Nippon Professional Baseball is a professional baseball league and the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called Puro Yakyū (プロ野球), meaning simply Professional Baseball; outside of Japan, NPB is often referred to as "Japanese baseball."
The Canadian American Association of Professional Baseball, commonly known as the Can-Am League, was a professional, independent baseball league with teams in the Northeast United States and Eastern Canada, founded in 2005 as a reorganization of its predecessor, the Northeast League. The Can-Am League operated in cities not directly served by Major or Minor League teams and was not affiliated with either. The league office was in Dayton, Ohio. Though a separate entity, the league shared a commissioner, president, and director of umpires with the American Association of Independent 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 nine times and the Japan Series twice. They were also champions in the 2007 Asia Series.
The Japanese Baseball League was a professional baseball league in Japan which operated from 1936 to 1949, before reorganizing in 1950 as Nippon Professional Baseball.
Japan Soccer League; JSL) was the top flight association football league in Japan between 1965 and 1992, and was the precursor to the current professional league, the J.League. JSL was the second national league of a team sport in Japan after the professional Japanese Baseball League that was founded in 1936. JSL was the first-ever national league of an amateur team sport in Japan.
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.
The Shochiku Robins were a Japanese baseball team that played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). The franchise originated in the Japanese Baseball League and existed from 1936–1953, when it merged with the Taiyo Whales. Originally based in Tokyo, the club moved to Osaka in 1941.
Professional baseball in Japan first started in the 1920s, but it was not until the Greater Japan Tokyo Baseball Club was established in 1934 that the modern professional game had continued success.
The Adelaide Giants are a professional baseball team that plays in the Australian Baseball League. They are one of the six foundation franchises of the league, in its first incarnation from 1989 to 1999. The team adopted the name Bite or Adelaide Bite when the league relaunched in 2010, officially Adelaide ETSA Bite, when the South Australian power company ETSA Utilities became its major sponsor. After an ETSA rebrand to SA Power Networks, the Bite became the Adelaide Bite, proudly presented by SA Power Networks. In 2019, the team was rebranded as Adelaide Giants.
The Daiei Stars were a Japanese professional baseball team that was founded in 1946, and played in various incarnations until 1957, when it merged with another team. Overall, the franchise only had three winning seasons, never rising higher than third place. The team was in the second division, or B-class, for seven seasons, including its last four years of existence. The Stars played in Korakuen Stadium in Bunkyo, Tokyo.
Makoto Kozuru was a Japanese professional baseball player who played in both the Japanese Baseball League and Nippon Professional Baseball. He was the MVP of the Central League in 1950, and was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980. His nickname was "The Japanese DiMaggio."
The Yamato Baseball Club was a Japanese baseball team in the Japanese Baseball League (JBL). Based in Tokyo, the franchise was founded as the Korakuen Eagles before the 1937 season and was dissolved before the 1944 season.
The Nishitetsu Baseball Club was a team in the Japanese Baseball League (JBL). Founded in 1936 as the Tokyo Senators, the team went through a number of name changes and mergers before being dissolved after the 1943 season.
Saburo Yokozawa (1904–1995) is a Japanese former professional baseball manager and umpire. He was involved in various iterations of Japanese professional baseball from 1929 through 1959.
Toshio Kurosawa was a Japanese baseball outfielder who played eight seasons in the Japanese Baseball League from 1936 to 1947. His career was cut short due to typhoid fever, from which he died at age 33. Kurosawa's number 4 was retired by his last club, the Yomiuri Giants, the same year, and was among the first to be retired in all of Japanese baseball.
Kazuto Tsuruoka, also known as Kazuto Yamamoto, was a Japanese former professional baseball infielder and manager in the Japan Baseball League (JBL) and Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).
Jirō Noguchi was a Japanese baseball pitcher and outfielder/infielder who played 13 seasons in the Japanese Baseball League and then Nippon Professional Baseball, from 1939 to 1952. A two-way player who really excelled at pitching, Noguchi was a six-time 20-game winner, a three-time 30-game winner, and once won 40 games in a season. His 1.96 career earned run average is second all-time. As a batter, Noguchi had a 31-game hitting streak, a Japanese professional baseball record which stood for 25 years. He was elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989.
Akira Noguchi was a Japanese baseball pitcher, infielder, catcher, and manager who played 15 total seasons in the Japanese Baseball League and then Nippon Professional Baseball, during the period 1936 to 1955. The rare two-way player, Noguchi was particularly unusual in that he excelled in the specialized positions of both pitcher and catcher.
Komajirō Tamura was a Japanese businessman and professional baseball team owner.
