The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks are a Japanese baseball team based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture. The team was bought on January 28, 2005 by the SoftBank Corporation.
The Japan Championship Series, or Japan Series is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a seven-game series between the winning clubs of the league's two circuits, the Central League and the Pacific League. The Series is the highest level of play in professional baseball in Japan. It is usually played in October or November. As in all of the best-of-seven series, the first team to win four games is the overall winner and is declared the Japan Series Champion each year. The winner of the Japan Series also goes on to be the Japanese representative team in the annual Asia Series. The Japan Series uses a 2-3-2 format.
The Yokohama DeNA BayStars are a professional baseball team in the Japanese Central League. Their home field is Yokohama Stadium, located in central Yokohama. The team has been known by several names since becoming a professional team in 1950. It adopted its current name in 2011 when the club was purchased by software company DeNA.
Kazuhisa Ishii is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Yakult Swallows and Saitama Seibu Lions and in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets.
Osamu Higashio is a former Japanese baseball player who played in the Japanese professional leagues from 1969–1988. He also was manager of the Seibu Lions from 1995–2001.
Micheal Yoshihide Nakamura is a Japanese-born Australian former professional baseball pitcher who played for the Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays of Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, Yomiuri Giants and Saitama Seibu Lions of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).
Kento Sugiyama is a retired Japanese professional baseball player from Numazu, Shizuoka, Japan. He played for the Seibu Lions, Hanshin Tigers, Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes, and Yokohama BayStars during his 10-year career in the Japanese professional leagues.
Hideaki Wakui is a starting pitcher for the Chiba Lotte Marines.
Yoshinori Sato is a Japanese professional baseball player. He is a starting pitcher for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
Kimiyasu Kudo is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher and the current manager of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of Nippon Professional Baseball. During his career, he recorded 224 career wins. Among other records, he was the oldest pitcher in NPB history to strike out 10 batters in a game, doing so at the age of 41 years and 11 months. However, despite all his accolades, he never won the Sawamura Award, given to Japan's top pitcher.
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 2011 Japan Series was the 62nd edition of Nippon Professional Baseball's championship series. The best-of-seven playoff matched the Chunichi Dragons and Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, the respective champions of the Central League's and the Pacific League's Climax Series (postseason). The Series began on Saturday, November 12, 2011 and was a rematch of the 1999 Japan Series, which the Hawks won, four games to one.
Hikaru Ito is a Japanese professional baseball catcher for the Yokohama DeNA BayStars in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball.
Takashi Ishii is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher and coach. He pitched for 14 seasons for the Seibu Lions and made three All-Star teams. His brother Akio Ishii was drafted in 1986 but never made it into Nippon Pro Baseball.
American expatriate baseball players in Japan have been a feature of the Japanese professional leagues since 1934. American expatriate players began to steadily find spots on Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) rosters in the 1960s. More than 600 Americans have played NPB, although very few last more than a single season in Japan.
The 2015 Japan Series was the 66th edition of Nippon Professional Baseball's postseason championship series. The Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, champions of the Pacific League, played the Tokyo Yakult Swallows, champions of the Central League. The Hawks were the defending Japan Series champions, having beaten the Hanshin Tigers in 2014. The series was sponsored by the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and was officially known as the 2015 SMBC Nippon Series.
The 2017 Japan Series was the championship series of Nippon Professional Baseball's postseason. The 68th edition of the Japan Series, it was a best-of-seven playoff between the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks of the Pacific League and the Yokohama DeNA BayStars of the Central League.
