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Date: November 2, 1985
The drought had gone on long enough. In fact, there were players on the Tigers roster who were still in diapers the last time the team had won a pennant in 1964.
And this team had a lot of the right pieces to take the team places: Randy Bass, Masayuki Kakefu, Akinobu Okada, Akinobu Mayumi, and more. In fact, these four guys all ended up with over 30 home runs and batting averages north of .300 (plus, three reached triple digits in runs, and three in RBIs, too)!
So they clinched the Central League pennant on October 16, and had to play out another 5 regular season games before the Nippon Series would start against the PL champion Seibu Lions.
The team won the first two games on the road, but then proceeded to lose the next two at home. With the series tied and just one more game at Koshien Stadium, the bats came to life in a big way. Now, all that was needed was a single win on the road for the team to get its first Nippon Series win.
Game Six was all Tigers right from the start, as a grand slam in the first inning gave them a huge lead early on. The runs kept pouring in, and there was little drama left… except watching the final out and the crowds go crazy. So have a look. Soak it in. And pray that this day will come again soon!
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