The Yomiuri Giants are a professional baseball team based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. The team competes in the Central League in Nippon Professional Baseball. They play their home games in the Tokyo Dome, opened in 1988. The team's owner is the Yomiuri Group, a media conglomerate which includes two newspapers and a television network.
The Orix Buffaloes are a Nippon Professional Baseball team that was formed following the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment by the merger of the Orix BlueWave of Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and the Kintetsu Buffaloes of Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. The team plays in the Pacific League and is owned by the Orix Group, a leading diversified financial services company based in Tokyo.
Tokyo Big6 Baseball League is an intercollegiate baseball league that features six prominent universities in the Tokyo area. Before the 1936 establishment of the Japanese Baseball League and subsequent growth of Nippon Professional Baseball, the Big6 League was widely considered the highest level of baseball in Japan.
Takahito Nomura is a former major league baseball player from Kōchi, Japan. He played on the Orix BlueWave, Yomiuri Giants, Nippon-Ham Fighters, and Milwaukee Brewers. Nomura recorded his name as "Takaki Nomura" from 2000 to 2003.
The 2008 Nippon Professional Baseball season was the 59th season since the NPB was reorganized in 1950. The regular season started on March 20 with the Pacific League opener, and on March 28 with the Central League opener. On March 25 and 26, the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Athletics played 2 regular season Major League Baseball games at Tokyo Dome. During their visit, they also played exhibition games against the Hanshin Tigers and Yomiuri Giants.
The 1994 Japan Series was the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) championship series for the 1994 season. It was the 45th Japan Series and featured the Pacific League champion Seibu Lions against the Central League champion Yomiuri Giants. The series was the eighth time the two franchises played each other for the championship.
The 1990 Japan Series was the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) championship series for the 1990 season. It was the 41st Japan Series and featured the Pacific League champion Seibu Lions against the Central League champion Yomiuri Giants. Seibu won the PL pennant for the seventh time in nine years to reach the series, and Yomiuri dominated the CL to return to the series after winning it the year before. Played at Tokyo Dome and Seibu Lions Stadium, the Lions swept the heavily favored Giants in four games to win the franchise's 10th Japan Series title. Seibu slugger and former MLB player Orestes Destrade was named Most Valuable Player of the series. The series was played between October 20 and October 24 with home field advantage going to the Central League.
The 1995 Japan Series was the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) championship series for the 1995 season. It was the 46th Japan Series and featured the Pacific League champions, the Orix BlueWave, against the Central League champions, the Yakult Swallows. The series was the second time the two franchises played each other for the championship; however, the last time the two teams played, Orix was known as the Hankyu Braves. Played at Green Stadium Kobe and Meiji Jingu Stadium, the Swallows defeated the BlueWave four games to one in the best-of-seven series to win the franchise's 3rd Japan Series title. Regular-season MVP Tom O'Malley was named Most Valuable Player of the series. The series was played between October 21 and October 26, 1995, with home field advantage going to the Central League.
The 1989 Japan Series was the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) championship series for the 1989 season. It was the 40th Japan Series and featured the Pacific League champion Kintetsu Buffaloes against the Central League champion Yomiuri Giants. Kintetsu barely scraped into the series with a winning percentage only .001 higher than the second place Orix Braves, and Yomiuri won the CL pennant by 8 games to return to the series for the 25th time in franchise history. Played at Fujiidera Stadium and Tokyo Dome, the Giants won the series after losing the first three games to the underdog Buffaloes and staging a miraculous comeback, winning four games in a row with the final two wins coming on the road. Yomiuri slugger Norihiro Komada was named Most Valuable Player of the series. The series was played between October 21 and October 29 with home field advantage going to the Pacific League.
The 1965 Japan Series was the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) championship series for the 1965 season. It was the 16th Japan Series and featured the Pacific League champions, the Nankai Hawks, against the Central League champions, the Yomiuri Giants.
The 2014 Nippon Professional Baseball season is the 65th season since the NPB was reorganized in 1950.
The 2015 Nippon Professional Baseball season was the 66th season since the NPB was reorganized in 1950. In the Central League, the Yakult Swallows claimed the pennant and defeated the Yomiuri Giants in the final stage of the Climax Series. In the Pacific League, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks won the penant and defeated the Chiba Lotte Marines in the final stage of the Climax Series.
The 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment was a series of events that occurred during the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball season that changed the landscape of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). In June of that season, the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes and the Orix BlueWave announced that, due to financial difficulties, the two teams planned to merge into one for the start of the 2005 season. Both teams were in the Pacific League (PL), and a merger between the two would result in a team imbalance with the NPB's opposing league, the Central League (CL). Soon, it was announced that a second merger was being explored between two of the remaining four PL teams. With the possibility of the PL losing a second team, discussion about possibly restructuring NPB's two-league system into one ten-team league began. PL and CL executives continued to discuss the merits of both systems until it was finally decided that the two-league system would remain intact and interleague play would be introduced in the 2005 season.
Interleague play, officially titled Nippon Life Interleague Play for event sponsor Nippon Life, is an event consisting of 108 regular-season baseball games played between Central League (CL) and Pacific League (PL) teams in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). Prior to 2005, matchups between CL and PL teams occurred only during spring training, the All-Star Series, a short-lived exhibition tournament called the Suntory Cup, and the Japan Series. Central League teams were reluctant to implement regular-season interleague play as it would cut into the money they would receive from games played against the Yomiuri Giants, the hugely popular CL team that generates the most money in Japanese baseball. However, during the 2004 NPB realignment, the merger of two PL teams that were struggling financially, the rumor of a second PL team merger, and talks of contracting and restructuring the two-league system into one ten-team league prompted the suggestion of interleague play as a possible solution. Team representatives eventually approved one merger, agreed to maintain the two-league system, and approved to hold interleague regular-season games during the 2005 season.
The 1967 Japan Series was the 18th edition of Nippon Professional Baseball's postseason championship series. It matched the Central League champion Yomiuri Giants against the Pacific League champion Hankyu Braves. The Giants defeated the Braves in six games to win their third consecutive championship.
The 1966 Japan Series was the 17th edition of Nippon Professional Baseball's postseason championship series. It matched the Central League champion Yomiuri Giants against the Pacific League champion Nankai Hawks. This was a rematch of the previous year's Japan Series, which the Giants won. Yomiuri again defeated Nankai, this time in six games, to win their second consecutive championship.
