It has been far from an ideal season for Yuki Nishi. Once the staff ace, he is now the “old man” (despite being two months shy of 33, only one player on the team is longer in the tooth, and only by 6 months). He got farmed for the first time as a Tiger (in…
Not much to say here. The starters did their jobs quite well but the bats did not show up all weekend. Koji Chikamoto hit the team’s only two extra-base hits and drove in two of the three runs that the offense scored. The lead over the Giants for third place is down to two games…
From our Daily Sports Online monthly column / デイリースポーツオンラインの連載コラムから This is the story of a Canadian living in Japan interviewing a Taiwanese baseball star who plays indy-league ball in America. Japanese is not the native tongue of either participant, but was the lingua franca in their conversation and even in the minds of both the…
Hosts T-Ray and Sanjay discuss team news, the first six exhibition games, and what has gotten into manager Akihiro Yano and his players! Then, they analyze the other five Central League teams, which should help you make predictions for the annual H-TEN Central League standings prediction contest! Details in the pinned post on H-TEN’s website….
And so it begins. October was a good month for the Tigers, despite not taking home the pennant. On the other hand, the Giants had a historically bad month, finishing below .500 but secured the third spot. In the playoffs, none of that matters, other than the Tigers being able to host the entire best-of-three…
As Seen in Daily Sports (Japanese) / デイリースポーツオンラインのコラムから I’ve only been following Japanese professional baseball for seven years, but in some ways, I am a kind of “veteran” in the foreign NPB fan society. Often when new fans come in, the first things they ask about are some of the major differences between the “new”…
Hosts T-Ray, JD and Sanjay discuss the latest team news and recap the past 11 games of Tigers baseball. Now, let’s face it, there are only two other CL teams that have a shot at the pennant this year: the Swallows (!) and the Giants. We take some time to break them down and talk…
Last season, the Tigers not only started the year 2-10, they also dropped their first three against the Yomiuri Giants. Two of them were not even close. Enter 2021, and the Giants not only have Sugano on the DL, but they have used Togo over the weekend and also got hit with a Covid cluster,…
I have a few general rules about baseball books I read, especially when it pertains to players: If possible, nothing from while they are still playing. (I have read Tomoaki Kanemoto‘s books and also Tsuyoshi Nishioka‘s book, but I purposely ignored Takashi Toritani‘s.) I want to read the first one they put out after their…
Also seen in Daily Sports / デイリースポーツのコラム（トレバーの虎場) There are two things I have gotten plenty sick of since becoming a Hanshin Tigers fan six years ago. The first is the constant beatings at the hand of the Yomiuri Giants. In fact, when I first started this column at the start of the 2018 season, the…