That second win against Chunichi was a bad omen. Just three hits? Maybe it was just a fluke. Perhaps our bats will wake up at small Jingu Stadium against the mediocre pitching of the Yakult Swallows. Perhaps our pitchers will continue to deal, and stifle the Yakult bats. Then again… Game 38 – Friday 5/19….
They call it “The Classic Series” (伝統の一戦) any time the Hanshin Tigers face the Yomiuri Giants. This two-game mini-series was a chance for Hanshin to keep its strong momentum against the league’s better teams. But there was one problem: Giants’ pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano was coming off three straight complete game shutouts. Could the Cats stop…
If you want to read more about the Yakult Swallows, click here. There is definitely no lost love between these two teams. Last time the two faced off, a brawl ensued that will surely be talked about throughout the season, and will make highlight shows for years to come. Hanshin took that series after losing…
Last season, Hanshin won just 5 of 13 matches in Nagoya against the dismal Chunichi Dragons. But the hard times at the dome go back further than one season. In the 20 years of the Dome’s existence, Hanshin has put up a pitiful 82-153-5 record there. So there’s no doubt that expecting a sweep, no matter how…
Rare is the day that the Hanshin Tigers baseball game is not broadcast on a local TV station. Almost as rare is the day that a game will be broadcast in its entirety. Perhaps this is because of the early start times (6:00pm, which I suppose is when the news is supposed to be on),…
The new team slogan for this year is 挑む Tigers Change. 挑む (Idomu) can be translated as “challenge” or “defy” or “dare to try”. After the opening series in Hiroshima, all the Hanshin Tigers seem ready to challenge is the record for most errors in a season. What has changed? The defense has certainly not…
Over the years, Hanshin has been known as a big spending baseball club. This is true to an extent, with the team consistently ranking in the top half of the salary rankings. It looks like this coming season, the team will rank #3, well behind the top two clubs, Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks and Yomiuri Giants….
Hanshin has finished its “Koshien” home portion of the exhibition schedule, and will not play on its hallowed grounds again until April 7 (vs. Giants, games 7-9 of the regular season). For now, it sees itself playing at Kyocera Dome (Osaka) for 2 before heading out on the road for 6, then returning back to Kyocera…
To see a few pictures of the game, click here Samurai Japan seemed to have found its stroke in a recent exhibition match against Chinese Taipei. With just two more practice games before the World Baseball Classic starts (on Tuesday, March 7), Hanshin was supposed to help them feel good about their lineup and pitchers…
* If you’ve read the reports for the 1st Cool, the 2nd Cool, the 3rd Cool or the 4th Cool you know this already. For those of you who are new to H-TEN… The Japanese use the word クール (from the French cours = course / installment / season) to divide the spring training sessions into parts. But since…