You wouldn’t think it would be a hard task to find a newly published Hanshin Tigers magazine in the Kansai area… and yet I went to major bookstores in Sannoymiya (Kobe), Ashiya and Nishinomiya and came up fruitless. FINALLY today I found it! In Himeji, of all places! So here’s the book I searched high and…
Now I’m going to sound like a spoiled child, but my father-in-law called up his daughter (my wife) the other day and said, “I found something your husband might be interested in. Can you come over sometime this week and check it out? If he wants it, it’s his. If not, that’s OK, I can…
Interleague play begins today! If you are like me, you may not know a whole lot about the teams the Tigers will be facing over the next three weeks. Here is a brief look at each of them, in schedule order: Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles Joined NPB in: 2005 Also Known Simply As: Rakuten Eagles Located in: Sendai,…
Of all the foreigners who have played on the Hanshin Tigers baseball club, undoubtedly the most popular and accomplished is first baseman Randy Bass. He played for the team from 1983 to 1988, and won the league Triple Crown two consecutive seasons (1985 and 1986) while establishing the NPB record for highest batting average in…
A couple of weeks ago, I was able to chat on FaceTime with Tigers’ legend Gene Bacque. As a rookie Tigers’ fan, I only found out about Mr. Bacque by accident when I was researching the history of the Eiji Sawamura Award. A few Google searches later I found a way to contact him, and we have…
As the season was heading into its final month and the Tigers fighting to catch the Yomiuri Giants (who had won 8 straight Nippon Series at this point), the Tigers faced the Chunichi Dragons at Koshien Stadium. Young ace Yutaka Enatsu (25) was on the mound, and he pitched a game for the ages. In…
Date: April 17, 1985 Other than winning the championship in 1985, this is undoubtedly the most talked about moment in Hanshin Tigers’ history. Up to this point, the team had a 50-year history (35 in the two-league era) and still no championship to speak of. This particular season, though, boasted one of its finest-hitting lineups ever….
I’m reading a book right now called 巨人ー阪神論 (Kyojin-Hanshin Ron — Giants/Tigers Discourse). Basically it’s a guided conversation between 1980s Giants ace Suguru Egawa and 1980s Tigers cleanup hitter Masayuki Kakefu. They discuss everything from their playing days and beyond. Still halfway through but I came across a bit about this moment: June 26, 1986….
The 2009 season was not a good one for the Hanshin Tigers. They did not make the playoffs, finishing 4th in the Central League with a 67-73-4 record. For one magical night, though, fans rejoiced as though the team had won it all. At Koshien Stadium on April 30, 2009, the team was facing the…