Month: March 2017

Tigers Beat Carp in Wild Opening Day

Tigers Beat Carp in Wild Opening Day

Photos courtesy of Tim Herr Kris Johnson won the Sawamura Award last year and gave up just 7 earned runs to the Hanshin Tigers all season. (He did even better against the Dragons and Giants, but let’s leave that aside for now.) The defending champion Hiroshima Carp looked to start their season with a triumphant…

Fantasy Baseball Returns

Fantasy Baseball Returns

Yes, that’s right, ladies and gentlemen. Last season, if you’ll recall, I did an informal “Fantasy Tigers” league with two of my friends. We drafted almost all the Tigers players, and kept track of first squad and farm stats to determine a winning manager. It was a little too simplistic, and lost its excitement when…

Episode 53 – Roster, Batting Order, Contest

Episode 53 – Roster, Batting Order, Contest

T-Ray presents you the past week of preseason action, and talks about who should make the Opening Day 28-man roster. He also presents three possible hitting orders, including one for when injured players come back. What’s your ideal batting order look like? Send us an e-mail (thehanshintigers@gmail.com) with your opinion. Also, in preparation for Episode…

Hanshin Payroll #3 in NPB

Hanshin Payroll #3 in NPB

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….

Book Review – Japanese Baseball: A Fan’s Guide

Book Review – Japanese Baseball: A Fan’s Guide

There just aren’t a lot of good books out there (in English) about Japanese baseball. But for anyone wondering what the game was like 25 years ago, this primer by Brian Maitland is a decent way to spend a couple of hours in the offseason. Written in 1991, the book covers everything you would want to…

Book Review – White Ball Crosses the Pacific

Book Review – White Ball Crosses the Pacific

My worst subject in school was history. By a long shot. I could memorize the numbers and dates without a problem, but I couldn’t get excited about what people did centuries before I was born. Masaru Ikei’s book 白球太平洋を渡る (White Ball Crosses the Pacific) is a history book in the truest sense. I bet if…

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