Kiyohara hits 500th home run

Today's schedule

Japanese Pro Yakyu 2005

Chiba Lotte Marines skipper Bobby Valentine salutes hometown fans after the club's 11th straight victory - their longest winning streak in 45 years - on Tue., May 3rd (Photo Source: Yahoo! Sports)

JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Yomiuri slugger Kazuhiro Kiyohara hit his 500th career homer in a 12-4 victory against the Hiroshima Carp at Hiroshima Stadium on Friday.
"As was the case with my 2,000th hit, hitting to center is fundamental in baseball," said Kiyohara, the eighth player in Japanese baseball history to reach the milestone.
"With one homer to go, I wasn't in a normal state of mind and I overswung the bat. In that at-bat, I just tried not to strike out and swung as hard as I could. I hope this homer sparks the team and gets us going," the 20-year veteran said.
April 29: Full Story || photo
Related: Giants belt seven homers to end 6-game losing skid

Kuehnert demoted from GM post
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- The slumping Rakuten Eagles removed Marty Kuehnert from his post as general manager Saturday.
Isao Hirono, an assistant general manager also in charge of team acquisitions, will take over as the acting general manager.
April 30: Full Story
Related: Rakuten to move general manager Kuehnert
Also: JapaneseBaseball.com thread on the topic

Lotte outscores Seibu 22-4 in sweep
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Matt Franco hit a tiebreaking double and Makoto Kosaka went 4-for-5 with four RBIs on Wednesday as the first-place Lotte Marines held off the Seibu Lions 7-1 to stretch their winning streak to seven games in the Pacific League.
April 27: Full Story
Photo: Franco's go-ahead double to center in the 6th inning

Yomiuri to fine Rhodes for criticizing team, coach
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- The Yomiuri Giants will fine outfielder Tuffy Rhodes 2 million yen for criticizing the team after a 7-5 loss to the Yakult Swallows the previous day.
The move came after Rhodes criticized the team and fielding coach Sumio Hirota with insulting words in front of a group of reporters after the game at Yahoo Dome in Fukuoka. Yomiuri said it will use the fine to invite school children to its home games at Tokyo Dome.
April 27: Full Story
Related: Frustrated Rhodes lashes out at teammates

Yakult great Furuta gets 2000th hit
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Yakult Swallows catcher Atsuya Furuta collected his 2,000th career hit in a game against the Hiroshima Carp on Sunday to become the 32nd player in Japanese baseball to achieve the feat.
Among the players in the 2,000-hit club, Furuta is the only one who played corporate-league baseball after graduating from a university. He also is only the second catcher among them, following in the footsteps of his former manager Katsuya Nomura, and the fourth oldest player to reach No. 2,000 at 39 years and eight months.
April 24: Full Story

'Blazer' leaves behind legion of fans, friends in Japan
By Wayne Graczyk, Japan Times -- April 16: Full Story

Hawks' man-mountain Zuleta tears up PL pitching
By Dave Wiggins, Asahi Shimbun -- April 10: Full Story

Irabu to call it quits
Daily Yomiuri -- April 7: Full Story

Rakuten's red dawn in Sendai
By Jim Allen, Daily Yomiuri -- April 6: Full Story
Related: Rakuten to call up rookie Ichiba

Kyojin off to worst start in 47 years
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Hitoshi Tamura singled home the game winner off Dan Miseli (0-2) in the bottom of the 12th inning as Yokohama sent Yomiuri to its fourth consecutive loss, its worst start since 1958.
April 5: Full Story
Also: Softbank stays on top of PL with victory over Orix

Slumping Rakuten begging for addition of role players
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- The Rakuten Eagles asked pro baseball officials in a 12-team executive committee meeting Thursday to allow and help the first-year team to add a number of productive players to its talent-short roster.
March 31: Full Story
Related: 26-0 -- Ouch! But Eagles win the big one

Kokubo ready to rock stadium
By Jim Allen, Daily Yomiuri -- Losing does not sit well with any ballplayer - or any team, for that matter. But the Yomiuri Giants, are not just any team.
March 30: Full Story
Related: Horiuchi: Giants must win CL title

Rakuten notches memorable win
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Hisashi Iwakuma struck out seven in a complete-game effort on the opening day of the 2005 Pacific League season Saturday, lifting the newly formed Rakuten Eagles over the Lotte Marines 3-1 and to their first victory in franchise history.
March 26: Full Story

Golden Eagles set for takeoff
Daily Yomiuri -- The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles spring odyssey is nearly at an end as they completed their first preseason with a 5-2 defeat to the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters at Sapporo Dome on Monday.
The Eagles, created just last November, completed their 22-day, 16-game, preseason road-trip with a 7-8-1 record. They open the regular season on Saturday in Chiba against the Chiba Lotte Marines. They will play their first home game ever on April 1.
March 21: Full Story
Also: Ichiba fails to make Rakuten's top-team roster

Sale of Seibu Lions denied
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Takashi Goto, who is expected to become president of Seibu Railway Co., denied press reports that the Seibu Lions may be sold as part of the reform program.
"I'm confident that the Lions will have a presence as strong as ever as a symbol of the revival of the Seibu group," Goto said.
March 20: Full Story

Japan pro ball eyes drug testing
Daily Yomiuri -- Japan pro baseball officials, with the blessing of the players union, is considering instituting drug testing.
Players union president Atsuya Furuta endorsed the idea, which pro baseball hopes to have in place during the upcoming season.
March 17: Full Story

Who says you can't teach old baseball teams new tricks?
By Wayne Graczyk, Japan Times -- "New" is the watchword for Japanese baseball in 2005.
There is a new interleague schedule, expanded number of games (146 for Central League teams and 136 for Pacific League clubs), and the Hiroshima Carp have a dog named Mickey who brings fresh baseballs to the home plate umpire.
March 19: Full Story

New club championship clears hurdle
By Jim Allen, Daily Yomiuri -- The proposed Asian Club Championship got a crucial OK from the players union on Monday, when the twelve teams' players representatives gave their support to the plan.
The tournament will see the Japan Series champs play against the league champs from Taiwan and South Korea to determine the overall champion of Asia.
While this may be the start of something big, it is just the first step on a very, very long road.
March 16: Full Story

Giants add a little excitement
By John E. Gibson, Daily Yomiuri -- The Yomiuri Giants this season are offering fans a new ticket to excitement in the form of "excite seats."
From the popping gloves in warmups to the pop fouls that twist their way toward the seats, fans are closer to the action than ever.
March 16: Full Story

Baseball across the Pacific
By Junya Ishii, UPI Outside View Commentator -- This year marks the 100th anniversary of the inception of the baseball exchange between Japan and the United States.
March 14: Full Story

Japan All-Stars win in charity event
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Chunichi Dragons infielder Hirokazu Ibata and Yomiuri Giants slugger Kazuhiro Kiyohara both hit RBI doubles as the Japan All-Star team beat a team of Japan-based foreign players 5-3 in a charity game on Monday.
The game was organized to raise money for victims of the Chuetsu earthquake in Niigata Prefecture last October and the Indian Ocean tsunami last December.
March 14: Full Story

Manuel fond of time in Japan
Cherry Hill Courier Post -- Nearly 25 years before Ichiro, Godzilla and Little Matsui crossed the Pacific Ocean and made an impact on the major leagues, a tall, sweet-swinging American known as the Red Devil was taking Japanese baseball by storm.
March 13: Full Story

Acceptance of foreign managers yet another change
By Wayne Graczyk, Japan Times -- It is obvious Japanese baseball is changing. It was not all that long ago when such terms as free agency, posting, expansion, inter-league games and post-season playoffs were unheard of. Now, everyone here knows them.
March 13: Full Story

Can Lions stay focused in midst of scandal?
By Wayne Graczyk, Japan Times -- This could be the final season for the Seibu Lions, at least as we know the ball club by that name.
Whatever happens, though, nothing can take away 27 years of mostly positive Seibu Lions memories.
March 8: Full Story

The autocrat has reached his end
Asahi Shimbun -- As Yoshiaki Tsutsumi was taken into custody Thursday, his once-loyal followers spoke out about the dramatic downfall of the Seibu group and the changes in a man known for authoritarian control.
March 3: Full Story

Former Seibu Lions owner arrested
Reuters -- Prosecutors arrested Japanese railway and property magnate Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, once the richest man in the world, on Thursday on suspicion of making false financial statements and insider trading.
March 3: Full Story
Also: Tsutsumi held in fraud
Related: Tsutsumi probe enters final stage

Baseball still No. 1 sport
Daily Yomiuri -- Fifty-one percent of respondents to a recent Yomiuri Shimbun survey said they enjoy watching professional baseball. It was the 11th straight year the game had topped the survey.
March 3: Full Story

Set to pull a pitcher? Vote online
Christian Science Monitor -- In Japan, baseball fans may soon get a way to tell a struggling pitcher to hit the shower that is far more effective than yelling at the TV.
March 1: Full Story

Giants will rue the day they dumped Petagine
By Dave Wiggins, Asahi Shimbun -- February 28: Full Story

Pros may now coach high schoolers
Daily Yomiuri -- The strict regulations that separate professional and amateur baseball are set to be relaxed.
Those formerly connected with the professional game will be allowed to give technical guidance directly to high school players.
The rule change will also allow former pros to become coaches and managers of university baseball teams.
"It is a truly historic step," said Japan High School Baseball Federation chairman Haruo Wakimura.
February 25: Full Story

Free agent Inaba to join Fighters
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Free agent outfielder Atsunori Inaba, who opted not to re-sign with the Yakult Swallows for an 11th season, has given up his hopes of playing in the major leagues and decided to join the Nippon Ham Fighters.
February 21: Full Story

Volunteers make impact at Eagles training camp
By Masato Fujishima, Asahi Shimbun -- Volunteers with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles are using their chance to intermingle with the players during spring training to take that important first step toward realizing their dreams.
February 19: Full Story

Aging veterans show Giants they still got game
By Akira Matsumoto, Asahi Shimbun -- Kazuhiro Kiyohara and Masumi Kuwata are showing few signs of age at the Yomiuri Giants spring training camp.
February 18: Full Story

Benny Agbayani gets into the power thing
By Dave Wiggins, Asahi Shimbun -- February 18: Full Story

Giants ace and win-at-all-cost mentality
By Jim Allen, Daily Yomiuri -- Long before he was named to manage the Yomiuri Giants 17 months ago, Tsuneo Horiuchi was most famous for his role as the club's ace pitcher.
February 16: Full Story

Golden Eagles inspire look back at MLB expansion teams
By Wayne Graczyk, Japan Times -- Much of the excitement building toward the opening of the 2005 Japan pro baseball season centers around the new Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
February 16: Full Story

Red Sox boosting association with Japanese baseball
By Wayne Graczyk, Japan Times -- The 2004 World Series champion Boston Red Sox are one of the major league teams becoming increasingly involved with Japanese baseball as evidenced by the recent signing of Japanese pitcher Denney Tomori and an agreement to send two coaches and two players from the BoSox organization to join the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks spring training camp next week.
February 9: Full Story   Also: Petagine Boston-bound

Save point no longer factors in
Daily Yomiuri -- The "save point," a statistic used exclusively in Japan as a means of ranking relief pitchers, has gone the way of the game-winning hit.
February 3: Full Story

Clubs put frequent fliers on standby
By Jim Allen, Daily Yomiuri -- Over the last decade one team after another has bought into the idea that purchasing the livelier baseballs produced by Mizuno would attract fans' attention.
Unfortunately, those high flying days are over, as Mizuno is now trying to protect its market share by making balls that don't go as far.
February 2: Full Story
Related: Eight teams to use new Mizuno ball

2005 spring training kicks off
Japan Times -- Spring training for Japanese baseball's 12 teams kicked off in camps on Tuesday, with the newly created Rakuten Eagles taking their first giant step under cloudy skies on the island of Kume in Okinawa Prefecture.
Rakuten set down on the island populated by 9,500 people with some 300 reporters in attendance. "We appreciate all this attention. This will give us strength," said Rakuten manager Yasushi Tao.
Preseason exhibition games get under way on Feb. 26.
February 1: Full Story

1995: A tumultuous year for Japan, a great one for baseball
By Wayne Graczyk, Japan Times -- Ten years have passed since one of the most unforgettable times in Japan's history.
February 1: Full Story

You can say sayonara to lively ball in NPB
By Yoshihiro Ando, Asahi Shimbun -- January 29: Full Story

Mikitani acts in baseball's best interests
JapanBall.com/Kyodo -- Hiroshi Mikitani, owner of the newly formed Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles baseball team, believes the success of Japanese pro baseball will uplift the spirit of sports fans and put the country on an emotional high.
January 31: Full Story

Who's who (and where) among '05 foreign players
By Wayne Graczyk, Japan Times -- Five days into 2005, and the 12 Japan pro baseball teams have spent the offseason wheeling and dealing, acquiring and firing foreign players. Confused about who left and who is left? Following is a team-by-team rundown of who's gone and who's on at this point.
January 5: Full Story

Past headlines

Iwakuma determined to help Eagles soar in Sendai
Hillman's Fighters poised to win it all
Another ballclub planned in Osaka
Igawa decides to play for Hanshin
Fujiidera Stadium quietly shut down
Baseball luminaries give Eagles GM Kuehnert big send off