< Previous Next > Date: August 30, 1973 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…
Next > Date: October 23, 2003 The Tigers found themselves back in the Nippon Series for the first time since 1985. However, they lost the first two games in Fukuoka, dampening the mood for their return home to Koshien. They walked off Game 3, but the series was still tilted in the Hawks’ favor. Cue…
The book’s full title is Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, & Assassination During the 1934 Tour of Japan. Prior to buying this book, I had heard of Robert K. Fitts and had even read parts of one of his other books, “Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral History of the Game.” This title came highly recommended…
My original purpose for buying this book was that I thought it would provide me with good introduction fodder for my podcast. I took different clips from the book, paraphrased them, and reported that “Hanshin Tigers fans all around the world gathered to cheer for the team that…” followed by said quirky moment/player in team…
Everybody loves a scandal. And every Hanshin Tigers fan knows that this club never goes very long between scandals. This quick but entertaining read takes fans back in time and presents a clear vantage point on some of the issues that have plagued the club since its inception. While I do wish the team had…
Did you know that the legendary Babe Ruth played a baseball game at Koshien Stadium? That’s right, el Bambino came to the stadium in 1934 when it was still just 10 years old! He was in the twilight years of his career, and legend has it that he was going through a rough period in…
Sometimes books come to my attention through you, the reader. Someone in America sent me an e-mail a couple of months back, asking if I knew of any good books about Hanshin that were either in English, or were picture-heavy. I had no proper answer for him, but he then sent me a link to…
Great news for Hanshin Tigers fans out there who feel like they do not know much about the team but want to know more! T-Ray is planning to write a book in 2017 (and 2018 if more time is needed)! The plans at present are for the book to tell the incredible story of the…
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…
It is hard to believe Robert Whiting waited 15 years after publishing the groundbreaking You Gotta Have Wa (1989), but with all the changes in professional baseball, The Meaning of Ichiro presents several new angles on the Japanese-American relationship as seen on and around the baseball field. Instead of looking at how Americans adjusted (or didn’t) to Japanese…