From the Daily Sports Online column / デイリースポーツオンラインの連載コラムから The Hanshin Tigers have been having themselves a dream season, winning their first Central League pennant in 18 years and sweeping their way through the Final Stage of the Climax Series. On the other side of NPB, the Orix Buffaloes won the Pacific League by a long…
Based on Daily Sports Column (Japanese) / デイリースポーツの連載コラムから So, Major League Baseball owners were unable to reach an agreement with the players’ association. The result is that the collective bargaining agreement that expired on December 1, 2021, has not been replaced by a new one, and the owners, who locked the players out the very…
Stop me if you’re familiar with this narrative… A yellow-and-black-wearing baseball team from a blue-collar city has fallen out of postseason relevance for two decades. A new manager comes in, makes necessary adjustments, and the team experiences a revival of sorts, luring people back to the ballpark once the snakebitten fairweather fans saw that the…
Imagine if you could transport yourself back to 2005 and have all your baseball questions answered. That’s what this book is – a trip back in time giving you an insight into some of the earlier years of sabermetrics – at least in the eyes of the common man. (Sabermetrics have been around much longer…
Most of you are probably unaware of this, but I have started taking a course. I am studying with Sports Management Worldwide (SMWW), learning more about scouting and managing in baseball. The course is already almost half over, but the workload is only getting heavier. But who wouldn’t want to have a lot of baseball-related…
Sometimes it’s nice to take a break from all the NPB (and Hanshin Tigers) related books and dive into something a little bit lighter, fluffier, funnier. Dirk Hayhurst tells his life story as a minor leaguer who dreamed of making it to the bigs someday. Written with zest and urbanity but also a casualness that…
I know, I know. I’m following baseball this closely, but have not read perhaps the most important book written about the sport this century? Yes, I’m behind the times. You’re right. I’m humble enough to admit it. One of the premises of this book is that the estimation of players’ values has been looked at…
Full Title: The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports As a (relatively) casual fan of the game, and as an avid fantasy baseball player, the words “Tommy John” and “arm issues” were rather impersonal to me. They meant “look for another pitcher on the waiver wire” and “never draft this…
If “You Gotta Have Wa” is the ultimate book to shed light on the American’s experience playing baseball in Japan, then “Cherry Blossoms Over the Stars and Stripes” is the opposite. Though likely not intended to be so, this book, written by Robert Whiting (of “Wa” fame) gives the Japanese audience a look into the…
According to several sources, departed Hanshin Tigers closer Seung-hwan Oh (33) has agreed to a deal with the St. Louis Cardinals of the National League. Terms have not been disclosed yet, and the deal will be made official once he clears his medical test. We wish Oh all the best in the majors. Though he…