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57-900: 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 to 1943, when many of Japan's best players were serving in the Imperial Japanese Army . Standout players from the Japanese Baseball League era included Haruyasu Nakajima , Tetsuharu Kawakami , and Kazuto Tsuruoka ; pitchers Hideo Fujimoto , Eiji Sawamura , Victor Starffin , and Tadashi Wakabayashi ; and two-way players Fumio Fujimura , Shosei Go , Masaru Kageura , and Jiro Noguchi . Unlike American pro teams, Japanese Baseball League teams were usually named after their corporate owners/sponsors rather than

114-549: A .303 lifetime batting average, 201 home runs, and 861 RBI.) Harris McGalliard (Japan's "Bucky Harris"), Herbert "Buster" North , and James E. Bonner ("Jimmy Bonna") became the first Americans to play in Japan's professional baseball league in 1936. (Bonner was African-American , thus beating Jackie Robinson to professional baseball 11 years before Robinson broke in with the Brooklyn Dodgers .) They were joined by

171-613: A 134-game schedule. After the 1949 season, the league reorganized into today's Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). The four earliest-established clubs formerly in the Japanese Baseball League were placed in NPB's Central League , while the four later surviving franchises went to the Pacific League . Victor Starffin , an ethnic Russian pitcher, was a dominant player of the era and the first professional pitcher in Japan to win 300 games. Shosei Go , nicknamed "The Human Locomotive",

228-476: A number of players in the league both pitched and batted . At first (until after World War II ), the JBL was a " dead ball " league, due to Japan conserving rubber (including inside baseballs) for its war efforts; instead it used Balatá inside the balls. Initially, the league played split seasons, doing so from 1936 to 1938. In the debut 1936 season, it split into spring, summer, and fall seasons, only keeping track of

285-437: A row from 1938 to 1943. Russian-born pitcher Victor Starffin , nicknamed "the blue-eyed Japanese", starred for the team until 1944. One of the league's premier pitchers, he won two MVP awards and a Best Nine award , and won at least 26 games in six different years, winning a league-record 42 games in 1939. He followed his record-setting performance with another 38 wins in 1940. Pitcher Eiji Sawamura co-starred with Starffin on

342-617: A team of all-stars organized by media mogul Matsutarō Shōriki that toured the United States and 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. In 1935, the team traveled to the United States and faced off against college and minor league teams, ultimately playing 109 games in 128 days (including 34 games on 17 days as doubleheaders ) across

399-676: Is known today. This created the Sangyo Baseball Club, which is now known as today's Chunichi Dragons . Like the Giants-Tigers rivalry, the Giants have enjoyed long standing success at the expense of the Dragons, creating animosity amongst Dragons fans. This came to a head in the finale of the 1994 NPB season , where the Giants and Dragons were tied in the standings, each sitting at 69-60-0. The Giants would win that game and

456-527: The Central League most valuable player award nine times. Nagashima won the season MVP award five times, and the Best Nine Award every single year of his career (a total 17 times). Future Hall of Famer Tsuneo Horiuchi pitched for the team during its heyday, from 1966 to 1983. The renowned left-hander Masaichi Kaneda pitched for the team from 1965 to 1969, later having his number retired by

513-713: The Central League , most notably rivalries with the Nishinomiya -based Hanshin Tigers , the Nagoya -based Chunichi Dragons and their cross-town rivals, the Tokyo Yakult Swallows . The Giants-Tigers rivalry is considered the most intense professional rivalry in the history of Japanese team sports. The Giants-Tigers feud began on July 15, 1936 in Nagoya, Aichi , Japan, at a time where Japanese clubs besides

570-816: The Dodgers , lacked an official nickname at the time). As " Yankees " was immediately out of the question, due to it being an American name, O'Doul suggested the name "Giants", and the team adopted the Tokyo Giants moniker mid-tour. In 1936, with the formation of the Japanese Baseball League , the team changed its name to the Tokyo Kyojin , often called the Tokyo Giants in non-Japanese sources. It won eight league championships under that name from 1936 to 1943, including six championships in

627-667: The Greater Tokyo Area . This bandwagon appeal has been compared with the marketability of the New York Yankees , Real Madrid , and Manchester United , except that support for the Giants nearly exceeds 50% of those polled, while in the United States and England, support is judged to be between 30% and 40% for the Yankees and Manchester United, respectively. Correspondingly, fans of other professional baseball teams in Japan are often openly derisive and contemptuous of

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684-628: The Hanshin Tigers and Orix Buffaloes . The team is often referred by fans and in news headlines and tables simply as Kyojin (巨人, the Japanese word for "giant(s)"), instead of the usual corporate owner's name or the English nickname. The Yomiuri Giants name and uniforms were based on the New York (now San Francisco) Giants . The team's colors (orange and black) are the same colors worn by

741-672: The Japan Series championship in 1955, but they lost four consecutive Japan Series thereafter, with the first three losses coming against the Nishitetsu Lions , and then the Hawks finally got their revenge to close out the decade. World career home run record holder Sadaharu Oh starred for the Giants from 1959 to 1980, and fellow Hall of Famer Shigeo Nagashima played for the team from 1958 to 1974. The Giants lineup, consisting of Oh batting third and Nagashima batting fourth,

798-837: The Japanese Imperial Army to keep professional baseball going through the early years of the Second World War. The league played a 90-game schedule in 1941, a 104-game schedule in 1942, and an 84-game schedule in 1943. Two Tokyo-based teams dissolved before the 1944 season: the Yamato Baseball Club (originally the Korakuen Eagles ) and the Nishitetsu Baseball Club (originally the Tokyo Senators ). Due to

855-890: The Japanese-American players Kiyomi "Slim" Hirakawa, Fumito "Jimmy" Horio, Kazuyoshi "George" Matsuura, Yoshio "Sam" Takahashi, and Tadashi "Bozo" Wakabayashi . Season champion in bold. Tokyo Kyojin Japanese Baseball League (1936–1949) The Yomiuri Giants ( 読売ジャイアンツ , Yomiuri Jaiantsu , formally Yomiuri Kyojingun ( 読売巨人軍 ) ) are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball 's Central League . Based in Bunkyo , Tokyo , they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo,

912-520: The Pacific War , the 1944 season was truncated to about 35 games, and the 1945 season was skipped entirely. Many players enlisted in the Japanese Imperial Army , with 72 of them losing their lives in the war. The league restarted on November 6, 1945, and a full season of 105 games was played the next year, with two new teams (both based in Tokyo) joining the league. One of the new teams, Gold Star ,

969-615: The Tokyo Senators . The 1940 season featured a 104-game schedule. In October 1940 (responding to rising hostility toward the West due to World War II), the league outlawed the use of English in Japanese baseball. In response, the Korakuen Eagles became "Kurowashi", the Osaka Tigers became "Hanshin", the Tokyo Senators became "Tsubasa", and (eventually) Lion became "Asahi." In 1941, the JBL appointed its first president, Jiro Morioka (formerly VP of Dai Tokyo ). Morioka negotiated with

1026-601: The 1940 and 1941 seasons, the team changed its name to Kurowashi ( Black Eagles in Japanese; in October 1940, responding to rising hostility toward the West due to World War II , the league outlawed the use of English words in Japanese baseball). Tadashi Kameda pitched two no-hitters for Kurowashi, on March 18, 1940, against the Lion Baseball Club , and on April 14, 1941, against the Osaka Tigers . Kenkichi Saeki, president of Yamato Ironworks , purchased

1083-479: The 2005-06 NPB offseason, where games began being referred to by the media as the " TOKYOシリーズ ", or literally "Tokyo Series" in Japanese. In 2015 , the Swallows and Giants officially announced plans for an annual "Tokyo Series" event with each team hosting a series. At the same time, the Swallows began producing annual alternate uniforms for said rivalry games. Since Yakult added Tokyo to the Swallows name in 2006,

1140-748: The Central League pennant by a score of 6-3, in what would be known as the 10.8 Showdown , and eventually would win the 1994 Japan Series over the Seibu Lions. Since Nagoya Kinko merged into the Nagoya Baseball Club in 1943, the Giants lead the Dragons in Japan Series championships, 22-2, Central League pennants, 39-9, and head-to-head, 1061-871-61. The Giants and Dragons have met in the Climax Series 5 times, in which

1197-588: The Giants and the Shinjuku -based Tokyo Yakult Swallows has been around since the Swallows were founded by the former Japanese National Railways (known as Kokutetsu (国鉄) in Japanese)) as the Kokutetsu Swallows on January 12, 1950. However, the rivalry never truly began in earnest until Yakult , who bought the team from national newspaper Sankei Shimbun in 1970, added "Tokyo" to the team's name in

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1254-421: The Giants for ten seasons in the 1990s and early 2000s before migrating to Major League Baseball . He was a three-time NPB MVP , leading his team to four Japan Series , winning three titles (1994, 2000 and 2002), and earning the popular nickname " Godzilla ". He also made nine consecutive All-Star Games and led the league in home runs and RBIs three times. The Giants have several rivalries with clubs in

1311-523: The Giants from 1948 to 1952, winning the home run championship twice, and hitting a home run in the 1951 Japan Series , when the Giants defeated the Nankai Hawks 4 games to 2 for their first NPB championship. The Giants would also win Japan Series championships in 1952 , 1953 , and 1955 , all over the Nankai Hawks. The team was the Central League champion every year from 1955 to 1959, winning

1368-400: The Giants lead the head-to-head regular season series 260–184–19. Overall, since the Swallows were founded in 1950, the Giants lead the head-to-head regular season series 1094–758–61. The Swallows and Giants have met in the Climax Series 4 times, in which Yakult lead the head-to-head matchups 9–4–1 (including Yakult's 1 advantage win in the 2015 and 2021 Central League Climax Series ), winning

1425-405: The Giants rely on underhanded tactics to recruit the best players, involving bribes to players and amateur coaches, or using their influence on the governing council of Japanese professional baseball to pass rules that favors their recruiting efforts. This may be one explanation for the Giants' abundance of success in league play. In August 2004, Yomiuri president Tsuneo Watanabe resigned after it

1482-405: The Giants' bandwagon marketing tactics, and an "anti-Giants" movement exists in protest of the Giants' near-hegenomy. In addition, despite the Giants having employed many foreign players over the years, many Japanese point proudly to the "pure-blooded period" of 1958–1974 when the team enjoyed continued success — 13 pennants — despite having no foreign players. It has also long been alleged that

1539-516: The Giants. Shigeo Nagashima was appointed manager of the Giants almost immediately after his retirement in 1974, staying in that position until 1980. After a couple of down years the Giants re-assumed their dominant position in the Central League, winning league championships in 1976 and 1977. Sadaharu Oh rejoined the team as manager from 1984 to 1988. Nagashima returned as Giants manager from 1993 to 2001, winning Japan Series championships in 1994, 1996, and 2000. Outfielder Hideki Matsui starred for

1596-434: The Giants; on the other hand, the Giants have a large fan base even in cities that have a team of their own.) The English-language press occasionally calls the team the Tokyo Giants , but that name has not been in use in Japan for decades. ( Lefty O'Doul , a former Major League Baseball player, named the team "Tokyo Giants" in the mid-1930s.) Instead, the team is officially known by the name of its corporate owner, just like

1653-514: The Kyojin. He pitched the first no-hitter in Japanese pro baseball, on September 25, 1936, as well as two others. In 1937, he went 33–10 with a 1.38 earned run average . From 1937 to 1943 Sawamura had a record of 63–22, 554 strikeouts, and a 1.74 ERA. Sawamura was conscripted into the Japanese Imperial Army in 1938, 1941, and 1943; he returned to play for the Giants between deployments, though injuries and time away hindered his form and velocity. He

1710-736: The National League's Giants (both then as now in both New York and San Francisco). The stylized lettering on the team's jerseys and caps is similar to the fancy lettering used by the Giants when they played in New York in the 1930s, although during the 1970s the Yomiuri Giants modernized their lettering to follow the style worn by the San Francisco Giants. The team began in 1934 as The Great Japan Tokyo Baseball Club ( 大日本東京野球倶楽部 , Dai-Nippon Tōkyō Yakyū Kurabu ) ,

1767-452: The Tigers did not have set home ballparks, and would bounce around wherever they could play. This game would set the tone for the history-setting rivalry, as the first home run in Giants professional club history would come on that day at the hands of Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame member Haruyasu Nakajima off Tigers' ace Tadashi Wakabayashi , but the Tigers would win the game 8-7. On September 25, 1936, young Giants ace Eiji Sawamura threw

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1824-668: The Tigers in each of the four seasons; however, the Giants would lose all 4 of their Japan Series appearances during that time, three times to the Nishitetsu Lions (now the Saitama Seibu Lions ) from 1956 to 1958 , and once to the Nankai Hawks (now the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks ) in 1959. Most notably during this time, the only ever baseball Tenran-jiai , or "Match viewed by the Emperor" happened on June 25th, 1959, where Emperor Hirohito decided to watch

1881-463: The Yomiuri Giants', whose pet name was "Kyojin", and names such as the Osaka Tigers ' alias "Mouko" ( fierce tiger ), the revived Tokyo Senators ' "Seito" ( bluestockings ) and the Pacific 's "Taihei" ( tranquility ) began to be used by the press . However, some teams rejected the use of these pet names, so they were never fully adopted. The 1948 season had a 140-game schedule, and the 1949 season had

1938-538: The Yomiuri company's vast influence in Japan as a major media conglomerate, the Giants have long been branded as "Japan's Team". In fact, for some years the Giants' uniforms had "Tokyo" on the jersey instead of "Yomiuri" or "Giants", seeming to imply that the Giants represent the vast metropolis and geopolitical center of Japan, even though the Yakult Swallows are also based in Tokyo and three other teams play in

1995-559: The area in which they were based. All league championships went to whoever had the best record at the end of the season, without a postseason series being played. The league was established on February 5, 1936, as the Japan Occupational Baseball League , with an initial complement of seven teams. Three of the teams were based in Tokyo, two in Osaka , and two in Nagoya . Due to a lack of position players,

2052-534: 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

2109-669: The country. The tour ended with a record of 75 wins, 33 losses, and 1 draw. When they faced off against the San Francisco Seals , the manager of the Seals, Lefty O'Doul, stated the team needed a promotional name . He suggested that since Tokyo was the New York of Japan , they should emulate one of the two named MLB teams in New York; either the Yankees or the Giants (New York's third team, which would eventually be called

2166-479: The end of the 2024 season, the Giants have the edge in Japan Series championships, 22–2, Central League pennants, 39–6, overall championships, 31–6, and the Giants lead the Tigers head to head, 1127–888–77. The Giants and Tigers have met in the Climax Series 5 times, in which the Giants lead the overall head-to-head matchup 11-6-0, winning the series 4 times to the Tigers' 1. The geographic rivalry between

2223-483: The first no-hitter in Japanese professional baseball history against the Tigers at Hanshin Koshien Stadium . He would be the only Giants pitcher to throw a no-hitter at Koshien until Shosei Togo did it on May 24, 2024. The Giants-Tigers rivalry has seen mostly the Giants enjoy long standing periods of success at the expense of the Tigers. From 1956 to 1959 , the Giants won the Central League pennant over

2280-460: The game between the Tigers and Giants; Giants legend Shigeo Nagashima would walk off future Tigers legend Minoru Murayama in the bottom of the 9th as the Giants won 5-4. During the Giants' V9 dynasty, where the Giants would win a record setting 9 consecutive Japan Series championships from 1965 to 1973 , the Tigers would finish 2nd in the Central League 5 of the 9 seasons, including 3 consecutive second place finishes from 1968 to 1970 . As of

2337-720: The history of the Japanese Professional Baseball League , which is now known as Nippon Professional Baseball. The Shachihoko, later known as Nagoya Kinko, would be absorbed into the Nagoya Baseball Club in 1943 as their parent company, the Nagoya Shimbun, was forced to merge into rival newspaper company Shin-Aichi Shimbun under the Japanese newspaper control ordinance , creating Chubu-Nippon Shimbun, or Chunichi Shimbun as it

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2394-430: The most hits in a season. He was the first player in Japanese pro baseball to achieve 2,000 hits and was named the league's MVP three times. Leadoff man Shosei Go starred for the team from 1937 to 1943, winning league MVP in 1943. Only 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) and 140 lb (64 kg), he was nicknamed "The Human Locomotive" due to his speed. Pitcher Hideo Fujimoto (also known as Hideo Nakagami) pitched for

2451-569: The most successful, having won 22 Japan Series titles and an additional nine in the era of NPB's forerunner, the Japanese Baseball League . Their main rivalry is with the Hanshin Tigers , a team especially popular in the Kansai region. The Yomiuri Giants are regarded as "The New York Yankees of Japan" due to their widespread popularity, past dominance of the league, and polarizing effect on fans. (Baseball fans who are indifferent about teams other than their local team often have an intense dislike for

2508-582: The other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows . They have played their home games in the Tokyo Dome since its opening in 1988. The team's owner is Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings , Japan's largest media conglomerate which also owns two newspapers (including the eponymous Yomiuri Shimbun ) and the Nippon Television Network (which includes flagship Nippon TV ). The Giants are the oldest professional sports team in Japan. They are also by far

2565-489: 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 hometowns.) Most Japanese Baseball League teams did not have an "official" home stadium; instead, teams played at any stadium in

2622-706: The overall head-to-head is tied, 12-12-1, including 1 game advantage wins in the 2008 , 2009 , 2010 , and 2012 Central League Climax Series . The Giants also have won the head to head series in the Climax Series 3 times to Chunichi's 2. Pitchers Catchers Infielders Outfielders Manager Coaches Catchers Outfielders Manager Coaches Sourse:Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB) Sourse:Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB) Sourse:Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB) Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, % = Win Percentage Due to

2679-474: The series 3 times to the Giants' 1 series win. The Giants-Dragons rivalry is said to be the oldest professional rivalry in the history of professional Japanese team sports. The Giants and one of the teams that would eventually form the Dragons, then known as the Nagoya Shachihoko , first met on February 5, 1936 at Narumi Baseball Stadium in the suburbs of Nagoya, marking the first ever game in

2736-484: The standings in the fall season. The league played spring and fall seasons in 1937 (approximartely a 100-game schedule in total) and 1938 (total 75-game schedule), adding one new team each year. The league was renamed the Japanese Baseball League in 1939, playing a 96-game schedule. Before the 1940 season, one of the founding teams, Nagoya Kinko (originally the Nagoya Golden Dolphins ), merged with

2793-400: The team became the Yomiuri Giants, winning the final JBL championship in 1949 (again under player-manager Haruyasu Nakajima ). From 1938 to 1987 the Giants played at Korakuen Stadium , moving to their current home the Tokyo Dome in 1988. In 1950, the Giants were one of the founding members of Nippon Professional Baseball , joining the Central League . Slugger Noboru Aota starred for

2850-408: The team for 12 seasons from 1942 to 1955. He holds the Japanese records for lowest career ERA (1.90) and seasonal ERA (0.73 in 1943), as well as best all-time winning percentage (.697). He threw two career no-hitters , including the first perfect game in Japanese professional baseball. In addition, he served as the Giants' player-manager in 1944 (there was no 1945 season) and part of 1946. In 1947

2907-426: The team in 1942. As a result, the team changed its name to the Yamato Baseball Club. During its nine seasons of existence (including split fall and spring campaigns in 1937–1938), the franchise only had two winning campaigns and never finished higher than third in the JBL standings. (They usually finished in the second division.) As a result, the team was dissolved before the 1944 season (along with another JBL team,

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2964-596: Was a Japanese baseball team in the Japanese Baseball League (JBL). Based in Tokyo , the franchise was founded as the Korakuen Eagles before the 1937 season and was dissolved before the 1944 season. In 1937, catcher Harris McGalliard (better known as Bucky Harris ), won the JBL Most Valuable Player Award with a batting average of .285 and 25 RBI (in 39 games). The team was owned by Ryutaro Takahashi of Dai-Nippon Beer from 1939 to 1941. For

3021-519: Was a speedy player from Taiwan who played in the league for the Kyojin and the Tigers. He won the 1943 JBL Most Valuable Player award as a member of the champion Kyojin. Hiroshi Oshita was another Taiwanese player who starred in the JBL. From 1946 to 1949 he played for the Tokyo Senators / Tokyu Flyers . (After reorganization, Oshita stayed with the Flyers until 1951, and then moved to the Nishitetsu Lions , finishing his Japanese professional career with

3078-464: Was nicknamed the ON Hou , ("Oh-Nagashima Cannon") as the two players emerged as the best hitters in the league. Now the team's manager, Tetsuharu Kawakami led the Giants to nine consecutive Japan Series championships from 1965 to 1973, and Oh and Nagashima dominated the batting titles during this period. During his career, Oh was a five-time batting champion and fifteen-time home-run champion, and won

3135-702: Was owned by textile manufacturer Komajiro Tamura , who also owned Pacific (formerly Asahi ). A rival four-team league, known as the Kokumin League ( 国民リーグ , Kokumin Riigu ) , played a 30-game summer season in 1947. Unable to compete against the more established JBL, however, the Kokumin League disbanded a few games into the 1947 fall season. The Japanese Baseball League played a 119-game schedule in 1947. That year, baseball personality Sōtaro Suzuki proposed that JBL teams should have pet names like

3192-451: Was released by the team in 1943, then killed in battle when his ship was torpedoed near the end of the Second World War . Outfielder Haruyasu Nakajima was a featured hitter during the franchise's first decade-and-a-half, and as player-manager led the Kyojin to a championship in 1941. Tetsuharu Kawakami was a team fixture from 1938 to 1958, winning the batting title five times, two home run crowns, three RBI titles, and had six titles for

3249-444: Was revealed that the club had violated scouting rules by paying ¥2 million to pitching prospect Yasuhiro Ichiba. Ten months later, Watanabe was hired as chairman of the Yomiuri corporation. In 2012, Asahi Shimbun discovered that the Giants had violated NPB rules by secretly paying pitcher Takahiko Nomaguchi while he was still an amateur playing in Japan's corporate league. Korakuen Eagles The Yamato Baseball Club

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