NPB Notes -- Yomiuri Giants

Founded: 1934 as Japan's first pro team. They were the Tokyo Giants from 1936 to '46 and the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants from '47 to 2002.
Owners: the Yomiuri media conglomerate
Home base: the Tokyo Dome (since 1988)

A high payroll, the most titles (20) and their own TV network with all the games televised - nationally. That's part of what makes the Yomiuri Giants the New York Yankees of NPB. As the oldest and most storied franchise, the Giants have also become the Dallas Cowboys of Japan in a way -- "Japan's team". In the same way as the Yankees and Cowboys, they inspire intense feelings for both fans and foes. Over the course of their history the Giants have won 30 Central League titles and 66% of the Japan Series they've qualified for. They are the franchise of world homer champ Sadaharu Oh and "Godzilla" Hideki Matsui as well as Japanese hall of famers Shigeo "Mr. Baseball" Nagashima (.304 career BA, 444 HRs, 5-time MVP as player, also a manager) and pitcher Eiji Sawamura, who struck out nine in a game against an American all-star team in 1934 that included Ruth, Gehrig and Foxx. Sawamura pitched the first NPB no-hitter in 1936 and added two others later. He was killed in World War II as a soldier in the Japanese Navy and the Japanese version of the Cy Young award is named for him.

Money and history speak loudly in the NPB as the Giants, from all I've read, can basically pick and choose which free agents they want and the team even gets the best players in the annual amateur draft. The Japanese use a "reverse designation" system that allows college and industrial league players to set preferences for professional team. Many want to play for Yomiuri.

The Giants won every Japan Series from 1965 to 1973 and won their 20th and most recent title in 2002. Americans Jesse Barfield, Warren Cromartie, Dan Gladden and Reggie Smith have played for Yomiuri during stints in the NPB. To sum up the winning history of the Giants in one post is kind of futile. Today's Giant stars include C Shinnosuke Abe (currently hitting .436 in the '06 season), OF Kenji Yano (.500 in 8 games), 3B Hiroki Kokubo, P Koji Uehara (WBC stud) and P Kimiyasu Kudo, not to mention new-for-06 FA pickup IF/OF Seung Yeop Lee, who smacked 30 homers for Chiba Lotte in 2005. As shown in the picture above, their unis resemble those of San Francisco in MLB. Their mascot is an orange rabbit with the ears and head forming the intertwined YG logo. It's name is "Giabbit".

By the way, the Giants are 10-2 this season and currently lead the CL (thru Thursday) by 2 1/2 games over Chunichi. Archrival Hanshin is third with a 5-4-1 record.

Bob Bavasi's Giants page
Borisov's 2006 Pro Yakyu page
Wikipedia on Giants