Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called Puro Yakyū (プロ野球), meaning Professional Baseball. Outside of Japan, it is often referred to as "Japanese baseball".
The Yomiuri Giants 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, 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 and the Nippon Television Network.
James Emory Foxx, nicknamed "Double X" and "the Beast", was an American professional baseball first baseman who played 20 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, and Philadelphia Phillies. A tremendous power hitter, Foxx retired with the second most home runs, behind only Babe Ruth, and fifth-most runs batted in (RBI). His greatest seasons were with the Philadelphia Athletics and the Boston Red Sox, where he hit a then-record 30 or more home runs in 12 consecutive seasons and drove in more than 100 runs in 13 consecutive years.
Morris Berg was an American professional baseball catcher and coach in Major League Baseball, who later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. Although he played 15 seasons in the major leagues, almost entirely for four American League teams, Berg was never more than an average player and was better known for being "the brainiest guy in baseball." Casey Stengel once described Berg as "the strangest man ever to play baseball".
Tokyo Dome is an indoor stadium in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. It was designed as a baseball stadium following its predecessor, Korakuen Stadium. In Japan, it is often used as a unit of size; for example, "the new construction is five times the size of Tokyo Dome."
The Goudey Gum Company was an American chewing gum company started in 1919. The company was founded by Enos Gordon Goudey (1863–1946) of Barrington Passage, Nova Scotia. Formerly an employee of Beemans, he opened a factory in Boston, Massachusetts in 1919 and later in Allston. It operated there from 1924 until it closed in 1962. Goudey sold the business in 1932 but he retained an interest as a consultant. On his retirement in 1933, William Wrigley Jr. dubbed him the "penny gum king of America". Today the Goudey name is mainly associated with its collectible baseball cards which were introduced in 1933. Goudey was the first American company to issue baseball cards with each stick of gum.
The Meiji Jingu Stadium is a baseball stadium in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. It opened in 1926 and holds 37,933 spectators. Property of the Meiji Shrine, it is the home field of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows professional baseball team. It also hosts college baseball, including the Tokyo Big6 Baseball League and the Tohto University Baseball League.
Eiji Sawamura was a Japanese professional baseball player. A right-handed pitcher, he played in Japan for the Yomiuri Giants.
Jimmie Reese was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) infielder. He played second base, third base, and then coached at several professional levels. His Los Angeles Angels No. 50 was retired, and he was inducted into the Angels Hall of Fame.
Korakuen Stadium was a stadium in Tokyo, Japan. Completed in 1937, it was originally used for baseball, and was home to the Yomiuri Giants for nearly fifty years. For various periods of time, it was also the home stadium of six other professional Japanese baseball teams, including the Mainichi Orions, the Kokutetsu Swallows, and the Nippon Ham Fighters. Korakuen was the home of the Intercity baseball tournament for nearly fifty years. It originally hosted the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame, now located at Korakuen's successor venue, the Tokyo Dome. In the 1970s and 1980s Korakuen was also used as a concert venue for superstar performers. The ballpark had a capacity of 50,000 people.
Joseph Thomas Cascarella was a pitcher in Major League Baseball who played with four different teams between 1934 and 1938. Listed at 5 ft 10.5 in (1.79 m), 175 lb (79 kg), Cascarella batted and threw right-handed. He was born in Philadelphia.
The 1934 Major League Baseball All-Star Game was the second playing of the mid-summer classic between the all-stars of the American League (AL) and National League (NL), the two leagues comprising Major League Baseball. The game was held on July 10 at the Polo Grounds in Manhattan, New York City, the home of the New York Giants of the National League. The game resulted in the American League defeating the National League 9–7. Every starter on both teams except Wally Berger was later inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Harold Burton "Rabbit" Warstler was a professional baseball infielder. He played all or part of 11 seasons in Major League Baseball as a shortstop and second baseman for the Boston Red Sox (1930–33), Philadelphia Athletics (1934–36), Boston Bees (1936–40) and Chicago Cubs (1940).
Oscar Frederick Louis Roettger was an American baseball player whose 19-year active career was augmented by brief service as a minor-league manager and over 35 years as the liaison between the Rawlings Sporting Goods Company and professional baseball. In his abbreviated Major League career, he appeared in 37 total games as a pitcher and first baseman for the New York Yankees (1923–1924), Brooklyn Robins (1927) and Philadelphia Athletics (1932). He threw and batted right-handed, stood 6 feet (1.8 m) tall and weighed 170 pounds (77 kg).
Kenichi Zenimura was a Japanese-American baseball player, manager, and promoter. He had a long career with semiprofessional Japanese-American baseball leagues in the western United States and Hawaii; these leagues were very active and popular from about 1900 to 1941. He is also noted for the successful barnstorming tours he organized that brought famed players such as Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig to the west coast and to Japan for exhibition games in the 1920s and 1930s. Along with most Japanese-Americans living on the west coast of the United States, during World War II he was incarcerated with his family in an internment camp. Their camp was the Gila River War Relocation Center in Arizona. There he led construction of a complete baseball field including spectator stands, and he organized baseball leagues for the internees. These leagues were important both to the morale of the internees and to building relationships with nearby Arizona residents. Zenimura has been called the "Father of Japanese American Baseball".
Ban Johnson Park was a baseball stadium located in Hot Springs, Arkansas. It was also known as Whittington Park and McKee Park. The ballpark was located within today's Whittington Park Historic District and directly across from the still active Arkansas Alligator Farm and Petting Zoo.
The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg is a 1994 biography written by Nicholas Dawidoff about a major league baseball player who also worked for the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency. Moe Berg, the subject of the book, was an enigmatic person who hid much of his private life from those who knew him and who spent his later decades as a jobless drifter living off the good will of friends and relatives.
The original Majestic Park was one of the first Major League Baseball spring training facilities. The ballpark was located at the corner of Belding Street and Carson Street in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Today, the site is in use by Champion Christian College, National Park College, and travel/tournament baseball and softball. Majestic Park has been renovated by the City of Hot Springs. Babe Ruth, Cy Young, Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron are among the many who have played at the site.
Narumi Stadium was a baseball stadium in Nagoya, Japan. Narumi Stadium was one of the three stadiums which hosted the first professional season of Japanese baseball in 1936.
