Shintaro Fujinami
is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Hanshin Tigers. Amateur career Fujinami started playing Little League Baseball for the Takeshirodai Club, then played for the Osaka Senboku Boys upon entering Miyayamadai Junior High, where he pitched as fast as . He also pitched for the national team in the 16U(AA) Baseball World Championship. He graduated grade school at , and junior high at . He and his father were avid fans of the Yomiuri Giants. In 2010, Fujinami entered Osaka Toin High School. In his final year in 2012 he led Tōin as their ace pitcher at the Japanese High School Baseball Invitational Tournament and Japanese High School Baseball Championship, where the school won both competitions. During the Summer Koshien tournaments, he pitched two consecutive complete shutout games in both the semi-finals and finals (only surrendering two hits in ea ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the pitcher is assigned the number 1. The pitcher is often considered the most important player on the defensive side of the game, and as such is situated at the right end of the defensive spectrum. There are many different types of pitchers, such as the starting pitcher, relief pitcher, middle reliever, lefty specialist, setup man, and the closer. Traditionally, the pitcher also bats. Starting in 1973 with the American League(and later the National League) and spreading to further leagues throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the hitting duties of the pitcher have generally been given over to the position of designated hitter, a cause of some controversy. The Japanese Central Le ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Japanese High School Baseball Championship
The of Japan, commonly known as , is an annual nationwide high school baseball tournament. It is the largest scale amateur sport event in Japan. The tournament, organized by the Japan High School Baseball Federation and ''Asahi Shimbun'', takes place during the summer school vacation period, culminating in a two-week final tournament stage with 49 teams in August at in the Koshien district of Nishinomiya City, Hyōgo, Japan. Like most sports, the 2020 tournament was canceled in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Background In the past teams from overseas have participated in the tournament. Korea fielded teams from 1921 to 1940; both Taiwan and Manchuria had teams participate from 1923 to 1940. The 49 schools taking part in the final tourney represent regional champions of each of the prefectures of Japan (with two from Hokkaidō and Tokyo). From mid-June until July, regional tournaments are held to decide who is sent to Koshien. The rules are the same as in the Na ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Koshien Stadium
, commonly referred to as simply Koshien Stadium, is a baseball park located near Kobe, Hyōgo, Kobe in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. The stadium was built to host the High school baseball in Japan, national high school baseball tournaments, and opened on August 1, 1924. It was the largest stadium in Asia at the time it was completed, with a capacity of 55,000. The name ''Kōshien'' (甲子園) comes from ''Wood Rat'' of the Sexagenary cycle system. The year of the stadium's founding, 1924, was the first year kōshi (甲子) in the cycle. The design of the stadium was heavily influenced by the Polo Grounds in New York City. In 1936 in sports, 1936 it became the home stadium for the Osaka Tigers (current Hanshin Tigers), now with the Central League. On February 14, 1964, Hanshin Electric Railway, Hanshin, the Tigers' owners, was appended to the name of Koshien Stadium. In addition to the annual National High School Baseball Championship, played in August, the stadium h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Yokohama DeNA BayStars
The are a professional baseball team in the Japan, 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. The minor league team shares the same name and uniform as the parent team and plays in the Eastern League (Japanese baseball), Eastern League. The minor league home field is Yokosuka Stadium, located in Yokosuka, Kanagawa. History Origin (1930s–1949) The team began as the Taiyo Fishing Company, an amateur team currently affiliated with the Maruha Corporation (presently Maruha Nichiro). The team began to appear in national tournaments in the 1930s, and won the National Sports Festival in 1948, giving it national recognition. In the 1949 off-season, the Japanese professional baseball league drastically expanded itself and many players from the Taiyo amateur team w ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Minoru Iwata
is a Japanese baseball pitcher from Moriguchi, Osaka, Japan and he currently plays for the Hanshin Tigers. He was a member of the Japan team in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. Early years Iwata entered Osaka Toin High School in 1998. He became the ace pitcher in the autumn 1999 (his 2nd year of senior high school) and contributed to the school's winning the Osaka High School Baseball Autumn Tournament and advancing to the quarterfinal in the Kansai High School Baseball Autumn Tournament. However, he contracted type 1 diabetes in the winter of his second year. At the time of his diagnosis he had an agreement to join a successful company team after graduation, however the agreement was withdrawn after the company learned of his illness. His treating doctor allowed him to continue playing baseball as part of a balanced lifestyle necessary to stabilize the symptoms of diabetes. After graduating high school he entered Kansai University in 2001, where he was the school team's ace p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hiroshima Toyo Carp
The is a professional baseball team based in Hiroshima, Japan. They compete in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. The team is primarily owned by the Matsuda family, led by , who is a descendant of Mazda founder Jujiro Matsuda. Mazda is the largest single shareholder (34.2%), which is less than the portion owned by the Matsuda family (about 60%). Because of that, Mazda is not considered the owner firm. However, the company connection is highlighted in the club name; until 1984, Mazda's official name was . The Carp are the only one of the 28 Asian professional baseball teams to be majority privately owned. History Early years The Nippon Professional Baseball league was planned to be split into two separate leagues in 1949, and Hiroshima prefecture decided to establish a professional baseball team as part of the reconstruction process after the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The team joined the Central League in December 1949 as the Hiroshima Carp. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jingu Stadium
The 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. Redevelopment plans call for the stadium and the adjacent Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium to be demolished and replaced with new facilities. History As the second oldest baseball stadium in Japan, Meiji Jingu Stadium is one of the few professional stadiums still in existence where Babe Ruth played (the only other ones are Wrigley Field in Chicago, and Fenway Park in Boston). In 1934, Ruth joined several other famous baseball players from the U.S., such as Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx, in a 22-game tour of Japan. Matsutarō Shōriki, popularly known as the father of Japanese professional baseball, organized the American tour; he survived an assassination attempt for ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2012 Nippon Professional Baseball Draft
The 2012 Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) Draft was held on October 25, , for the 48th time at the Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa to assign amateur baseball players to the NPB. It was arranged with the special cooperation of Toshiba with official naming rights. The draft was officially called "The Professional Baseball Draft Meeting supported by TOSHIBA ".It has been sponsored by Toshiba for the 4th consecutive year since 2009. Summary Only the first round picks will be done by bid lottery. After the second round, waver selections were made in order from the lowest-ranked team of the 2012 season in both the Central League and Pacific League, the third round was reversed and selections were made from the top team, and the fourth round was reversed again, alternating with selections from the lowest-ranked team until all teams had finished selecting players. Since the season, the winner of the NPB All-Star Game has determined whether the Central League or the Pacific League gets w ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tokyo Yakult Swallows
The Tokyo Yakult Swallows () are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Shinjuku, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Yomiuri Giants. They have won 8 Central League championships and 6 Japan Series championships. Since 1964, they play their games at Meiji Jingu Stadium. The Swallows are named after their corporate owners, Yakult Honsha. From 1950 to 1965, the team was owned by the former Japanese National Railways (known as Kokutetsu (国鉄) in Japanese) and called the Kokutetsu Swallows; the team was then owned by the newspaper ''Sankei Shimbun'' from 1965 to 1968 and called the Sankei Atoms. Yakult purchased the team in 1970 and renamed it the Yakult Atoms, before renaming it again as the Yakult Swallows in 1974, and then the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in 2006. Kokutetsu and Sankei era (1950–1969) The franchise was established for the first time in 1950 whe ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chiba Lotte Marines
The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture, in the Kantō region, and owned by Lotte Holdings Co., Ltd. History The Marines franchise began in 1950 as the Mainichi Orions, an inaugural member of the Pacific League. The Orions were named after the constellation of the same name. The Marines won the inaugural Japan Series in 1950. In 1958, the team was merged with the Daiei Unions and renamed the Daimai Orions. In 1964 they became the Tokyo Orions, and the Lotte Orions in 1969. The franchise was slow to replicate its initial success: the Orions made the Japan Series in 1960 and 1970, only to lose both years. The team played in central Tokyo until 1972. From 1973 to 1977 the Lotte Orions played in the northern Japanese city of Sendai. In 1974, they beat the Chunichi Dragons, becoming the first Pacific League team to win the Series in ten years, as the Yomiuri Giants had claimed the prior nine titles behind the Oh–Na ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Orix Buffaloes
The are a Nippon Professional Baseball team formed as a result of the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment by the merger of the Orix BlueWave of Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes of Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. The team plays in the Pacific League and is under ownership by Orix, a leading diversified financial services company founded in Osaka. The combined team began play in 2005. The Buffaloes split home games between Kyocera Dome Osaka, which was the home of the original Buffaloes franchise, and Kobe Sports Park Baseball Stadium, the former home of the BlueWave, when the Hanshin Tigers take over Kyocera Dome for when they are kicked out of Hanshin Koshien Stadium during the Japanese High School Baseball Championship in the month of August. Franchise history Hankyu/Orix (1936–2004) Hankyu Braves The franchise that eventually became the Orix Buffaloes was founded in 1936 under the ownership of a Japanese railway company , as . Lat ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sankei Sports
is a Japanese-language daily sports newspaper published by Sankei Shimbun. In 2014, it had a circulation of 1,270,000. The newspaper is known by its nickname . Relating sports teams * Kanto area - Tokyo Yakult Swallows (Nippon Professional Baseball) * Kansai area - Hanshin Tigers & Orix Buffaloes (Nippon Professional Baseball). Gamba Osaka & Cerezo Osaka ( J.League) * Tohoku area - Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles (Nippon Professional Baseball). Vegalta Sendai ( J.League) See also * Tokyo Marathon * Osaka Women's Marathon (Osaka International Ladies Marathon) * Kagawa Marugame Half Marathon * Fujisankei Communications Group * Japanese media The mass media in Japan include numerous television and radio networks as well as newspapers and magazines in Japan. For the most part, television networks were established based on capital investments by existing radio networks. Variety shows, ... External links *Sanspo.com*Sanspo denshi ban (Electronic newspaper delivery edition ( ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |