2004 Nippon Professional Baseball Season
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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 ...
season ended with the
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, wh ...
defeating the
Chunichi Dragons The 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 (most recently in 2011) ...
in the
2004 Japan Series The Japan Series, the 55th edition of Nippon Professional Baseball's championship series, began on October 16 and ended on October 25, and matched the Pacific League playoffs winner Seibu Lions against the Central League Champion, Chunichi Drago ...
. This season also saw the first and only players strike in Japanese professional baseball history. Players went on strike for two days in September because of the potential mergers and realignment.


Format


Central League

* Season Format ** Regular Season * Regular Season 1st place is the champion


Pacific League

* Season Format ** Regular Season ** Playoff 1st Stage: Regular Season 2nd place vs. Regular Season 3rd place – Best of 3 ** Playoff 2nd Stage: Regular Season 1st place vs. Playoff 1st Stage winner – Best of 5 * Playoff 2nd Stage winner is the champion


Japan Series

* Central League champion vs. Pacific League champion – Best of 7


Standings

''Note:Two games for each team are cancelled due to players' strike''


Central League


Regular season


Pacific League


Regular season


Playoff 1st Stage

Seibu Lions (2) vs. Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (1)


Playoff 2nd Stage

Fukuoka Daiei Hawks (2) vs. Seibu Lions (3)


Japan Series

Chunichi Dragons (3) vs. Seibu Lions (4)


See also

*
2004 Major League Baseball season The 2004 Major League Baseball season ended when the Boston Red Sox defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in a four-game World Series sweep. The Red Sox championship ended an 86-year-long drought known as the Curse of the Bambino. The Red Sox were als ...


References

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