pacific League club with Orix's, the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes became past tense on Monday.
December 2: Full Story
Colborn feels right at home in Japan
By Wayne Graczyk, Japan Times -- Los Angeles Dodgers pitching coach Jim Colborn: "Every time I come back to Japan, it's like a renewal. It puts me in touch with the softer side of myself which includes the polite side, the patient side, the understanding side. It's like a shot in the arm."
December 1: Full Story
Matsui settles comfortably into Yankees spirit
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Following the completion of a stellar second season as a major
leaguer, New York Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui expressed his
admiration and respect for the game of baseball as a cultural
phenomenon in the United States.
December 1: Full Story
Netcasts throw ballclubs a curveball
Mainichi Shimbun -- With IT giants Rakuten and SoftBank running teams from next season, Netcasts of ball games appear likely to become a bigger business than ever before.
While most involved expect a growing number of fans to go online to watch games, ballclubs are still at a loss over how to make money out of Netcasts.
November 28: Full Story
Giants to host day games
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- The Yomiuri Giants plan to play day games at Tokyo Dome next season for the first time in 14 years in an apparent bid to help stem the declining popularity.
November 29: Full Story
Ichiro only human in record chase
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Ichiro: "It's important to flex your body muscles, but more important to flex your brain muscles. Veterans have a tendency to be stubborn because they want to believe what they've been doing for years is right, but if you do that you can't move on."
November 29: Full Story
Oh to double as general manager
Mainichi Shimbun -- Daiei Hawks manager Sadaharu Oh is set to double as general manager responsible for organizing the team after SoftBank Corp. takes over the Pacific League team before the next season.
November 26: Full Story
Rakuten signs Ichiba, three others
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, who will join professional baseball next season, made provisional contracts Wednesday with Yasuhiro Ichiba and three other collegiate players.
"I'm just happy to have this opportunity to play baseball," said Ichiba, who was named by Rakuten under a pre-draft acquisition system for top collegiate and corporate team players and will wear uniform number 11.
November 24: Full Story
Lonely days in Fukuoka
By Wayne Graczyk, Japan Times -- The imminent sale of the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks baseball team may yield great results down the road but, right now, the elimination of the "Daiei" name seems to have cast an atmosphere of loneliness over the city and the entire northern Kyushu area.
November 23: Full Story
Kapler headed to Japan
By Ian Browne, MLB.com -- A spark plug off the bench for the Red Sox the last two seasons, Gabe Kapler will play every day in 2005. However, it will be a long way from Boston.
November 22: Full Story
Linares says time in Japan was exciting but exhausting
Japan Times -- Cuban slugger Omar Linares said his three seasons spent playing baseball in Japan were exciting but also mentally exhausting.
November 21: Full Story Also: Dragons eye Cubans
Mound relief almost backfired for MLB pitchers
By Wayne Graczyk, Japan Times -- The visiting Major League Baseball All-Stars left Japan Nov. 14 with a 5-3 series victory over their All-Japan opponents but, ironically, a change in the pitching mounds designed to help the big leaguers for the final three games of the tour almost resulted in disaster for the visitors.
November 16: Full Story
Uehara pays tribute to master Clemens
By Jim Allen, Daily Yomiuri -- November 13: Full Story
Kokudo considers Lions sale
Daily Yomiuri -- Kokudo Corp., the core business of the Seibu Railway Co. group, is considering selling the Seibu Lions professional baseball club and withdrawing from the baseball business, sources said Saturday.
The firm has approached several corporations with the offer to sell the club, including Livedoor and TV Asahi.
November 6: Full Story
New teams choose players in distribution draft
Japan Times -- A baseball distribution draft to divvy up the 107 players between the newly formed Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles and the merged club being created between the Orix BlueWave and the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes was held Monday.
November 8: Full Story
Related: List of players selected
Ichiba accepts offer from Rakuten Eagles; Bryant back to Kansai
Japan Times -- Yasuhiro Ichiba of Meiji University, who accepted money from pro baseball clubs in violation of draft eligibility rules, has accepted an offer by the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles to acquire him in a pre-draft arrangement.
November 8: Full Story
Rakuten Eagles selected as new team
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Baseball officials on Tuesday chose Rakuten Inc. as owner of the new team allowed to join Japanese professional baseball next season.
Rakuten was selected over Livedoor Co. at an executive committee meeting of Nippon Professional Baseball and the decision was endorsed by the baseball owners later in the day.
The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, who will be more commonly called the Rakuten Eagles, will be based in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture.
The selection of Rakuten ended more than four months of fiasco that rocked Japanese baseball and maintained the current setup of a two-league, 12-team system.
November 2: Full Story
New team to be born Tuesday
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- A new professional baseball club is set to be born Tuesday when baseball officials and owners choose one of two Internet-related applicants -- Livedoor Co. and Rakuten Inc.
Nippon Professional Baseball officials will hold an executive committee meeting from 11 a.m. to pick one of the two applicants and the owners are expected to approve the selection at their meeting due to open at 2 p.m.
Baseball sources have said Rakuten, an Internet shopping mall operator, holds an edge over Internet service provider Livedoor as the favored applicant of the two as a result of the monthlong screening by NPB.
November 1: Full Story
Otsuka, Ishii return with MLB squad
AP -- Akinori Otsuka and Kazuhisa Ishii expect to get a lot of attention in Japan when they play with a team of major leaguers in an exhibition series against Japanese All-Stars starting next week.
October 30: Full Story
Interleague play set for next season
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Interleague play, which will be introduced to pro baseball from next season, will be held from early May through mid-June.
Interleague contests will be carried out from May 6 to June 16 with each team playing a total of 36 games.
There will be 146 regular season games in the Central League, but just 136 in the Pacific League, excluding the playoffs.
October 29: Full Story
Linares announces retirement
Japan Times -- 37-year old Chunichi Dragons infielder Omar Linares, who was the core of the Cuban national team for more than a decade, has decided to retire after being left out of the picture for next season.
October 30: Full Story
Kawakami, Matsunaka named MVP
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Chunichi Dragons right-hander Kenshin Kawakami and Daiei Hawks infielder Nobuhiko Matsunaka were named the Most Valuable Players of the 2004 season on Wednesday.
Kawakami, who posted a career-high 17 wins for the Central League champion, won his first MVP honors by a wide margin over teammates Kazuyoshi Tatsunami and Masahiro Yamamoto.
Matsunaka, winner of the triple crown batting title, picked up the MVP award in the Pacific League for the second time in his career.
October 27: Full Story
Related: 2004 award winners
Giants losing the arms race
By Jim Allen, Daily Yomiuri -- The Yomiuri Giants put together more home run pop than any team in pro yakyu history in 2004 but without a healthy corps of starting pitchers finished a disappointing third place in the Central League.
October 27: Full Story
Foreign heavy hitters show some 'appeal' during Japan Series
By Wayne Graczyk, Japan Times -- October 26: Full Story
Rookie skippers ring in new era
By Jim Allen, Daily Yomiuri -- Nobody likes to lose, but failure is a part of life. The secret is learning to put a loss in the proper perspective. This is especially difficult to do in the yakyu culture, where nine innings are not a game but a representation of mortal combat.
October 27: Full Story
Mikitani hopes to shake-up baseball industry
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Hiroshi Mikitani, president of Rakuten Inc., said Wednesday he hopes that creating a new team in Japanese baseball will breathe life into an industry desperately in need of a blood transfusion.
Mikitani said his plan includes introducing a board of advisors to change regulations in Japanese baseball, dropping the corporate name Rakuten in the future and pushing the commissioner's office to take more of a leadership role in making decisions.
October 27: Full Story
Sendai Livedoor Phoenix
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Livedoor Co., which has applied to own a professional baseball team, said Tuesday its ball club will be called Sendai Livedoor Phoenix.
Livedoor conducted Internet voting to decide the name for its baseball team, with Phoenix proving the most popular among a list of 10 candidates.
October 26: Full Story
Lions win Series with Game 7 rout
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Takashi Ishii was superb on the mound again and Alex Cabrera broke the hearts of fans in Nagoya with a monstrous homer in a five-run, third-inning onslaught Monday as the Seibu Lions clinched their first Japan Series title in 12 years with a 7-2 victory over the Chunichi Dragons in Game 7.
It was the ninth time Seibu, led by first-year manager Tsutomu Ito, won the best-of-seven series between the Central and Pacific League champions. The Lions last won the title of the No. 1 team in Japanese baseball in 1992.
Ishii (2-0), the Series' MVP, pitched a three-hitter over six scoreless innings.
The right-hander caught the Dragons off balance with the same quality pitches he showed in Game 1 when he threw seven shutout innings in a 2-0 victory at the same ballpark.
October 25: Full Story
Related: Daily Yomiuri recap of Game Seven
Also: Ishii comes around just at the right time
Wada powers Seibu over Chunichi
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Kazuhiro Wada homered in consecutive at-bats as the Seibu Lions beat the Chunichi Dragons 4-2 in an exciting see-saw affair Sunday to force a deciding Game 7 in the Japan Series.
"It's finally beginning to feel like a Japan Series. The credit should go to Matsuzaka today. He did more than expected," Seibu manager Tsutomu Ito said. "All I ask of the players tomorrow is to play a good game."
Takashi Ishii is likely to get the call to start for Seibu while Domingo Guzman could take the mound for Chunichi.
October 24: Full Story
Related: Game Six recap by Daily Yomiuri
Also: Wada's heroics
Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Rakuten Inc., which has applied to own a professional baseball team, said Friday its ball club will be called the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
The Sendai-based team is named after golden eagles living in a range of mountainous areas in the Tohoku region, Rakuten said. The Rakuten Eagles will be a more commonly used abbreviated name.
October 22: Full Story
Related: Rakuten picks name to soar by
Dragons ace changes game plan, improves on Game 1 performance
By Sergei Borisov -- Unlike Game 4 winner Daisuke Yamai, Kawakami doesn't throw sliders. So he turned to cutters in his second start of the Series.
October 23: Full Story
BayStars, Tigers owners quit over scandal
Daily Yomiuri -- Two pro baseball owners quit Friday over revelations of making cash payments to lure collegiate star Yasuhiro Ichiba, the same player whose involvement in a similar incident this summer led to the resignation of Yomiuri Giants owner Tsuneo Watanabe.
October 22: Full Story
Also: A related Asahi Shimbun story
Yamai's slider tames Lions
By Sergei Borisov -- Throughout the first three games, Lions' RH batters have been sitting on fastballs almost on any count, ready to crash hard stuff inside no matter what happened a pitch before. When able to put a fastball into play, they hit .486 with a .622 isolated power (!!), thus averaging more than one total base per every non-strikeout at-bat. The Dragons badly needed to throw the Lion sluggers off their fastball-hitting ways.
October 21: Full Story
Matsui makes no excuses for bitter loss in ALCS
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- New Yankees outfielder Hideki Matsui tasted bitter disappointment Wednesday along with the rest of the Bronx Bombers after allowing the Boston Red Sox to overturn a 3-0 deficit to win the best-of-seven American League Championship Series.
October 21: Full Story
Oh to continue as Hawks manager
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Daiei Hawks manager Sadaharu Oh said Tuesday he will stay in charge of the Pacific League team for an 11th year next season and try to regain the Japan Series title they failed to retain this year.
"It was a disappointing year as we failed to reach the Japan Series. We need to go back to the basics next year and I want to bring back the title of the No. 1 team in Japanese baseball to this team," Oh said.
October 19: Full Story
Kawakami takes Sawamura Award
By Jim Allen, Daily Yomiuri -- Kenshin Kawakami has yet to get a win in the Japan Series, but he claimed an even more elusive prize Monday when he was named the recipient of this season's Sawamura Award.
Named in the honor of right-hander Eiji Sawamura, the award is sponsored by The Yomiuri Shimbun and is given to the starting pitcher who best exemplifies the spirit of the former Yomiuri Giants ace.
October 18: Full Story Also: Kawakami named best starter
SoftBank wants Daiei Hawks
Daily Yomiuri -- Masayoshi Son, president of major telecommunications firm SoftBank Corp., announced Monday that his firm wanted to buy the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks baseball team from financially strapped Daiei Inc.
October 18: Full Story
Swallows' Iwamura falls one homer short
Daily Yomiuri -- On the final day of the Central League season, Akinori Iwamura failed to become the home run leader and the Yokohama BayStars failed to avoid a third-straight last-place finish.
October 16: Full Story
Nashida declines to accept head coach job of merged team
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Kintetsu Buffaloes manager Masataka Nishida turned down an offer Friday to serve as the head coach of the new team to be created after the merger between Kintetsu and the Orix BlueWave.
October 15: Full Story
BayStars' Yoshimi flirts with no-hitter
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Southpaw Yuji Yoshimi came within one out of a no-hitter Thursday, leading the Yokohama BayStars to a 4-0 blanking of the Hiroshima Carp in the Central League.
Yoshimi (7-5) allowed a double to Kazuki Fukuchi, the 27th batter he faced in the game at Hiroshima Stadium, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth for the only hit he gave up enroute to his first complete game of the season.
October 14: Full Story
Related: Yoshimi refused to go inside on right-handed batters, save for four 2-strike fastballs in a row he threw to Takahiro Arai before walking him in the 5th inning; Yoshimi vs Carp left-handers
Symbols and notation
Sendai a battlefield for baseball business
Asahi Shimbun -- Amid expectations that this city will have a professional baseball team next season, the pitches are already flying-the business pitches that is.
October 14: Full Story
Livedoor to appoint O'Malley as manager
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Livedoor Inc., which has applied to own a professional baseball team, is set to announce the
appointment of Thomas O'Malley as manager of the team.
The 43-year-old O'Malley, who played for the Hanshin Tigers and Yakult Swallows, currently serves as a U.S.-based scout for the Tigers.
October 13: Full Story
Lions' owner Tsutsumi to step down
Daily Yomiuri -- October 13: Full Story
IRCJ holds key to Hawks' future
Daily Yomiuri -- The Fukuoka Daiei Hawks' future was thrown into doubt Wednesday when their financially-struggling parent company Daiei Inc. agreed to accept aid from the state-backed Industrial Revitalization Corporation of Japan (IRCJ) for its rehabilitation.
October 13: Full Story
Matsunaka hospitalized for hepatitis
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- October 13: Full Story
Tao, not Kakefu, to manage Rakuten team
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- October 12: Full Story
Dragons' flexes are mostly Alex's
By Dave Wiggins, Asahi Shimbun -- An MVP vote for Chunichi's Alex Ochoa is a vote for common sense.
October 10: Full Story
Related: 2004 batting average graphs for Alex Ochoa and Kazuyoshi Tatsunami
Lions edge Hawks to win PL pennant
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Pinch-hitter Toshiaki Inubushi hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the top of the 10th inning and Takashi Ishii retired the side in the bottom half on Monday, lifting the Seibu Lions to a 4-3 victory over the Daiei Hawks in the fifth and deciding game of the Pacific League playoffs.
It was a cliffhanger to the very end of the best-of-five series, but the second-place Lions bested Daiei 3-2 to set up a showdown with the Central League champion Chunichi Dragons in the Japan Series starting Saturday at Nagoya Dome.
October 11: Full Story More: PL Playoffs
Matsunaka kept on tough diet
By Sergei Borisov -- As Daiei forces the fifth and deciding game with a 4-1 victory on Sunday, Hawks' cleanup hitter Nobuhiko Matsunaka is still silent with the bat. The first baseman went 1-for-14 in four games, with a solo homer and four strikeouts.
October 10: Full Story
Lions righty batters need to adjust before it's too late
By Sergei Borisov -- The Lions' 2004 lineup is mostly right-handed (T. Sato, Fernandez, Cabrera, K. Wada, Nakajima), and it showed in their Game 2 trouncing of Hawks lefty starter Tsuyoshi Wada.
But the point is the batters have to turn it up versus Daiei RHPs or Seibu is in for trouble as the Series resumes on Saturday.
October 8: Full Story
Shima gives up hit chase while Ichiro slaps away People's Honor
Daily Yomiuri -- Hiroshima Carp right fielder Shigenobu Shima, who emerged from obscurity this season as the Central League's top hitter, has abandoned a bid to rewrite the CL record for hits.
October 8: Full Story
Related: Season-to-date batting average graphs for Shigenobu Shima and Takahiro Saeki as of October 8th
Sapporo story: Fighters' first season in Hokkaido a big success
By Wayne Graczyk, Japan Times -- October 5: Full Story
Kuehnert to head Rakuten team
By Jim Armstrong, AP -- Internet services company Rakuten on Tuesday introduced American Marty Kuehnert as the general manager of the company's new professional baseball club.
If Rakuten is granted a team for the 2005 season, Kuehnert, who speaks fluent Japanese, would become the first American general manager of a team in Japan's professional leagues.
October 5: Full Story
Tigers' Igawa no-hits Shima & Co.
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Kei Igawa pitched the first no-hitter of his career with an eight-strikeout effort in a 1-0 victory over the Hiroshima Carp.
October 4: Full Story
Blue Jays broadcaster Cerutti passes away
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John Cerutti
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By Spencer Fordin, MLB.com -- John Cerutti, a Toronto broadcaster and former Blue Jay, passed away on Sunday at the age of 44.
The left-hander worked for Rogers Sportsnet, and served as the lead analyst on Jays games for the last three seasons. Long before that, he was intimately involved in the community: Cerutti was a first-round draft pick in 1981 and spent six of his seven big-league seasons with the Blue Jays.
October 3: Full Story Related: Batter's Box - John Cerutti, 1960-2004
Hillman re-signs with Nippon Ham
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- The Nippon Ham Fighters on Tuesday signed manager Trey Hillman to a new one-year contract, which will keep him in charge of the Pacific League team for a third year next season.
October 5: Full Story
Hawks eyed merger with Lions, Marines
Asahi Shimbun -- October 4: Full Story
How the Tigers went from first to fourth - everything went wrong
By Dave Wiggins, Asahi Shimbun -- October 3: Full Story
Y. Takahashi to have bone chips removed from elbow
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- October 3: Full Story
Incredible Ichiro breaks hits record
Japan Times -- SEATTLE (AP) Ichiro Suzuki set the major league record for hits in a season with 258, breaking George Sisler's 84-year-old mark with three singles on Friday night as the Seattle Mariners beat the Texas Rangers 8-3.
October 1: Full Story Also: Japan sings praises of hitting machine Ichiro on big day
Rhodes: Short strike 'useless'
By Jack Gallagher, Japan Times -- Though the Japanese pro baseball strike of two weeks ago appears to have won the players a legitimate chance for the entry of a 12th team in time for next season, one veteran player wonders what, if anything, was really gained.
October 1: Full Story
Chunichi wins Central League pennant
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- The Chunichi Dragons clinched their sixth Central League title and first in five years on Friday after the Yakult Swallows' loss to the Yomiuri Giants guaranteed the Nagoya club its first-place finish in the regular season.
Led by rookie manager Hiromitsu Ochiai, the Dragons now have an insurmountable 76-54 record in the CL standings with three ties and five games remaining.
October 1: Full Story
PL to stick to playoff system in 2005 season
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- The Pacific League agreed Tuesday to maintain the playoff system, which is designed to decide the regular-season winner.
September 28: Full Story
No makeup games to be played
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Japanese professional baseball officials decided Monday not to play any makeup games for the 12 games canceled by the players' strike staged on Sept. 18-19.
September 27: Full Story
Players, management reach accord
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Baseball players and management averted a strike this weekend after agreeing Thursday that the screening processes for a new team will soon begin in a bid to keep a 12-team system in professional baseball.
September 23: Full Story
Japan's baseball players go on strike
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- The first-ever strike in the 70-year history of Japanese professional baseball will take place Saturday and Sunday after talks between management and the players association ended in failure Friday.
September 17: Full Story
IT companies set to create teams
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- In the latest shakeup in professional baseball, Internet company Livedoor Co. applied Thursday to create its own professional baseball team with Nippon Professional Baseball, the sport's governing body in Japan.
The move came one day after Rakuten Inc., Japan's largest Internet shopping mall operator, also declared its intention to establish a baseball team in Kobe.
September 16: Full Story
Furuta deserves standing ovation
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Atsuya Furuta
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By Wayne Graczyk, Japan Times -- Yakult Swallows catcher Atsuya Furuta, in my opinion, deserves a round of applause; in fact, a standing ovation, for the job he has done as head of the Nippon Professional Baseball Players Association. I believe he has tirelessly served the players here during the crisis that has gripped Japanese baseball since the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes and Orix BlueWave announced on June 13 they were planning to merge.
September 14: Full Story
Baseball strike off for now
By Jim Allen, Daily Yomiuri -- Players agreed to hold off on Japan professional baseball's first-ever work stoppage after reaching a temporary settlement with management Friday in Osaka. The deal holds open the possibility, however slight, of having two six-team leagues for next season.
The union agreed to play this weekend in exchange for NPB's promise to conduct a study of whether interleague play could keep the Buffaloes financially viable in a six-team Pacific League. Management will perform a similar study to investigate the financial situation with a five-team league.
"The merger is not a done deal. Today's results mean we are still in existence," Isobe said. "That was the main point. We wouldn't have accepted any deal without that possibility."
September 10: Full Story
Players' strike this weekend averted
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Baseball officials and players averted a strike at least for this weekend following two days of negotiations after ballclub owners approved a merger between the Orix BlueWave and Kintetsu Buffaloes.
September 10: Full Story
Owners keep two leagues, OK merger
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- The owners of the 12 professional ball clubs approved the merger between the Orix BlueWave and Kintetsu Buffaloes and decided to keep the two-league system at an extraordinary meeting Wednesday.
The owners said they agreed that the 2005 season will have six teams in the Central League and five in the Pacific League, adding that no proposal was made for another merger between PL clubs.
The owners, who have a final say in professional baseball, also gave the go-ahead to interleague games during the regular season for the first time since the two-league system was put in place in Japanese baseball in 1950.
September 8: Full Story
Players association threatens weekend strike over merger
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Professional baseball players decided on Monday to go on a strike every weekend this month unless baseball officials by Friday accept their demand that the planned merger between the Orix BlueWave and Kintetsu Buffaloes be shelved.
The players association, a labor union, decided it will walk out on all regular-season games scheduled for every Saturday and Sunday in September.
September 6: Full Story
Furuta stands up for Japanese baseball
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Players' association president Atsuya Furuta believes Japanese baseball is turning a deaf ear on its number one supporters -- the fans who matter most.
September 2: Full Story
Dragons hoping Ochoa's lucky No. 4 can bring them success
By Wayne Graczyk, Japan Times -- The Chunichi Dragons have won the Central League pennant four times in the past 30 years, and each time the club had a strong foreign player who wore the uniform No. 4 and contributed greatly to the team's championship seasons.
September 1: Full Story
Kudo gets 200th win, first homer
Japan Times -- August 17: Full Story
NPB rejects players' demands
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Japanese professional baseball officials on Wednesday rejected demands from the players association related to the planned merger between the Orix BlueWave and Kintetsu Buffaloes.
July 28: Full Story
Darwins of the Diamond
By Alan Schwarz, special to ESPN.com -- Most fans, players and even team executives assume that baseball's infatuation with statistics is simply a byproduct of the information age, a phenomenon that blossomed only after the arrival of Bill James and computers in the 1980s. They couldn't be more wrong.
July 8: Full Story Related: Statistical Timeline
Crunch time for baseball team owners
Asahi Shimbun -- Parent firms of money-losing pro clubs say turning a blind eye is no longer an option.
The planned merger between the Kintetsu Buffaloes and Orix BlueWave is a clear indication that money-losing professional baseball teams can no longer be ignored by the corporations that own them.
June 15: Full Story
Horiuchi puts success in perspective
By Tomoo Ota, Daily Yomiuri -- Now in first place and with his pitching coming around, Giants manager Tsuneo Horiuchi appears more relaxed than ever, something he dutifully denies.
"We are not there yet," said Horiuchi. "It's simply the case that we are riding an upward trend."
June 8: Full Story
Past headlines
Yomiuri manager Horiuchi to remain at helm in 2005
First hearing for Livedoor, Rakuten conducted
Kawasaki announces retirement
Fukudome suffers broken finger
Sasaki to have elbow surgery, may pitch next season
Court action delays merger approval
Nozaki proposed intensive inter-league play
Alliance of CL clubs grows against move to one league
Yakult, Yokohama join opposition to single-league baseball
Shinjo plays hero in All-Star finale
Tuffy livin' large after switch to CL
PL outslugs rival in All-Star opener
Dragons head into All-Star break as surprise leaders
Tatsunami named CL MVP for 2nd straight month
Kintetsu again says no to Livedoor
Kintetsu players protest against planned merger
Japan sweeps U.S. in college championship
Japanese baseball causing a lot of sucking and sighing
Giants, Hawks dominate 2004 All-Star voting
Does proposed Buffaloes - BlueWave merger talk signal doom or reform?
Buffaloes, BlueWave plan baseball merger
Kawakami perceives the game in different light
Earliest reference to baseball unearthed
Lions no lock for PL pennant with playoff system
Marines assign struggling Lee to minors
Iwakuma perfect at 7-0
Giants' big bats need some relief
Potent Giants at mercy of poor pitching
Young stars filling shoes of those who left for majors
Carp find monster in their midst
Chiba's choice on Fernandez could be key
Giants need patience, not quick fixes
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