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November 22, 2024
 

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Wayne Graczyk
Wayne Graczyk has written the "Baseball Bullet-In" column in The Japan Times since 1976. A native of New Jersey, he came to Japan in 1969 with the U.S. Air Force and is a 1977 graduate of Tokyo's Sophia University. Wayne was the long-time (1977-2004) sports editor of the Tokyo Weekender newspaper, he covers Yomiuri Giants baseball games for Nippon TV and, since 1976, he has compiled the Japan Pro Baseball Fan Handbook & Media Guide. He is a member of the Tokyo Sportswriters Club and the Foreign Sportswriters Association of Japan. Notice Wayne Graczyk, the baseball columnist for The Japan Times for the past 40 years, passed away at the age of 68 on April 19. His final column was posted on April 8. Readers can continue to access his coverage of Japanese baseball through the online archives.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 26, 2006
Will Barry Bonds play his last game at Tokyo Dome?
News came last week that San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds announced he would be retiring at the end of the 2006 season. The next day, he said he may play several more years. Typical for a guy who often changes his mind, but there's nothing wrong with that.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 19, 2006
Tuffy Rhodes: the best ever foreign player in Japan
The 10-year Japan career of Tuffy Rhodes has apparently come to an end with the announcement last week he had signed a contract with his hometown team, the Cincinnati Reds.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 12, 2006
Will the Giants play as good as they look this season?
To say 2006 will be a pivotal year for the Yomiuri Giants would be an understatement, especially after that fifth-place, limp-to-the-finish-line showing in 2005.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 5, 2006
How will Valentine, Hillman and Brown fare in 2006?
One-fourth of the 12 Japanese pro baseball teams in 2006 will be led by American managers. Their performances this season may dictate whether the recent trend for the Central and Pacific Leagues to hire foreign kantoku will continue or if the clubs will return to putting native Japanese in charge.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 29, 2006
Beverlin back for another chance after Tommy John surgery
Call this the year of the recycled foreign player in Japanese baseball.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 22, 2006
Roster of foreign players nearly complete for 2006 season
Spring camps begin for the 12 Japan pro baseball teams in just 10 days, and there has been a flurry of activity in the past week with the Central and Pacific League clubs signing new-and second-hand-foreign players and finalizing rosters for the coming season. Following is a team-by-team update on the...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 15, 2006
Japan's 'Fields of Dreams' provide fans unique opportunities
Reader Matthew C. Fisk e-mailed this column with the following: "How do you rate the stadiums used sometimes for pro baseball games played in the smaller cities and towns? My family would like to attend a game at one of them and combine it with visiting an historic smaller city or town nearby."
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 8, 2006
Swallows, Buffaloes add muscle to lineups for 2006 season
Happy New Year.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 25, 2005
Snapshot: All I want for Christmas is a new (digital) camera
This week I would like to tell you about the camera that has been my constant companion to ballgames all around Japan for almost 30 years.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 18, 2005
Batista's number didn't justify his massive salary
The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, as you read here in these pages, will pay a whopping 525 million yen (almost $4.5 million) to buy out the second year of the contract of third baseman Tony Batista, ending the Japan career of "Mr. Nonchalant."
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 11, 2005
New Carp manager Brown excited about 2006 season
(This is a continuation of last week's column with our report about new Hiroshima Carp manager Marty Brown and his thoughts on the challenge of taking over at the helm of the Central League club which has been a second-division team for the past seven seasons.)
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 4, 2005
Carp skipper Brown can't wait for spring training
New Hiroshima Carp manager Marty Brown is excited about his challenge and can't wait for spring training to begin.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 27, 2005
Sikorski's release, expansion and playoff ideas fill mailbag
Thanks to all readers of the "Baseball Bullet-In" for your e-mails and interest in Japanese baseball.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 20, 2005
Inaugural Konami Cup a great way to end the 2005 season
The first Konami Cup Asia Series, held Nov. 10-13 at Tokyo Dome, gets high marks from this chair for its organization, execution and quality of play.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 13, 2005
Decision by Giants to release reliever Sikorski a real mystery
You read this past week where the Yomiuri Giants have decided to clean house regarding their foreign players, releasing outfielder Tuffy Rhodes and pitchers Brian Sikorski, Scott Mullen and J.B. Miadich.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 6, 2005
Hot hibachi league heating up; can Jojima cut it in majors?
Welcome to the new sponsored "Baseball Bullet-In," and thanks to Jeff Libengood and the staff of the just-opened East West Fitness workout place in Tokyo for the support. If you would like to sponsor a column in an upcoming edition of The Japan Times, please contact me at the e-mail address below.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 30, 2005
Series wins surprisingly easy for Marines, White Sox
Are you surprised at how easily the Chiba Lotte Marines and Chicago White Sox won, respectively, the Japan Series and World Series?
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 23, 2005
With satellite, cable TV you can get your fill of pro baseball
Readers John Rucynski of Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, and Ken Smith of Tokyo e-mailed this column and, respectively, wanted to know why the Pacific League Stage 2 playoff games between the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and Chiba Lotte Marines were not televised, and why NHK BS-1 did not carry live Games 5...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 16, 2005
Revitalized Chiba Lotte franchise alive and well in Makuhari
Most Japanese fans of Major League Baseball are pulling for a Chicago-St. Louis World Series, hoping to see a match-up of the "Guchi Brothers," former Japan Pacific League rivals Tadahito Iguchi of the White Sox and So Taguchi of the Cardinals.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 9, 2005
Dark season for Giants comes to quiet end at Tokyo Dome
The atmosphere was very strange at Tokyo Dome last Wednesday, Oct. 5, as the Yomiuri Giants closed out a dismal 2005 season and two years of something between mediocrity and futility under the leadership of manager Tsuneo Horiuchi.
Two of America’s biggest debt holders are dumping Treasurys
The U.S. Treasury building in Washington. Investors in Japan and China sold a pile of U.S. debt in the last quarter, just before the U.S. presidential election.
Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says
Ukrainian firefighters work on a spot following an airstrike in Dnipro on Thursday.
Ishiba aggravates his own political failures with diplomatic faux pas
Prime Minster Shigeru Ishiba is greeted at the APEC summit in Lima by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday. The Japanese leader was criticized for remaining seated while meeting several world leaders at the event.
Japan's 3.31 million visitors in October set monthly record
Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto in December 2023. Famous autumn leaf colors contributed to increased tourism demand last month from many markets across Asia, Europe and North America, the Japan National Tourism Organization has said.
Japan ranks last in romance satisfaction for second straight year
In a survey of 31 countries, Japan ranked last in terms of those who felt loved, with just 51% of respondents saying so.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.
Haruki Murakami's 'The City and Its Uncertain Walls' gives deep deja vu
For “The City and Its Uncertain Walls,” translated into English by Philip Gabriel, Haruki Murakami confronts the ghosts who won't leave him alone.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’
SWCC keeps changing with keyword ‘new challenges’

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