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BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 21, 2001

Yakult captures Japan Series opener 7-0

OSAKA -- Yakult pitcher Kazuhisa Ishii, playing in what may be his final season in Japan, completely silenced the big guns of the Buffaloes on Saturday night and Alex Ramirez delivered on offense as the Swallows jumped all over Kintetsu for a 7-0 victory in Game 1 of the Japan Series.
BASEBALL / MLB
Sep 29, 2001

Yomiuri manager Nagashima retires at end of season

Yomiuri Giants manager Shigeo Nagashima will step down from the helm of Japan's most popular baseball team at the end of the season, chairman of the board Tsuneo Watanabe said at a press conference Friday.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Sep 20, 2001

Honoring victims never easy to do

It was a refreshing change to get back to covering sports again this week. You know the stuff: Mariners top White Sox, 'Niners stuff Pats, Habs ice Leafs, and so on.
JAPAN / History
Aug 30, 2001

A half-century of media pigeonholing

Japan is a nation of children who were led astray by their military, re-educated under the benevolence of the United States, and rose to become America's important ally. It became a nation of salaried men and office ladies gaining, for a few brief years, through international trade what it had failed...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 29, 2001

Free tickets for Tokyo Dome

Get your free tickets for Yankees Day Sept. 16.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 1, 2001

American talking the talk down in Hiroshima

Most interpreters working for Japanese baseball teams are Japanese. Though there has been a need for translators in a variety of languages in recent years as the suketto (foreign "helpers") hired by Central and Pacific League teams have come from various countries, most of the men hired to change Nihongo...
BASEBALL / MLB
May 15, 2001

Ichiro show rolls on in Canada

TORONTO -- The Ichiro Show has played to rave reviews in the U.S. for the first six weeks of the baseball season. This past weekend, it was a smash hit in its Canadian debut.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 25, 2001

A-Cab gettin' it done for Seibu

Boomer Wells, former slugger with the Hankyu Braves, Orix Braves, Orix BlueWave and Fukuoka Daiei Hawks (1983-92) used to say his goal was to hit 10 home runs by Golden Week. More often than not, he would reach double figures before the April 29 Emperor's Birthday (now Greenery Day) start of the seven-day...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 11, 2001

So far, so good for Tigers' foreign contingent

Most everyone (including this writer) picked the Hanshin Tigers to finish last in the Central League standings in 2001 for the third straight season. However, nine games into the schedule, the team does not look so bad. There are some good looking young players (rookie shortstop Yoshinori Okihara, for...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 21, 2001

Spring camps staying local

The 12 Japanese pro baseball teams open spring training camps for the 2001 season on Feb. 1, just 11 days from now, and fan David Craft sent an e-mail asking if any of the Central or Pacific League clubs will be taking S.T. outside of Japan; specifically Hawaii.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jan 7, 2001

CL pitchers happy to see last of Gomez

Opposing Central League pitchers of the Chunichi Dragons should have an easier time during the 2001 season. Slugger Leo Gomez has left that team after four years of punishing hurlers on the other five CL clubs, especially the Yomiuri Giants, as one of the most feared cleanup hitters in Japanese baseball....
BASEBALL / MLB
Dec 26, 2000

Giants open vault for MVP Matsui

The Yomiuri Giants on Monday signed slugger Hideki Matsui to a new one-year contract that made him only the third 500 million yen player in Japanese baseball history.
BASEBALL / MLB
Nov 2, 2000

Players' association wants Matsuzaka sanctions lifted

The Japanese professional baseball players' association has sent a letter to the Seibu Lions asking the Pacific League club to allow disgraced pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka to resume playing as soon as possible, union officials said Wednesday.
SPORTS / SPORTS SCOPE
Nov 2, 2000

Red Sox interested in bringing Ichiro to Fenway

With seven straight Pacific League batting titles and a lifetime average of .353 topping his resume, Orix BlueWave superstar Ichiro Suzuki is now preparing for life in the major leagues.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 31, 2000

Matsui, Matsunaka scoop MVP honors

Yomiuri slugger Hideki Matsui has been voted the Central League's Most Valuable Player for the season two days after leading the Giants to the Japan Series championship, the Professional Baseball Organization of Japan announced Monday.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Oct 29, 2000

Hawks' Pedraza found relief in Japan

You wonder why he never made it to the majors. Talking here about Fukuoka Daiei Hawks relief ace Rod Pedraza, the best closer in the Pacific League if not all of Japanese baseball, and one big reason the Hawks have won the PL pennant each of the two years Pedraza has been their game-ender.
BASEBALL / MLB
Oct 13, 2000

Ichiro leaving 'Wave for majors

Seven-time Pacific League batting champion Ichiro Suzuki of the Orix BlueWave said Thursday he wants a chance to play in the North American major leagues next season.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Aug 6, 2000

Yankees Day at Tokyo Dome on Sept. 3

The Nippon Ham Fighters have announced their annual Yankees Day promotion will be held on Sunday, Sept. 3, when the team will play host to the Chiba Lotte Marines in a Pacific League game to begin at 1:30 p.m. at the Tokyo Dome. AIWA Co., Ltd., will sponsor the event and, as usual, the Nippon Ham club...
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Jul 16, 2000

Carp's Lopez back where he belongs

One of the happiest foreign players in Japan pro baseball these days is Hiroshima Carp first baseman Luis Lopez. The 1996 and 1997 Central League RBI leader is obviously back where he belongs; hitting .300 and driving in those runs like he did three-four years ago for the Red Helmets.
BASEBALL / MLB
Jun 30, 2000

Marines edge Lions on Otsuka's double

Outfielder Akira Otsuka doubled in the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning Thursday to lift the last-place Lotte Marines to a 5-4 victory over the Seibu Lions at Chiba Marine Stadium.
BASEBALL / MLB
May 2, 2000

Matsuzaka, five others named to Olympic team

Seibu pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka and Orix BlueWave outfielder So Taguchi were among six professionals formally announced by the Pacific League on Monday to take part in the baseball tournament of the Sydney Olympics.
BASEBALL / BASEBALL BULLET-IN
Apr 23, 2000

Battlin' Battle just can't stop winning

Hanshin Tigers third baseman Howard Battle began the 2000 Japan pro baseball season on a 15-game winning streak, and team manager Katsuya Nomura is probably wondering why he sent the former Atlanta Braves player to the farm team following the spring exhibition schedule.
MORE SPORTS
Apr 18, 2000

Cowboys star Emmitt Smith running after NFL records

Nobody will argue that Emmitt Smith of the Dallas Cowboys is one of the premier running backs in National Football League history.
BASEBALL / MLB
Mar 29, 2000

Cubs rally past Lions 6-5 in final tuneup

TOKOROZAWA, Saitama Pref. -- Sammy Sosa couldn't provide any ninth-inning heroics for the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday. Lucky for them, Mark Grace and Damon Buford could.
JAPAN
Aug 23, 1999

Blackmailer of ballplayer walks

The Tokyo District Court sentenced a former gangster to a suspended three-year prison term Monday for attempting to blackmail pro baseball star Kazuhiro Kiyohara and his team, the Yomiuri Giants.

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