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Japan Times
SPORTS / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
Mar 21, 2017

Tough to root against Tebow in attempt to make MLB

Tim Tebow sat alone in a corner of the New York Mets clubhouse, quietly working his iPhone.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 9, 2016

A primer on evolution of pro sports' All-Star events

Next week, Japan professional baseball will play its annual two-game All-Star series with contests scheduled at Fukuoka Yafuoku Dome on July 15, and Yokohama Stadium on July 16. The All-Star games are like a festival in Japan, and the series will most likely draw capacity crowds, but has the idea of...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Feb 27, 2016

Exploring quirky history of season schedules

Is a 162-game professional baseball season too long?
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN
Feb 22, 2016

Marathon bullpen sessions remain question of culture

Nagekomi is a term familiar to most Japanese baseball fans. Even in the normally taxing Japanese baseball spring training menu, nagekomi, used in baseball to refer to marathon bullpen sessions, stands out as one of the most strenuous.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 4, 2015

Fond memories of 'Mr. Minor League'

Sadly, the Baseball Bullet-in says goodbye to a good friend and great fan of the game, Takashi "Bert" Shimada, aka "Mr. Minor League," who died in Tokyo on June 19 at the age of 87. Though he followed baseball at all levels in his own country as well as the U.S., he preferred American minor league baseball...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / HIT AND RUN
Mar 21, 2015

Fighters' Hermida excited about new challenge

Jeremy Hermida hit a grand slam the very first time he stepped in the batter's box in the major leagues, becoming the first player since Bill Duggleby in 1898 to achieve that particular feat. That day, Aug. 31, 2005, has been followed by a series of ups and downs, a winding career path that has led the...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 20, 2014

Swallows, Buffaloes upgrade rosters, renew hope for title run

The last time there was a Yakult-Orix Japan Series played, it was 1995. The Orix team was the BlueWave, based in Kobe and led by some guy named Ichiro Suzuki. He had just completed his second full season in Japanese baseball, hitting .342 to win his second of seven consecutive Pacific League batting...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Nov 1, 2014

NPB's quirky playoff rules recipe for confusion

Did the Hanshin Tigers deserve to play in this year's Japan Series? The team finished second in the Central League pennant race, seven games behind the league champion Yomiuri Giants, but the Tigers advanced to the CL Climax Series Final Stage with a controversial victory over the Hiroshima Carp in the...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Aug 9, 2014

Ishikawa perseveres with Swallows

On a somewhat muggy Friday night in Yokohama, Masanori Ishikawa strode to the center of the diamond at Yokohama Stadium, bent down and bounced the rosin bag around in his hand a few times — seemingly every pitch later that night was accompanied by a puff of white — and proceeded to make his 20th...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Jul 5, 2014

Cruz settling in with Marines

Luis Cruz wanted to go home. He wanted to see his family again, wanted to be back in a familiar environment. He wanted to get away from that lonely hotel room in Fort Myers, Florida, that was a long way from his native Navojoa, which lies on the southern tip of Sonora, a Mexican state that shares its...
Japan Times
BASEBALL / MLB / MAN ABOUT SPORTS
Jul 1, 2014

Gomez enthralls with Jekyll-and-Hyde personas

Carlos Gomez, star Milwaukee center fielder, is a classic study in contradictions.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball
Sep 6, 2013

Bass says Balentien won't get easy path to Oh's record

When Randy Bass hit his 54th home run of the year, he thought he would have a decent shot at the Japan single-season record.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 28, 2013

First regular-season NPB games in U.S. nearly set

What do you make of the idea to have the Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers open the 2014 Japanese baseball season in the U.S.?
Japan Times
BASEBALL / Japanese Baseball / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 14, 2013

Power numbers increasing in NPB this season

Happy days are here again — or so it would appear — for the hitters in Japanese baseball. The ball is flying once more, as shown by the number of home runs being hit in the early going this season. No one is saying anything, but the long ball has apparently snuck back into the game here after two...
EDITORIALS
Apr 5, 2013

Abe government honors sluggers

The Abe government helps get Japan's pro baseball season started by conferring the People's Honor Award on two Giant sluggers a generation apart.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC
Mar 18, 2013

Dutch prospect Profar aiming to prolong WBC fairy tale

Depending on whom you ask, Jurickson Profar, an infielder in the Texas Rangers' system, is either the best middle infield prospect in baseball, or simply the best prospect in baseball.
Japan Times
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Dec 23, 2012

Popular slugger Ramirez, family opening Latin-style cafe in Tokyo

Most foreigners who come to Japan to play baseball do just that — and only that. Whether a career lasts a few games or several years, the guys go back to their home country to continue playing ball, stay in the game as coaches or managers or find another job outside the game. A few, however, have stayed...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 22, 2012

'Boomer' came up short in latest bid for Hall of Fame

It was a good week for the Hiroshima Carp family as two former pitchers were elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. Manabu Kitabeppu and the late Tsunemi Tsuda garnered enough votes to enter Tokyo's version of Cooperstown. Their induction ceremony will take place at an All-Star Game at Kyocera...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 23, 2011

Busy offseason ahead for NPB, players

Every year when I renew acquaintances with returning foreign players — whether it be at spring training camp in Okinawa or Miyazaki, an exhibition game or an early regular-season game -I ask them as an ice-breaker, "How was your winter?" The answer I get most often is "short."

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Totopa in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward was picked by consultants TTNE as the best sauna of the year.
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