The Japanese Baseball League(日本野球連盟,Nihon Yakyū Renmei) was a professional baseball league in Japan which operated from 1936–1949, before reorganizing in 1950 as Nippon Professional Baseball.
The league's dominant team was Tokyo Kyojin (renamed the Yomiuri Giants in 1947), which won nine league championships, including six in a row from 1938–1943, during the "dead-ball era," when many of Japan's best players were serving in the Imperial Japanese Army.
League structure
Unlike American pro teams, Japanese Baseball League teams were usually named after their corporate owners/sponsors rather than the cities or regions in which they played. This was because Japanese franchising does not have strong territorial requirements as in the Major Leagues; as a result, the JBL teams clustered in metropolitan areas in Japan's center (Tokyo, Nagoya) and south (Osaka). As a result, teams were notorious for how often they changed their names, often because of changes in ownership/sponsorship (and also because of nationalistic regulations imposed during wartime, such as the outlawing of English team names). (The Yomiuri Giants, the Chunichi Dragons, and the Hanshin Tigers are the only surviving major clubs that have always been based in their respective cities. Additionally, the current Orix Buffaloes are a merger of two clubs which never left their hometown.)
Baseball is one of the most popular sports in Japan. It was introduced in 1872 by an American, Horace Wilson, who was an English professor at the Kaisei School in Tokyo. The first baseball team was called the Shimbashi Athletic Club and was established in 1878. Baseball has been a popular sport ever since. It is called 野球 (やきゅう; yakyū) in Japanese, combining the characters for field and ball. According to Japan's National Tourism Organization, "Baseball is so popular in Japan that many fans are surprised to hear that Americans also consider it their ‘national sport.’"
Professional baseball
Professional baseball in Japan first started in the 1920s, but it was not until the Greater Japan Tokyo Baseball Club (大日本東京野球倶楽部 Dai-nippon Tōkyō Yakyū Kurabu?) a team of all-stars established in 1934 by media mogul Matsutarō Shōriki, that the modern professional game found continued success — especially after Shōriki's club matched up against an American All-Star team that included Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, and Charlie Gehringer. While prior Japanese all-star contingents had disbanded, Shōriki went pro with this group, playing in an independent league.
... by Yoshihito Nishioka, the highest-ranked Japanese at No ... Baseball ... LOS ANGELES - The battle to sign coveted Japanese starting pitcher Roki Sasaki is heating up between MajorLeague Baseball teams.
The battle to sign coveted Japanese starting pitcher Roki Sasaki is heating up between MajorLeagueBaseball teams ... to reporters at the Major League Baseball winter meetings in Dallas, Texas on Dec.
Signing Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto has made the Dodgers the undisputed most popular MajorLeagueBaseball team in Japan. That will only help with their pursuit of other Japanese stars, like Roki Sasaki, for the foreseeable future.
... the Los Angeles Dodgers around $1.9 million in a year there was speculation Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki would be available. MajorLeagueBaseball's international amateur signing period runs from Jan.
In acknowledgment of the quake’s impact, the second most popular choice was sai, meaning disaster, while third place went to sho – soar or fly – which forms part of the name of the JapaneseMajorLeagueBaseball star Shohei Ohtani.
He is also the author of “HometownHardball,” a book about minor league baseball in the northeast ...Mets, Yanks gear up for wooing of Japanese sensation Sasaki ... Mets sell Triple-A Syracuse, High-A Brooklyn to minor-league conglomerate1m read.
...MajorLeagueBaseball's winter meetings are under way. Joel Wolfe, agent for Japanese pitcher Roki Sasaki, speaks to reporters at the Major League Baseball winter meetings in Dallas, Texas on Dec.
The twist is he’s ineligible for a major league contract as a Japanese player under age 25 and must be signed using a team’s international bonus pool money — as was the case when Shohei Ohtani arrived to MLB before the 2018 season.
The Herald Bulletin
21 Dec 2024
The Herald Bulletin
21 Dec 2024