1954 Nippon Professional Baseball season

Last updated
1954 NPB season
League Nippon Professional Baseball
Sport Baseball
Central League Pennant
League champions Chunichi Dragons
  Runners-up Yomiuri Giants
Season MVP Shigeru Sugishita (CHU)
Pacific League Pennant
League champions Nishitetsu Lions
  Runners-up Nankai Hawks
Season MVP Hiroshi Oshita (NIS)
Japan Series
Champions Chunichi Dragons
  Runners-up Nishitetsu Lions
Finals MVP Shigeru Sugishita (CHU)
NPB seasons

The 1954 Nippon Professional Baseball season was the fifth season of operation of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).

Nippon Professional Baseball baseball league representing the highest level of professional baseball in Japan

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 Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation of the "Greater Japan Tokyo Baseball Club" in Tokyo, founded 1934 and the original circuit for the sport in the Empire two years later - Japanese Baseball League (1936-1949), and surprisingly even continued to play through the dark years of total warfare with Japan's invasion of Manchuria in 1931, and intervening in the Chinese Civil War in 1937 with the wider Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), and into the greater World War II (1939-1945).

Contents

Regular season

Standings

Central League regular season standings
Team G W L T Pct. GB
Chunichi Dragons 13086404.683—
Yomiuri Giants 13082471.6365.5
Osaka Tigers 13071572.55516.0
Hiroshima Carp 13056695.44829.5
Kokutetsu Swallows 13055732.43032.0
Yosho Robins 13032962.25055.0
Pacific League regular season standings
Team G W L T Pct. GB
Nishitetsu Lions 14090473.657—
Nankai Hawks 14091490.6500.5
Mainichi Orions 14079574.58110.5
Kintetsu Pearls 14074633.54016.0
Hankyu Braves 14066704.48523.5
Takahashi Unions 14053843.38737.0
Toei Flyers 14052862.37738.5
Daiei Stars 14043925.31946.0

Postseason

Japan Series

CL Chunichi Dragons (4) vs. PL Nishitetsu Lions (3)

Chunichi Dragons professional baseball team in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball

The Chunichi Dragons are a professional baseball team based in Nagoya, the chief city in the Chūbu region of Japan. The team plays in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. They have won the Central League pennant 9 times and the Japan Series twice in 1954 and 2007. They were also champions in the 2007 Asia Series.

GameDateScoreLocationTimeAttendance 
1October 30Nishitetsu Lions – 1, Chunichi Dragons – 5 Nagoya Baseball Stadium 2:1529,245 [1]  
2October 31Nishitetsu Lions – 0, Chunichi Dragons – 5Nagoya Baseball Stadium2:2130,303 [1]  
3November 2Chunichi Dragons – 0, Nishitetsu Lions – 5 Heiwadai Stadium 2:1923,994 [1]  
4November 3Chunichi Dragons – 0, Nishitetsu Lions – 3Heiwadai Stadium1:3625,185 [1]  
5November 4Chunichi Dragons – 3, Nishitetsu Lions – 2Heiwadai Stadium2:1519,771 [1]  
6November 6Nishitetsu Lions – 4, Chunichi Dragons – 1Nagoya Baseball Stadium2:1627,776 [1]  
7November 7Nishitetsu Lions – 0, Chunichi Dragons – 1Nagoya Baseball Stadium1:3823,215 [1]

League leaders

Central League

Pacific League

Awards

Nippon Professional Baseball Most Valuable Player Award

The Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award is an honor given annually in baseball to two outstanding players in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB), one each for the Central League and Pacific League.

Shigeru Sugishita is a former Japanese professional baseball pitcher and coach. Renowned for his forkball, Sugishita dominated the Central League from 1950–1955, winning more than 30 games twice, and garnering three Eiji Sawamura Awards. Sugishita usually split his time between starting games and pitching in relief. He played 11 seasons, ten of them for the Chunichi/Nagoya Dragons.

The Nippon Professional Baseball Rookie of the Year Award is given to one player in each league of Central League and Pacific League.

See also

The 1954 All-American Girls Professional Baseball League season marked the twelfth and last season of the circuit. The AAGPBL was left with five teams after the Muskegon Belles franchise folded at the end of the past season. As a result, it was the lowest number of teams since its opening season in 1943. The Fort Wayne Daisies, Grand Rapids Chicks, Kalamazoo Lassies, Rockford Peaches and South Bend Blue Sox competed through a 96-game schedule, while the Shaugnessy playoffs featured the top four teams in a best-of-three first round series, with the two winning teams facing in a best-of-five series to decide the championship.

The 1954 Major League Baseball season was contested from April 13 to October 2, 1954. For the second consecutive season, an MLB franchise relocated, as the St. Louis Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Baltimore Orioles, who played their home games at Memorial Stadium.

Related Research Articles

Central League Nippon Professional Baseball league

The Central League or Ce League is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consists of six teams from around the country. Unlike the Pacific League, designated hitters are not used during Central League home games.

In Japan, the Black Mist Scandal refers to a series of game fixing scandals in the Nippon Professional Baseball league between 1969 and 1971. The fallout from these scandals resulted in several star players receiving long suspensions, salary cuts, or being banned from professional play entirely; the resulting abandonment of baseball by many fans in Japan also led to the sale of such illustrious teams as the Nishitetsu Lions and Toei Flyers.

The Western League (ウエスタン・リーグ) is one of the two minor leagues ("ni-gun") of Japanese professional baseball. The league is owned and managed by the Pacific League of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Teams in the Western League generally play an 80-game schedule every year.

In 2006 the Nippon Professional Baseball season ended with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters of the Pacific League defeating the Chunichi Dragons of the Central League in the Japan Series.

The 1954 Japan Series was the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) championship series for the 1954 season. It was the fifth Japan Series and featured the Pacific League champions, the Nishitetsu Lions, against the Central League champions, the Chunichi Dragons. This would be the Dragons' last championship until 2007, when they defeated the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters.

The 2011 Nippon Professional Baseball season is the 62nd season since the NPB was reorganized in 1950. The season was delayed by the Tohoku earthquake. The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles, based in northern Japan, and coached by Senichi Hoshino, were particularly affected by the quake, as the Miyagi Baseball Stadium was badly damaged.

The 1951 Nippon Professional Baseball season was the second season of operation of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).

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The 1988 Japan Series was the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) championship series for the 1988 season. It was the 39th Japan Series and featured the Central League champion Chunichi Dragons against the Pacific League champion Seibu Lions. Chunichi won the Central League pennant by a comfortable 12 games to advance to the championship. However, the representative from the Pacific League was undecided up until 3 days before Game 1 of the Japan Series. Seibu fought neck-and-neck for first place with the Kintetsu Buffaloes over most of the season and finished their regular-season schedule with a 0.5-game advantage over Kintetsu, with Kintetsu having 4 games left to play. On the last day of the season, Kintetsu had to win both games of an away double-header against the last-place Lotte Orions to claim the PL pennant. Kintetsu won the first game by one run, but Lotte forced a comeback tie in the second game, capping a dramatic finish to the season and giving Seibu the PL spot in the Japan Series for the fourth year in a row.

The 1988 Nippon Professional Baseball season was the 39th season of operation for the league.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "1954年度日本シリーズ　試合結果" (in Japanese). Nippon Professional Baseball. Archived from the original on 26 March 2010. Retrieved April 9, 2010.
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