The

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...

Japan Series The Japan Series ( , officially the Japan Championship Series, ), also the Nippon Series, :File:2014_JS_logo.png is the annual championship series in Nippon Professional Baseball, the top baseball league in Japan. It is a best-of-seven series ...

was the

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , 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 ...

(NPB) championship series for the 1994 season. It was the 45th

and featured the

Pacific League The or is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the annual Japan Series. It currently cons ...

champion

Seibu Lions The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiary of Seibu Railway, w ...

against the

Central League The or 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 consi ...

champion

Yomiuri Giants The are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams based in Tokyo, the other being the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. They ...

. The series was the eighth time the two franchises played each other for the championship. Because this year's edition of the Japan Series took place during the Major League Baseball strike that scuttled the entire postseason, including the

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

, it received much more attention than normal in the United States. Most memorably, the cover of the October 31 issue of ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twi ...

'' featured Lions pitcher

Hisanobu Watanabe Hisanobu Watanabe (渡辺久信 born August 2, 1965) nicknamed "Nabe-Q", is the former baseball player who played in the Japanese professional leagues from 1984 to 1998. He also was manager of the Saitama Seibu Lions The are a professional ...

along with the tagline "The World's Series", in the Lions' 11-0 win in Game One. Chicago-area Regional Sports Networks broadcast the game in English on a week delay basis, with

Ken Harrelson Kenneth Smith Harrelson (born September 4, 1941), nicknamed "The Hawk" due to his distinctive profile, is an American former professional baseball All-Star first baseman and outfielder, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1963 to 197 ...

being the lead broadcaster. This resulted eventually in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

acquiring Japanese players upon the end of the strike. Two members of the winning Yomiuri Giants team --

Hideki Matsui , nicknamed " Godzilla", is a Japanese former professional baseball outfielder and designated hitter who played baseball in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and Major League Baseball (MLB). He batted left-handed and threw right-handed. Mats ...

(2009) and

Dan Gladden Clinton Daniel Gladden III (born July 7, 1957) is an American former Major League Baseball player and current radio broadcaster. He was the starting left fielder with the Minnesota Twins' two World Series Championship teams in 1987 and 1991. Base ...

(1987, 1991) -- also won a World Series. This was the second Japan Series to feature night games after

1964 Japan Series The 1964 Japan Series was the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) championship series for the 1964 Nippon Professional Baseball season, 1964 season. It was the 15th Japan Series and featured the Pacific League champions, the Nankai Hawks, against th ...

although the night games were only on weekdays, and the first with a reduction in extra innings. The Series, which had an 18-inning limit before a tie game, adopted a 15-inning limit before Series night games were tied.Daily Yomuiri: Historic Series Should Spark Change
/ref>

Summary

Matchups

Game 1

Game 2

Game 3

Game 4

Game 5

Game 6

References

External links

Nippon Professional Baseball
��Official website (in English) {{Saitama Seibu Lions Japan Series Seibu Lions Yomiuri Giants Japan Series, 1994

Series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used in ...